Weight loss myths
aacha0908
Posts: 12 Member
Hey! Would anyone like to share the biggest weight loss myths out there? I have one. I just learned that there is no such thing as a negative calorie food. Painfully obvious right now but I believed it for way too long 🤦♀️
13
Replies
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That it's either carbs or some kind of good and evil of the food itself, and not calories, that's responsible for weight gain and loss.13
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Drinking copious amounts of water aids in weight loss. Flush those fat cells.5
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Bread makes you fat. Chocolate/sugar makes you fat.
Not.
I eat so much bread and sweets. I. Love. Dessert.14 -
If you’re not losing weight, you need to eat more because your body is in “starvation mode”.19
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You need to eat 3 square meals a day
or
You need to eat 6 small meals a day
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Apple cider vinegar or green tea as diet miracles.
White foods must be avoided. People, people, color is not the point. Jicama, Hakurei turnips, daikon . . . even if I give up on convincing people that a regular white potato is a nutritious food (nearly as much so as sweet potato, that eat-for-health darling), or on convincing them that a gram of fiber and a truly trivial amount of protein/micros is not a reason to always eat brown rice instead of white if a person truly prefers white. White veggies are for sure useful and delicious, even for the most food-religious, if one applies some common sense.
Any of the other tricksy things that people think are diet magic, but that distract from getting overall good nutrition, by focusing on irrelevant minutia, or claim epic dramas of good and evil in foods or habits.
That thing about shopping the perimeter of the grocery store, though that has the advantage - in most of my stores - of including liquor, since this silly oversimplified concept does kinda drive me to drink.
OP, you might enjoy this thread:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10826289/fitness-and-diet-myths-that-just-wont-go-away#latest
Note that it's in the debate section, so people do argue there some.7 -
*fill in the blank* superfood will change your life = help you easily lose weight, gain gorgeous muscle, have all the energy in the world, make you sleep better, make your body not notice it's eating any fat, make you irresistible to those you are attracted to, etc.5
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@AnnPT77 My endocrinologist tried to get me on the "avoid white foods" diet. Its a nasty, pervasive one.
Since most of my weight had to do with chocolate and soda I really don't think it would have helped.
Potatoes aside, they can pry my sticky white rice out of my cold dead hands.15 -
The idea that you have to suffer to lose weight. I've been losing weight steadily for 4 years now and the only suffering I experienced was when I was trying to lose too fast.15
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You can't lose weight if you eat late in the day. It's calories that count, not time they are eaten.9
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breakfast is the most important meal of the day, if you don't eat breakfast you wont lose weight.10
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Sometimes nutrition labels will list a food as 0 calories per serving, but truthfully, food companies are allowed to round down to 0 calories if the food item is actually something like 0.4 calories. Multiple servings can in fact accumulate calories- though the amount is negligible, this could be an issue for people who are trying to do a fast.4
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Any of the various pernicious myths surrounding calorie counting:
- It's disordered
- It's unsustainable in the long run
- It's too difficult
- It doesn't work
These make me irrationally angry. Calorie counting was key to my success.13 -
Any of the various pernicious myths surrounding calorie counting:
- It's disordered
- It's unsustainable in the long run
- It's too difficult
- It doesn't work
These make me irrationally angry. Calorie counting was key to my success.
It's been the key to my success too, and the last is a myth.
The other 3? It can be all of those things and is variable by individual.
(I have family with serious EDs. It would be difficult, damaging and unsustainable for them.)5 -
wunderkindking wrote: »Any of the various pernicious myths surrounding calorie counting:
- It's disordered
- It's unsustainable in the long run
- It's too difficult
- It doesn't work
These make me irrationally angry. Calorie counting was key to my success.
It's been the key to my success too, and the last is a myth.
The other 3? It can be all of those things and is variable by individual.
(I have family with serious EDs. It would be difficult, damaging and unsustainable for them.)
Yeah, I get a bit manic and obsessive when I use calorie counting. I still haven't found the key to long term success for me, but lower carb eating keeps me away from binges longer than all things in moderation. Instead, I do "some things on a very rare basis, preferably paired with a good workout." Which probably sounds disordered to some people, but I am diabetic, so moving my body well on a higher carb day is important to my health.
4 -
wunderkindking wrote: »It's been the key to my success too, and the last is a myth.
The other 3? It can be all of those things and is variable by individual.
(I have family with serious EDs. It would be difficult, damaging and unsustainable for them.)concordancia wrote: »
Yeah, I get a bit manic and obsessive when I use calorie counting. I still haven't found the key to long term success for me, but lower carb eating keeps me away from binges longer than all things in moderation. Instead, I do "some things on a very rare basis, preferably paired with a good workout." Which probably sounds disordered to some people, but I am diabetic, so moving my body well on a higher carb day is important to my health.
@concordancia, @wunderkindking,I don't disagree that calorie counting will work for everyone. There's no one dietary approach that will work for everyone. A keto diet could be bad news for a cardiac patient, and a high carb diet could be bad for a diabetic. That doesn't mean that these are bad strategies in general. There are always exceptions.
But I think that calorie counting is woefully underappreciated. The conspiracy theorist in me says that this is because no one makes money off of it. I think many people would be successful if they legitimately tried it and stuck with it. I was reading @RunsWithBees excellent post from a few weeks ago which touches on many themes that I have observed over the years. See here: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10826289/fitness-and-diet-myths-that-just-wont-go-away/p7
Keep in mind that there are people who actively argue against calorie counting and "CICO", as if this were a fad diet instead of a law of nature. This stuff makes me unreasonably angry:
What is this CICO diet, and is it really as bad as people are claiming?
10 Reasons to Avoid CICO, the New Fad Diet
3 Reasons Why Counting Calories Doesn't Work (And What to Do Instead!)
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meeppeepneep wrote: »breakfast is the most important meal of the day, if you don't eat breakfast you wont lose weight.
ugh my freaking doctor told me that.7 -
"You can eat and drink whatever you want in your cheat meals"5
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or maybe the whole concept of cheat meals.....9
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"You can eat and drink whatever you want in your cheat meals"
I mean, I can eat and drink whatever I want* in all meals - I just need to be careful about the quantities and frequency of certain foods...
*Except potatoes and spinach - and I could probably even get away with those in very small quantities, but the end result is not worth playing with in either case.6 -
Exercise to lose weight
It’s harder to lose weight over 40
Drink at least 8 glasses of water7 -
scarlett_k wrote: »The idea that you have to suffer to lose weight. I've been losing weight steadily for 4 years now and the only suffering I experienced was when I was trying to lose too fast.
This is immediately what I thought of: the myth that if you're "serious," you have to be "all in," which means several major dietary changes at once, plus a lot of intense exercise, and you should live and breathe weight loss at all times or you'll FAIL.
It's a good way to get people to hate themselves when they inevitably burn out.
(On the flipside, I have seen people think that making one small change will immediately make them drop 20 pounds, and then they're disappointed when it doesn't happen. Not that small changes can't make any difference, but there's a real issue of appropriate and reasonable expectations.)
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wunderkindking wrote: »It's been the key to my success too, and the last is a myth.
The other 3? It can be all of those things and is variable by individual.
(I have family with serious EDs. It would be difficult, damaging and unsustainable for them.)concordancia wrote: »
Yeah, I get a bit manic and obsessive when I use calorie counting. I still haven't found the key to long term success for me, but lower carb eating keeps me away from binges longer than all things in moderation. Instead, I do "some things on a very rare basis, preferably paired with a good workout." Which probably sounds disordered to some people, but I am diabetic, so moving my body well on a higher carb day is important to my health.
@concordancia, @wunderkindking,I don't disagree that calorie counting will work for everyone. There's no one dietary approach that will work for everyone. A keto diet could be bad news for a cardiac patient, and a high carb diet could be bad for a diabetic. That doesn't mean that these are bad strategies in general. There are always exceptions.
But I think that calorie counting is woefully underappreciated. The conspiracy theorist in me says that this is because no one makes money off of it. I think many people would be successful if they legitimately tried it and stuck with it. I was reading @RunsWithBees excellent post from a few weeks ago which touches on many themes that I have observed over the years. See here: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10826289/fitness-and-diet-myths-that-just-wont-go-away/p7
Keep in mind that there are people who actively argue against calorie counting and "CICO", as if this were a fad diet instead of a law of nature. This stuff makes me unreasonably angry:
What is this CICO diet, and is it really as bad as people are claiming?
10 Reasons to Avoid CICO, the New Fad Diet
3 Reasons Why Counting Calories Doesn't Work (And What to Do Instead!)
You've got the good Google-fu going, for sure: Those links are appallingly, ridiculously awful. 😬4 -
those article are ridiculous.
At least the last one was arguing against calorie counting rather than CICO
and whilst I accept that calorie counting, as a method, is not for everyone - their reasons were absurd
and all 3 presented the false dichotomy that it is calorie counting vs nutritious eating - as if one somehow cannot do both or people calorie counting are just living on chips and cakes7 -
paperpudding wrote: »those article are ridiculous.
At least the last one was arguing against calorie counting rather than CICO
and whilst I accept that calorie counting, as a method, is not for everyone - their reasons were absurd
and all 3 presented the false dichotomy that it is calorie counting vs nutritious eating - as if one somehow cannot do both or people calorie counting are just living on chips and cakes
I'd argue one of the great things about calorie counting is that it works with all styles of eating. Want to focus on nutrient-rich foods? It will work. Want to have cake sometimes? It also works. It's flexible and that's one reason why I'm such a fan.4 -
It’s harder to lose weight in your 40’s, 50’s, 60’s. When you’re premenopausal. When you’re post menopausal.10
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Keto is the only way. Intermittent fasting is the only way. Drinking bulletproof coffee at 8:27am - and only 8:27am- while riding a Pygmy elephant in silk pajamas is the only way.18
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Please , no one post that mental health issues play no part in weight gain. That may be your experience but it is not mine. I went to therapy to resolve a binge eating disorder and since then am learning emotional regulation skills and have lost 77 pounds and still losing. Therapy has improved the quality of my life immensely.10
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I heard some time ago that men lose weight quicker than women because men usually have more muscles and muscles help to burn more calories. just another myth? 🙂0
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That you need to switch up your cardio to "shock your body" because after a while your body "gets used to it" and it doesn't burn calories anymore.
No, because physics. *Feels* easier as you get fitter? Sure. Calorie expenditure isn't about "feels", it's about physics.6
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