There are seven myths and one reality.
“I'm going to lose 10 pounds in a month!”
“5 weight-loss tips!” exclaims the author.
“Shed pounds quickly!”
On the road to lose weight, we're bombarded with ads for
weight loss plans, tricks, and goods, and it's easy to lose track of what's
true and what's not.
At Northwestern Medicine, Elizabeth A.
Lowden, MD, is a bariatric endocrinologist. She debunks seven common
weight-loss myths.
Myth No. 1: Once you start, you'll lose weight
indefinitely.
“People believe that weight loss should be a linear process
because they believe they can lose weight if they eat more calories than they
consume,” says Dr. Lowden. “There are too many other variables to consider.”
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Rate of Metabolic Change
At rest, the metabolic rate is the number of calories your
body burns. It varies depending on a number of factors when you lose weight.
Some things are unchangeable, such as your height, gender at birth, and age.
Others, such as muscle mass, you can control.
If you have more muscle in your body, you consume more calories.
If you lose weight without doing any strength training, your metabolic rate
will slowly drop as your muscle mass decreases. Your weight will plateau when
you begin to burn calories more slowly.
Your body can also adjust to the number of calories you feed
it. Adaptive thermogenesis is the term for this concept.
Dr. Lowden suggests imagining the metabolism as a furnace.
“If you don't feed the furnace, the flames will die out, which will lower the
metabolic rate.”
Your initial weight loss would be water weight when you
start a weight loss program
by improving your diet and exercising more. If you increase your activity level
and decrease your calorie intake, your weight will eventually remain stable.
Hormonal changes
Women who have menstrual cycles are more likely to
experience weight fluctuations.
“Weight loss for women can look like down, down, up, down,
up; it won't be a steady loss,” says Dr. Lowden, citing hormonal changes that
cause water retention.
Myth No. 2: Supplements can aid weight loss.
“There is literally nothing on the market or through a
practitioner that can improve your metabolism,” Dr. Lowden says.
Some supplements help you lose weight by suppressing your
appetite, but nothing will alter your metabolism.
According to Dr. Lowden, several supplements labeled as
"fat burners" contain caffeine, chemicals, and herbs that can be
harmful. “These ingredients can have a detrimental impact on the cardiovascular
system.”
Myth #3: Obesity is not inherited.
Prader-Willi
Syndrome, for example, is a hereditary syndrome that causes obesity in
certain individuals.
Others have genes that can be switched on or off based on
their surroundings, which can contribute to obesity.
According to Dr. Lowden, “certain genes influence how the
body absorbs sugars, carbohydrates, and fats.” “Some individuals are more
likely to be overweight as a result of lifestyle decisions that can influence
these genes.”
If this describes you, there is good news: you can change
it.
“It's not the end of the world if these are the cards you've
been dealt,” Dr. Lowden says. “All you have to do now is be more conscious of
your diet and activity level.”
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Myth #4: It's possible to be "healthy-fat."
“There is no such thing as ‘healthy-fat,'” says Dr. Lowden,
“because the extra weight may have health effects that we can't quantify with
our current science.”
There's also the myth that people who are smaller are
healthier. Weight is just one of many health indicators, but this isn't
necessarily the case. Many people who are within a safe weight range have
unhealthy habits such as smoking and bad eating habits.
Weight and body mass index (BMI), which is a ratio of weight
to height, aren't good indicators of health since they don't take into account
visceral fat, which covers the organs and may lead to insulin resistance and
cardiovascular problems.
“BMI can give us a false sense of who has weight problems and who
doesn't,” Dr. Lowden says. “If you look at LeBron James' BMI, he's technically
overweight. We know he's okay because he's a professional basketball player.”
BMI does not have a complete image of a person's health.
It's just one metric. Your health habits, regardless of weight or BMI, may put
you at risk for a variety of health problems.
Myth #5: Fad diets are successful.
Dr. Lowden claims that fad diets don't work because they're
usually unsustainable in the long run. “Significantly lowering calories and
eliminating whole food classes leads to short-term success, but lifestyle
improvement leads to long-term weight loss.”
Yo-yo dieting, which has been linked to a rise in morbidity,
is made more likely by fad diets.
“You lose muscle mass when you lose weight quickly on a fad
diet. The weight returns as fat rather than muscle, making it more difficult to
lose weight again.”
Fad diets psychologically detach you from your own satiety
cues.
“Our bodies have the ability to tell us what we need,” says
Dr. Lowden, “but we stop listening when we're very young.”
Myth # 6: It doesn't matter what you eat as long as you
work out more.
You will lose weight if you burn 500 calories more than you
consume.
500 calories can be burned by walking or running five miles
or participating in a one-hour high-intensity spinning class.
It's easier to achieve this 500-calorie deficit by making
minor improvements to your caloric intake during the day. Maybe you don't put
cheese on your salad or don't eat breakfast with a side of toast.
You'll have a tougher time losing weight if you use exercise
to justify overeating. A poor diet is impossible to avoid.
Myth #7: You can consume as much nutritious food as you
want.
It doesn't matter how nutritious the food is if you consume
too much of it.
It's vital to eat a safe, nutritious diet, but even the
healthiest foods, such as vegetables, can be overdone.
Dr. Lowden says, “I have patients who complain about not
losing weight on a safe and balanced diet.” “We normally figure out that
they're only eating too much clean, nutritious food and adjust their portions
accordingly.”
Fact:
There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all diet.
“Losing weight and holding it off is a way of life,” Dr.
Lowden says.
It will take trial and error to find a weight loss plan that works
for you, as well as understanding the facts of what happens in your body when
you lose weight.
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