Silliest weight loss/fitness myth you've ever heard?

tincanonastring wrote: »

stevencloser wrote: »

bwogilvie wrote: »

Folks, instead of arguing about whether the statement that "muscle weighs more than fat" is obviously true or obviously false, how about we all just agree to say this:

"Muscle is denser than fat."

However, it is true to say that an ounce of silver weighs more than an ounce of lead!

Ah, but it is only necessarily denser under the same conditions, too! Muscle on earth would not be as dense as fat inside a black hole.

This is relatively awesome!

I'm not sure if your wordplay was intentional or not, but this made me laugh way too hard.

BoomstickChik wrote: »

queenliz99 wrote: »

The Paleo diet

How is that a myth? It's a well-known diet?

The myth of improved health and weight loss.

I've gotta say, this thread has a whole lot of judgment in it.

I think as long as someone isn't doing something that's actually harmful, we should be supportive of the efforts they're making. They'll tinker around and figure it out eventually. Maybe it's useful in these situations not to tell someone else how to lose weight, but instead relate your own experiences of how you lost weight and what worked best for you.

Also, it's pretty normal for people to conflate weight loss with fitness and health, or group it all in together. I know the board mantra is that a calorie is a calorie, but I think in the big scheme of things, thinking about fitness and longevity and wellness will make it easier to reach your goals.

A lot of these so called myths are myths, but they might work if they're targeted to someone's individual weaknesses.

For example, I know objectively that white rice isn't a killer to weight loss. But why do I avoid white rice? - because when it comes to white rice I'm a bottomless insatiable pit. Maybe there is something psychological about it, maybe it's a callback to my childhood. I mean I literally have a physical, biological reaction when I smell white rice that can only be compared to some sort of food boner. For that reason, I avoid it. I don't think it's inherently bad, but avoiding it is personally beneficial to me.

A lot of people have the same experience with carbs in general (so many of the people I know who are doing "low carb" are actually doing regular carb.) Or gluten in general. Or meat. Or processed foods. Or whatever.

And by the way, it's true that gluten isn't evil. But it isn't a necessary nutrient, either. People aren't doing any harm to themselves by replacing gluten with oats or almond flour or quinoa or whatever. I for one have never had something gluten free that wasn't also delicious and equally or more healthy than the gluten version. A good friend of mine cut out gluten and lost a ton of weight - probably because gluten rich products were a source of calories for her.

arditarose wrote: »

My boss tells me that you can eat as much as you want just before a full moon and not get fat. lol. She cray.

and most likely a werewolf.

I was having my blood pressure checked and talking to the nurse about potassium. She said something about people eating bananas for potassium, but that they should really just drink orange juice because it has potassium and bananas make you fat. I told her I ate a banana a day and had just lost 40lb (and was borderline underweight).

A friend at work actually asked me if a banana really had 500 calories. Her husband or son had told her that, but she wasn't sure...I was like, um, no, unless it is the biggest banana I've ever seen!

augustremulous wrote: »

I've gotta say, this thread has a whole lot of judgment in it.

I think as long as someone isn't doing something that's actually harmful, we should be supportive of the efforts they're making. They'll tinker around and figure it out eventually. Maybe it's useful in these situations not to tell someone else how to lose weight, but instead relate your own experiences of how you lost weight and what worked best for you.

Also, it's pretty normal for people to conflate weight loss with fitness and health, or group it all in together. I know the board mantra is that a calorie is a calorie, but I think in the big scheme of things, thinking about fitness and longevity and wellness will make it easier to reach your goals.

A lot of these so called myths are myths, but they might work if they're targeted to someone's individual weaknesses.

For example, I know objectively that white rice isn't a killer to weight loss. But why do I avoid white rice? - because when it comes to white rice I'm a bottomless insatiable pit. Maybe there is something psychological about it, maybe it's a callback to my childhood. I mean I literally have a physical, biological reaction when I smell white rice that can only be compared to some sort of food boner. For that reason, I avoid it. I don't think it's inherently bad, but avoiding it is personally beneficial to me.

A lot of people have the same experience with carbs in general (so many of the people I know who are doing "low carb" are actually doing regular carb.) Or gluten in general. Or meat. Or processed foods. Or whatever.

And by the way, it's true that gluten isn't evil. But it isn't a necessary nutrient, either. People aren't doing any harm to themselves by replacing gluten with oats or almond flour or quinoa or whatever. I for one have never had something gluten free that wasn't also delicious and equally or more healthy than the gluten version. A good friend of mine cut out gluten and lost a ton of weight - probably because gluten rich products were a source of calories for her.

Who is being judgemental? It seems to me everyone of these post are answer from a personal experience.

Erik8484 wrote: »

RaeBeeBaby wrote: »

That muscle weighs more than fat. Grrrrrrr! Can't count the number of times I've read that on MFP threads.

It does, in the same way that brick weighs more than water (and sinks) and pine wood weighs less than water (and floats).

So I have heard this but never really though about it before. But now that I'm thinking about recomp this wouldn't make sense that muscle weighs more that fat. What's real anymore?!??!

Crazy myths I've heard:
Drink a glass of hot lemon water in the morning to speed up metabolism.
Fruit after 2 pm isn't good
Spicy food speeds up metabolism
That any time you have sugar it takes 3 days to get out of you system and you won't loose any fat in that time.

singingflutelady wrote: »

augustremulous wrote: »

Well @sunnybeaches105, let me ask you this: can you give me a good, scientific reason for why someone *should* be eating gluten? So many of the people who have a backlash against gluten have an argument that comes down to "it tastes good and lots of people do it and you won't stand out if you just agree to eat it."

That doesn't sounds like science to me.

Do you have any scientific proof that other than Celiacs and those with gluten sensitivities that people *shouldn't* eat gluten? Also I have seen quite a few gluten free products in my grocery store that had the same if not more calories than the same thing with gluten. If the product is equally "healthy" and had similar calories why would you spend twice the amount of money for the gluten free product?

You bring up a good point that I didn't even think of! I mentioned in my other post I have gluten free thin mints in my pantry. I didn't buy them for any other reason except that they looked really good.

Comparing nutritional facts:

Gluten Free Mint Slims


Girl Scout Thin Mints


The gluten free ones have slightly less calories, sodium, and carbs, but more sugar, fat, saturated fat, fiber, iron, and cholesterol. It's not really too far off that it can be considered "healthier".

singingflutelady wrote: »

Also I have seen quite a few gluten free products in my grocery store that had the same if not more calories than the same thing with gluten. If the product is equally "healthy" and had similar calories why would you spend twice the amount of money for the gluten free product?

Well, you know, there are in fact all the traditional foods that are eaten in Asia, Africa, South America, the Middle East - a very large chunk of the world's eating population that don't traditionally eat gluten and have just started to eat a little in the past generation because of globalization. And that traditional food isn't more expensive than the cuisines of North America and Europe, which traditionally have gluten. Walk into any asian grocery and the majority of what you see will be gluten free and waaaay cheaper than what you find at your supermarket.

I mean I get what you're saying - companies are using the gluten free fad as a marketing gimmick in order to charge higher prices for food.

That said, I think if someone doesn't want gluten, a good enough reason is "I'm just not interested," or "I don't enjoy it enough to be worth eating." Cutting gluten isn't like cutting carbohydrates or proteins or fiber - it's not a nutrient that's necessary to eat. And I don't get why the burden rests on *that* person to give *other* people a good reason for what they choose to put in their *own* bodies.