Top 5 Dieting Myths

Some of the more popular dieting myths have done more to make people lose their weight loss battles because they are just plain wrong. Knowing fact from fiction will give us a big leg up in our attempts to lose weight and keep it off permanently. Here are the top 5 weight loss myths:

1. One of the most common beliefs is that fattening foods will lead to very quick weight gain but in actual fact, weight gain is a slow process. This belief may stem from the fact that many people report putting on a few pounds after a big meal but this is erroneous and the weight gain may be mostly water which will disappear soon enough. A small piece of cake won't make you fat overnight, so rest easy, eat a balanced diet and exercise.

2. Another very common belief is that low-fat or fat-free foods help you lose weight faster. This can be a deadly mistake because low-fat or fat-free is not the same thing as low-calorie or calorie-free. Unfortunately, the so-called low-fat foods usually make up for their taste and body by adding extra thickeners and sugar which can end up making them as calorie-rich as the standard foods, even though they may technically have a lower fat content. And it is the calories that count, so we should always check the labels for calorie count and not fat alone. Besides, our bodies need fat for energy and tissue repair so some of our calories should come from fat.

3. One of the most damaging beliefs and also one of the most widespread is the one that says 'cholesterol is bad for you'. The truth is that our bodies need cholesterol which helps us build cells and hormones and which is produced by our livers. However, there is good cholesterol and bad cholesterol and we need to distinguish between the two. The bad cholesterol levels in our blood are raised by the saturated fats in foods like meat, butter and cheese whereas the good cholesterol which helps us clean our arteries comes from unsaturated fats found in nuts, seeds and vegetable oils.

4. It is commonly believed that if you give up smoking, you will gain weight and this is untrue as there is no technical reason to gain weight by removing nicotine from our system. It may be true that the removal of nicotine slows down our metabolism a little but that does not cause noticeable weight gain. Besides, it is far healthier to be an overweight non-smoker than a smoker who is afraid of gaining weight. This belief probably came from the fact that some people replace their nicotine craving with food but this is more a question of discipline where chewing healthy gum or snacking on vegetables can do the trick as well.

5. A real biggie is the belief that you need to be a meat-eater to build muscle. One look at the world's strongest vegetarian, the elephant, should show you how wrong this is! What matters is protein intake because this is what builds muscle and many vegetarian foods contain more protein per ounce than any meat, a few examples being pulses, grains and nuts.

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