1. You can't lose a significant amount of weight unless you feel hunger cramps at least some of the time.
True. The only way to lose weight is to eat less. Exercise and all the rest are helpful, but weight is about how many calories you eat. And when you lower how many calories you eat you're bound to feel hunger cramps.
2. Hunger is a form of pain.
Not necessarily. Hunger is what you make of it. You were probably raised to think of hunger as extremely painful, so you still do. But if you're intelligent enough, you can change your feelings about it. For example, say, "Oh good! I'm hungry! That means I'm losing weight."
Show your hunger who's boss!
3. Exercise burns off calories. If I work up a sweat for a long enough time, I can burn off enough weight that I can eat more.
False. Exercise doesn't burn off significantly more calories than sleeping does. That is, your body's metabolism (digesting food, thinking, making your heart beat, healing cuts, and so on) burns off most of your calories, and you'll gain just as much weight by eating more as somebody who has been sitting around all day.
4. When you're trying to lose weight, it's important to exercise.
True; it's very important. If you cut down the calories you eat without exercising, your hypothalamus will think you're faced with a life-threatening shortage of food. It will slow down your metabolism, desperately trying to make your scarce resources (usually the protein in your muscles) last longer...So exercise! The activity will tell your hypothalamus not to burn up your muscles (since you're using them) and to burn lots of calories by keeping your metabolism going fast.
5. Whenever you eat "fattening" foods you're cheating on your diet, and you should be ashamed of yourself.
False, for at least four reasons I've found:
a. Feeling ashamed of yourself is rarely justified. You should probably feel ashamed of yourself after committing cold-blooded murder, but you should never feel ashamed after eating anything.
b. Shame just doesn't work. Life is about choices. Do you choose to pass up this food at this time, or are you willing to risk gaining another ounce or another pound? We all have the right to make the choices we want to make without being judged by ourselves or other people. Shame just makes us feel bad, and then we want to make ourselves feel better by -- guess what? -- eating something.
c. "Diet" is a dangerous word. It implies that when you lose enough weight you can go back to eating what you used to eat. No! Then you might gain the weight back. Don't "go on" a diet; change your diet -- your whole way of eating -- permanently.
d. Weight is about the calories you eat. Weight loss is about reducing the calories you eat. Don't pick on certain foods, calling them "fattening". Go without some foods during the day, so you'll be able to eat your favorite dessert that evening without increasing the number of calories you eat. It's not about good and bad foods; it's about choices. Just choose which (reasonably nutritious) combination of foods you want to eat while still keeping inside the number of calories you want to eat that day.
6. If you're overweight, don't let anybody see you eating "fattening" foods or they'll say, "Look at that fat person making him/herself fatter!"
They might say that, but they'll be wrong. There's no such thing as a "fattening" food, just the calories you eat. And they don't know how many calories you've taken in or will take in that day. In France, the average person eats more fat than we do but, on average, French people weigh less than Americans. Why? Because many French people are trained from childhood to be gourmands, that is, to eat what they like ("fine foods") and savor every bite. That means they rarely feel deprived enough to want to eat more food.
7. To lose weight, you should avoid "junk foods".
False. Take for example my arch nemesis, Chips. Potatoes aren't junk. Salt isn't junk; you'll quickly die without it. The oil potato chips are fried in is fatty, but fat isn't necessarily junk either; you need a certain amount of fat in your diet. There are plenty of great foods that are full of fat, many of them made with dairy products. All nonpoisonous food (I consider alcohol to be poison) is good. Exactly which foods you eat each day doesn't matter quite as much as how many calories you eat per day.
Your best bet is to eat what you like, and only what you like (except for fruits and veggies), so you won't be tempted to go off your diet. If you can't get what you like at the moment, go hungry for a while ("Great! I'm losing weight!") and get yourself through the hunger by looking forward to the time when you can get what you like.
8. Fat is bad; concentrate on carbs.
False, because it's simplistic. One gram of fat does contain about twice as many calories as one gram of carbohydrates. But the truth is much more complicated. Weight loss is more complicated than just measuring calories per gram. You have to take psychology into account too. Eating a candy bar instead of bread might mean you'd take in fewer calories in the long run because it satisfies your psychological craving. (Of course, most days you'll be eating the bread, not the candy bar.)
9. Don't adopt a diet so strict that you start feeling deprived.
True, as long as you know what "deprived" means. It doesn't mean "I wish I could eat big meals the way the people around me do". It doesn't mean "I wish I didn't have to pass up this piece of cake or else eat too many calories today". It does mean "I haven't had a piece of cake (or whatever) for so long that I dream of it while I sleep and almost start crying when I see somebody eating cake. But I absolutely can't have it myself; I'm such a fat slob that I can't eat cake like everybody else can". "Deprived" means you're denying yourself so many foods you like that you start feeling depressed and worthless. Please don't go there. Lower the number of calories you eat a little at a time, so you won't be too hard on yourself.
10. Grapes, broccoli, and many other fruits and veggies aren't "fattening", so you don't have to count their calories. And what you drink doesn't have enough calories to worry about either.
False, False, FALSE. "Fattening" is a meaningless word. Count the calories in everything you eat AND drink, because all calories are equal, no matter what food or beverage they're in. Calories are calories.
11. When you start losing weight, the first few pounds you lose are water. That means water has weight, and you have to drink less water if you want to keep your weight down.
The first sentence is true. The second is false. Drink lots of water; you need it. Yes, losing water causes weight loss at first, but denying yourself water doesn't cause more weight loss in the future, and drinking more water rarely causes weight gain.
12. Poor nutrition combined with cutting calories way down can make you sick. No matter how you lose weight, it's dangerous unless almost all the foods you eat are nutritious foods such as lentils, cottage cheese, and steamed spinach with nothing on it.
The first sentence is true. It's best either (A) to watch your nutrition very closely as you lose weight quickly or (B) to lose weight slowly and carefully while watching your nutrition a little less closely.
The second sentence goes too far. Losing weight, then giving up and gaining weight, then losing weight again is what's really dangerous. To lose weight for good, decide which foods you're going to eat for the rest of your life. Can you really eat lentils, cottage cheese, and steamed spinach with nothing on it for the rest of your life? There must be some nutritious foods (corn on the cob? turkey? pineapple slices?) that you do like enough to eat for the rest of your life.
Losing weight is about how many calories you eat. It's important to eat reasonably nutritious meals, of course, but it's not a good idea to concentrate so hard on nutrition that you don't have time to count your calories or watch your portion sizes.
13. Variety is very important because eating lots of different foods increases the chances of getting all the vitamins and minerals you need.
True. Plain & simple.
14. Different diets are best for different people. You may do best on a grapefruit diet. I may do best on a high-protein diet.
False because:
a. variety is important. It's not a good idea to limit your diet to a small number of foods.
b. Do you really want to eat primarily grapefruit (or even primarily protein) for the rest of your life?
But the above sentence is also true in the sense that to lose weight you need to eat at least some foods you like, and nobody else knows exactly which foods you like. Also you need to eat at the times of day you like. You need to tailor your (permanent) diet to your own personality and lifestyle.
15. To lose weight, it's best to eat several small meals a day.
True for many people but, again, it really depends on your lifestyle and personality. You might want to try different eating schedules and see what works best for you at this particular time in your life.
16. You can reward yourself with sweets if you haven't eaten many calories for a while.
True, if:
a. the reward doesn't take you above the number of calories you've decided to eat per day.
b. you don't reward yourself with food more than once a day. It's best to eat sweets in the evening only, and only if you have some calories left over at the end of that day. If you have eaten very few calories on a given day, eat 450 calories (such as a dish of ice cream) at the end of it. If you have eaten a moderate number of calories, eat one cookie. If you have eaten lots of calories, you had better not have dessert that evening.
c. you also give yourself non-food rewards.
The bottom line is that eating so many calories in one day that you can't have dessert at the end of it is not "bad". It's just your choice.
17. When I get down to my target weight, I'll get more dates/my spouse will be more attracted to me.
Not necessarily. Beautiful people often have trouble getting dates. Also, if you're a woman, you may get envious comments from other women. Your best bet is to ignore other people's opinions (except your doctor's) and lose weight only for yourself.
The bottom line (and if all that you read from this post) is LOSE WEIGHT:
a. to live longer.
b. to feel healthier and more energetic.
c. to like what you see when you look in the mirror.
d. so you won't have to keep buying new clothes as your weight changes.
e. for your own pride.
The only thing we KNOW for sure in life is that things are always changing. YOU are the only constant, so make the change for YOU.
Until Tomorrow!
Keep healthy, keep safe and keep going!
Have an awesome day!
♥Fit~NOW~Girl♥
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