Misconception 1: No fat intake, no weight increase
Fact: Fat consumption does not always lead to weight gain. Fatty foods are digestion-resistant. Since they are filling, they reduce the likelihood that you will consume other foods known to cause weight gain like starches and sugars, which can be a positive thing.
Fat is an essential nutrient. Although controlling fat intake can make a person slim down, body fat serves to help the body maintain the body temperature, reduce the shock and trauma on internal organs and facilitate metabolism, so we must pay attention to take the adequate amount of fat in daily meals and not cut them out completely. Therefore, adequate fat intake will not affect your body shape, but can also be a healthy practice that's good for you in the long run.
Misconception 2: Drinking will make me heavier.
Fact: Not drinking enough water can make your body hold on to and store fat. Insufficient water intake can also trigger metabolic disorders so that the energy in the body is absorbed more than released. So for a dieter, to drink less than sufficient amounts of water can not only make them fail to lose weight, but potentially harm their health.
Misconception 3: Eating only fruits and vegetables will make you lose weight.
Fact: The huge amount of carbohydrates in fruits and vegetables are absorbed by the body and cause them to accumulate in the body. The excessive carbohydrates will be converted into fat, so you may actual gain weight this way instead of losing.
We generally consider that eating vegetables and fruits are healthy and won't lead to weight gain so we often eat them a lot. Some dieters even replace meats and proteins in their diets with fruits and vegetables, which is a dangerous choice. Furthermore, although the fruits contain abundant vitamins and carbohydrates, their nutrition structure are quite simple and lacks protein. Prolonged protein deficiencies in the body can lead to adverse side effects.
Misconception 4: Long term intake of spicy foods can help me lose weight.
Fact: Statistics show that people in Thailand and India are generally not obese, so some theories said that this was due to their spicy diets. Eating spicy foods will make people sweat and feel full, which is efficient for weight loss. However, long term intake of spicy foods can affect the function of stomach and lead to gastrointestinal problems down the road. Spicy foods can also produce adverse effects on the skin like dryness and acne.
Misconception 5: Participating in sports on an empty stomach is dangerous.
Fact: Some people believe that participating in physical activities on an empty stomach can produce low blood sugar symptoms such as dizziness, fatigue or palpitations, all of which can be very harmful to the health. However, researchers at the Dallas Body Building Center of the U.S.A found through studies that doing adequate amount of exercises 1 to 2 hours before meals can help with weight loss. The reason is there is no further fatty acids enter the fat cells so that it is easier to consume excess fat, therefore the effects are better than after meals. Furthermore, the energy stored in the body is enough that it does not harm the health.
Misconception 6: Skipping breakfast will help you lose weight.
Fact: Skipping meals will only force your body into survival mode, which makes it hold on to any and all fat it already has. The body will first consume carbohydrates and proteins if it recognizes that there is scarcity of nutrients. The last consumed is the fat. According to nutritionists, the breakfast is the most difficult meal to be converted into fat during a day. Without breakfasts, people will only eat more in lunch and supper, which occur later in the day giving them less time to be active and work it off. Sumo wrestlers in Japan do not eat breakfast but only lunch and dinner to put on weights. So breakfast is very important. The best ratio for breakfast, lunch, and dinner is 3:2:1, with that ratio you can consume the nutrients efficiently in a day. Eat the most in the morning and gradually decrease your food intake as the day goes on by eating smaller meals.
Misconception 7: Exercising for 20 minutes longer will burn off any over-consumption of calories.
Fact: Sometimes, you can get away with this. If you extend the time of aerobic exercise occasionally for purpose of consuming the excess calories in dessert, that's alright. However, if you regularly extend the time of exercising as an excuse for overeating, you actually have put yourself in the status of over-training. When the body fails to adapt to the training, it is very hard to lose weight. Excessive training can result in excess secretion of a decomposition hormone. This kind of hormone attaches to the muscles, so that the muscles can not be synthesized, which makes it bad idea for long-term practice.
Misconception 8: Jogging thirty minutes every day can help you lose weight.
Fact: Jogging can reach the same effects of aerobic exercises, but the effects on weight loss vary with the time differences. Studies show that only when the duration of exercises exceeds 40 minutes does the weight start to melt away.
Misconception 9: Gathering of nutrients cause obesity.
Fact: Obesity is not caused by the accumulation of a single nutrient, but by the lack of the nutrients that convert fat into energy. Only when the energy is released can the body fat decrease. The conversion from fat into energy requires various nutrients. They are vitamin B2, vitamin B6 and niacin. The foods rich in these nutrients don't often appeal to dieters – milk, various soy products, peanuts, eggs, liver and meats. If the scarcity of these nutrients is an issue, the fat in body can not be converted into energy easily so tit accumulates in the body and triggers obesity.
Misconception 10: You can exercise one part of the body to slim down in that area.
Fact: First, exercising one part of the body consumes less energy and participants are easily tired so that this method is not sustainable. Second, energy provision by fat is controlled by nervous system and internal secretion system. However, they control the fat and energy in the body overall, not in just one particular part. So you'd have to exercise your whole body in order to activate them. The fact is where the blood supply conditions are good, that part of body is conducive to fat consumption and that very part can lose weight. For example, after a period of exercising, people may find their faces shrink instead of the abdomen. The reason is the energy consumed by exercising is more than the fat intake, thus it will decrease the fat of body overall, not in just one area of the body.
