Diet tips that don't work

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  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
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    The worst one I ever heard was; "Eat cabbage soup. The cabbage soup burns more calories in digestion than it contains".

    It sounds utterly ridiculous and more than one person has told me this which means lots of people believe it. I don't understand how you eat it without gagging.

    Maybe that's how you lose weight with it. :laugh:
  • FantasticKitty01
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    This ex-husband of a co-worker was stopping by the office with her kids for a minute and was talking to me about weight loss and he asked me what I was going to do about loose skin around the stomach area. I told him that over time the skin may tighten back up some, but that in the meantime I'm keeping my skin moisturized and intend to work on building muscle in the near future.

    He told me that his good friend wore a rubber girdle thingy everyday for a few months and drank as little as he could and after a few months his skin was as tight as new.

    Now, I don't know about you guys but to me wearing a crap-ton of rubber super tight around your abdomen and then dehydrating yourself for months at a time seems like a pretty crappy idea.


    I can't imagine this being good for your organs. They'll probably overheat and lack of water would most likely cause further damage. When we have a fever, the doctors bring it down, not because the fever itself is bad, but because our body being too hot can damage vital organs. Yikes!
  • Confuzzled4ever
    Confuzzled4ever Posts: 2,860 Member
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    everyone tells me muscle weight more then fat.. lol.. i hear that one all the time..

    my family tells me "being fat is in our genes" wrong!!!

    Also.. i get asked all the time.. "How do you lose weight when all you talk about is food and everytimeI see you you are eating" yes.. i eat more quanity then a lot of people i know.. but do you know how many carrots and apple i'd have to eat to match the calories in 1 big mac??? I do talk about food constantly.. lol.. different ways to cook it..new ideas i want to try.. way to cut the fat/sugar/sodium from something I like, but don't like that part of..

    I was told (by a doctor AND a nurse no less!!!) that vertigo is not brought on my malnutrition... umm yes it can be!!

    I was also told to hold onto my large size clothes "just in case".. What?!?!?!

    Oh and i hate this "how did you lose all that weight?? Was is from when you were sick???" *face palm* yes the first 10ish pounds came off when I aws sick.. but I busted my *kitten* to lose the rest of it!! (which btw is more like 50 pounds now since I didn't start tracking until after I had lost some)

    You can't exercise when you have a cold.. mostly false! I do it all the time! And I usually feel better afterwards! (I do NOT exercise if it's very bad or I have the flu or something)

    My favoroite said to me by a nurse:
    Nurse: you should eat shrimp to help you lose weight, it's low calorie high protein and good for you
    Me: I'm serverly allergic so I cant'
    Nurse: Oh it's probably just the iodine, you'll be alright as long as you eat the ones with less iodine in them
    Me;....*. processing stupidity for a moment..* and I tell this how???
    Nurse: They will be less blue...
    Me:........ ...........................................................................You mean the veins are actually iodine..
    Nurse: *No response*

    *sigh*

    ps cabbage soup done right is super good!!!

    p.p.s. I'm not allergic to iodine.. it's the proteins themselves in the shellfish that cause the allergy..
  • mrskaren0
    mrskaren0 Posts: 31 Member
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    OMG! These did not make me cringe, however, everyone around me at work is wondering what in the world I am laughing about because it took me from a snicker to a roar in less than 30 sec. Especially when I imagine these individuals (you say they weigh at least 100 lbs. more than you) giving you advice. Don't cringe, you know the proof is in the pudding :-) keep up the good work!

    P.S. Thanks for the good laugh.
  • FantasticKitty01
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    The worst one I ever heard was; "Eat cabbage soup. The cabbage soup burns more calories in digestion than it contains".

    It sounds utterly ridiculous and more than one person has told me this which means lots of people believe it. I don't understand how you eat it without gagging.

    Maybe that's how you lose weight with it. :laugh:

    Cabbage soup, when made with other veggies, is actually very good and because it's a low-fat food, it can be effective in losing weight, BUT like any other food, it's certainly not something you would eat every day. There's a 7day cabbage soup diet, but in permanent & significant weight loss, it's a matter of leanring to eat healthy foods for the long term, not a "squeeze into a prom dress" type of "diet"
  • Confuzzled4ever
    Confuzzled4ever Posts: 2,860 Member
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    Um, I overheard something really stupid at the gym the other day, it went something like this: I eat really fast, I have a fast metabolism therefore. Those who eat slowly have slow metabolisms and tend to be fat.

    WTF?!

    For the win!!

    /thread..

    Cant' beat that..
  • TheCaren
    TheCaren Posts: 894 Member
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    For me, it's anything that starts with "Dr. Oz says...", or the words "starvation mode".
  • Megs081211
    Megs081211 Posts: 150
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    Any tip about "boosting," "jump-starting," or "stoking" your metabolic fire. Blehhhhhhhh.

    Don't eat past 8, the food just sits there.

    ...and don't eat carbs, 'cause carbs are bad. Mmm kay?

    If you don't eat breakfast, everything you eat the rest of the day will turn directly into fat because your body is confused and has gone into starvation mode because it doesn't know if it will ever be fed again and has to preserve everything you give it.

    Having sex burns like 300 calories.

    My husband keeps trying to convince me sex is the best cardio exercise. Do you think he'll be offended if I wear my heart rate monitor and see how many calories I actually burn?
  • TedStout
    TedStout Posts: 241
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    You are too skinny. WHAT??? For the first time in MANY years, I am at a healthy weight. My vitals are wonderful. And at 50...that means a lot! I look forward to being in the gym at 80. Screw them.
  • sparkle814
    sparkle814 Posts: 78 Member
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    If you're hungry just drink water, you're probably confusing hunger with thirst. Umm no. Then I just get sloshy and stabby.

    LMAO!
    Some of the worst advice I've gotten is to just eat three square meals a day. If I don't eat small meals and a LOT of snacks, I get really stabby! Then I hoover a ton of calories because I'm ravenously hungry and gain weight. :D
  • Pepper2185
    Pepper2185 Posts: 994 Member
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    Eat negative calorie foods - they take more calories to digest than they contain.

    Riiiiiiight........ :laugh:
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
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    If you're hungry just drink water, you're probably confusing hunger with thirst. Umm no. Then I just get sloshy and stabby.

    LMAO!
    Some of the worst advice I've gotten is to just eat three square meals a day. If I don't eat small meals and a LOT of snacks, I get really stabby! Then I hoover a ton of calories because I'm ravenously hungry and gain weight. :D

    Yup I do that too. I eat 6 times per day but not because of metabolism, just because that's how often I like to eat.
  • Megs081211
    Megs081211 Posts: 150
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    What I find funny is I've heard most of these before and some of them (negative calorie foods, muscle weighs more than fat) in my nutrition classes from professors who have a PhD in nutrition, on the road to get my Bachelors degree.

    I hate when people recommend diets that aliminate (can't spell today sorry), diets that cut out food groups completely (atkins, paleo). I refuse to cut something out of my diet especially if I want it. If it fits in my macros why not.
  • symba1130
    symba1130 Posts: 248 Member
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    'What you are doing looks so hard. Just try the hCg, it is working wonders for me and I don't even have to break a sweat.'

    Heck no! I ain't touching that crap!

    Agreed! I almost fell into this trap, so glad I came here instead!
  • iorahkwano
    iorahkwano Posts: 709 Member
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    1. "Drink a glass of water before a meal so you eat less."
    - Okay, all that does is ruin my appetite & makes me not want to eat the meal at all. Surely skipping a meal is not healthy.

    2. "Meal replacement bars."
    - Nope. The body isn't absorbing the artificially added vitamins/nutrients. The body sometimes cannot absorb minerals in this form and often vitamins/minerals can cancel each other out. I discovered this after 2-3 days when I started getting cramps in my calf as a symptom of a vitamin deficiency. Not to mention the aspartame in those bars!

    3. "Eat whole wheat instead of white."
    - Didn't make a difference for me. I switched all my breads & cereals to whole wheat/all bran and lost NOTHING. The same with milk swapped for soymilk. I still eat those things though because I like to believe they are healthier despite the fact I did not lose weight.

    4. "Your body needs essential fats to use as energy. Take 2 tbsp of either olive or vegetable oil before each meal."
    - Yuck. High calorie. And the body can get plenty of "essential fat" from healthy food choices.

    5. "Only eat when you are hungry."
    - This would cause me to go long periods of time without eating to the point where I'll eventually become ravenous and eat junk food. Or... I won't get my daily requirements of protein, veggies, dairy, fruit, etc unless I make s conscious choice to make myself eat more.

    6. Eat a tiny plate of baked fish or chicken with a side of greens for dinner."
    - That will not satisfy me at all, and who would want to eat that every single day?! I'd rather be fat then spend the rest of my life eating salads & meat the size of a deck of cards (4 oz) for the rest of my life !
  • hmg90
    hmg90 Posts: 314 Member
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    Some diet tips are flat out wrong (as in someone read it in a magazine somewhere), some are individual. For example the one that breakfast is the most important meal and that it should be the "foundation" and make you full for hours. It is important that breakfast is healthy, but I am rarely hungry in the morning, so it will always be small and lunch will be bigger. If I eat a big breakfast for the sake of it, I'll just struggle to stay within my limit the rest of the day.

    I hate people talking about genetics and illnesses and excusing their obesity. The problem is not that this and that illness runs in your family. The problem is that nobody runs in your family.
    I am sure there are plenty of little factors which can make weight loss harder, including health problems, but you deal with the cards you've been given. Some people seem more interested in searching for excuses online than actually dealing with their body. We're responsible for our own lives.
  • wannabpiper
    wannabpiper Posts: 402 Member
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    Well, this isn't really untrue: if the cookies are broken, the calories leak out.
  • jkal1979
    jkal1979 Posts: 1,896 Member
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    I have had a few friends get involved with the It Works! body wraps and supplements and they tried to get me to do it with them. There was no way I was going to spend that much money for a temporary fix. Those friends didn't see results from them (surprise) and didn't stick with selling them for long either.
  • MattN1972
    MattN1972 Posts: 117
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    Fat makes you fat

    No eating after 8pm
  • tiggerhammon
    tiggerhammon Posts: 2,211 Member
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    I have had a few friends get involved with the It Works! body wraps and supplements and they tried to get me to do it with them. There was no way I was going to spend that much money for a temporary fix. Those friends didn't see results from them (surprise) and didn't stick with selling them for long either.

    My sister tried so hard to convince me to use these. She was insistent it was 'easy weight loss.' So, I told her how to make her own at home for 45cents, and to be certain to come back to me and let me know when she figured out that all they do is dehydrate you.

    Eta: Oh, and instead of doing what I said, she went and spent crap tons of money on the wraps and found out the hard way they don't work.