What's the Craziest Diet Myth You've Heard?

"eat less move more"

That is not a myth

That woman told me a number of crazy diet stuff she'd read on the internet over the years. I remember the last time I saw her, I was 20 then, she patted my stomach and told me to take up smoking basically to smoke a cigarette every time I felt hungry and if that didn't work, do pot.

wouldn't smoking pot actually be counter productive to decreasing your appetite?

The woman smoked pot like it was going out of style and was thin enough I could've picked her up and thrown her across the street, but I doubt it was the pot. She had a lot of medical issues and she ate maybe once a day so she was thin but not a healthy thin, not that it didn't stop her from thinking she was hot stuff.

She was nuts in the head, basically.

My grandmother believed that eating a teaspoon of Dawn or Palmolive dish soap every day would dissolve fat in her body. She swore she read about it in Reader's Digest. She ate a lot of soap...

This is hilarious!! I have visions of a grandmother blowing bubbles...

:huh:

That eating too few calories will make you gain weight.

Believe it or not, a weight-loss program that overly restricts calories will set you up for failure, as will a skipped meal. There is a point at which cutting calories will work against weight loss because consuming too few calories leads to increased appetite and low satiety as your body prevents starvation. You will find it hard to implement your healthy eating goals when you’re feeling hungry and dissatisfied. And you will suffer from cravings, ultimately causing you to fall into under-eating and over-eating cycles.

Your body will make a choice: lose body fat or lose muscle. An inadequately fueled body will choose to drop calorie-burning muscle rather than fat. Excessive loss of lean muscle mass leads to weight loss without improvement of body composition or health. This leaves you frustrated and ever-battling your weight. The body will slow it's metabolism to an absolute stand still to "keep it going".

Get informed, and think about it!

I didn't say eating too few calories was healthy or that it wouldn't eventually slow weight loss. I said it's a myth that it will make you gain weight, which is completely true. Think about that.

Ok, you got me. Keep eating at a dangerous/unsustainable level.... forever.... don't ever start to eat more than that. Eventually, a person WILL eat more, and guess what happens.... just take a guess.........

What happens when they start eating more doesn't make the original statement about eating less a myth.

The OP was not asking about healthy diets. It's about truth vs myth. And the truth is that eating less calories will not make one gain weight.

I can't remember what it was called, but it was some diet where you could only eat carbs like, during a certain 2 hour time period. Or many it was a 45 minute time period? And after that window of time, no more carbs. So you'd eat like a rabbit for most of the day, and then load up of donuts and corn muffins and bagels from the hours of 7 am to 9 am. It made no sense at all- I never understood how that was supposed to work.

It's a low card diet you eat under 4carbs all day then get an hour to eat whatever as long as you eat a salad before the hour which is called a "Reward Meal" my mom lost 50 pounds on this diet and it's not that hard.

What happens when they start eating more doesn't make the original statement about eating less a myth.

The OP was not asking about healthy diets. It's about truth vs myth. And the truth is that eating less calories will not make one gain weight.

I guess I was arguing context and you are arguing semantics. You win. :drinker:

Actually, I am not arguing semantics. I see posts on here all the time where people ask why they are gaining weight and a lot of time they get an answer like "because you are eating too little". This is simply not true and not helpful. You do not gain weight by eating too little. It's a myth.

You can eat so little that it is unhealthy, and you can slow your resting metabolism if you do it over a long period of time. This could cause you to hit a plateau or dramatically slow your weight loss. But you will not gain weight because you are eating too little. That's not sematics. It's truth.

What happens when they start eating more doesn't make the original statement about eating less a myth.

The OP was not asking about healthy diets. It's about truth vs myth. And the truth is that eating less calories will not make one gain weight.

I guess I was arguing context and you are arguing semantics. You win. :drinker:

Actually, I am not arguing semantics. I see posts on here all the time where people ask why they are gaining weight and a lot of time they get an answer like "because you are eating too little". This is simply not true and not helpful. You do not gain weight by eating too little. It's a myth.

You can eat so little that it is unhealthy, and you can slow your resting metabolism if you do it over a long period of time. This could cause you to hit a plateau or dramatically slow your weight loss. But you will not gain weight because you are eating too little. That's not sematics. It's truth.

Right again you are! :smokin:

My grandmother believed that eating a teaspoon of Dawn or Palmolive dish soap every day would dissolve fat in her body. She swore she read about it in Reader's Digest. She ate a lot of soap...

This is hilarious!! I have visions of a grandmother blowing bubbles...

from which end?

never expose it to bright light (especially sunlight, which will kill it); never get it wet (which will make it multiply); and, most importantly: never, ever feed it after midnight.

genius

Anything promoted by Dr. Oz.

An ex-coworker once told me (while eating a large McDonalds fries) that there is nothing wrong with fries, they are potatoes, and potatoes are a vegetable, and vegetables are good for you.

We tried to explain the whole concept of "deep fried" but it was beyond her comprehension... :noway:

So there you have it.... fries are a vegetable!.
Now who's coming to McD's with me? :laugh:

That's nothing, an ex co-worker once told me Fruit Pastilles were one of your five a day.

For the non Brits fruit Pastilles are sugar coated chewy sweets.

From mfp boards as well,

Your bones shrink as you lose weight to support your new body, so that's why you can have period between losing weight on the scales :L so you lose weight, then wait, then weigh :L

Annnnnd drinking cold water makes you pee, drinking warm water makes you poo

Eating too few calories will make you gain weight! That's not a myth! Don't you read the bottom of your log if you haven't eaten enough? If you eat too few calories you body goes into starvation mode and keeps everything. It doesn't think you are going to feed it again, therefore weight gain. Do the research, it's true.

I have done the research, and it isn't true.

I could cite you numerous studies with people on sub 1000 calories and they lose weight, and the lower the calories the more they lose. Yes there are sustainability issues as with most diet regimes. But fundamentally you can't gain weight by eating less than you are expending - where does the weight come from ? Mars ?

There is a metabolic slow down in response to losing weight, not least because you lose mass, and there may also be a slow down in response to calorie restriction (studies come out both for and against this).

But "starvation mode" is a myth if you extrapolate it to "body goes into starvation mode and keeps everything". Just sit down and think about that. What would be the purpose of the body "keeping everything" if it were capable of doing so ? If you need 1000 calories of energy to stay alive in "starvation mode" then those calories will be taken from food, body fat and ultimately muscle. When all the fat is gone you'll look like a concentration camp survivor or an Ethiopian famine refugee. There's no way the body can "keep everything" and it would in any case be self defeating. In a 3 day fast you would die were it to be the case, whereas in practice it takes about 70 days for a hunger striker to die.