Some weight loss "facts" are repeated so often that we believe them – but www.Shape.com busts the diet myths and replaces them with healthy diet facts.
Shatter a diet myth and know this: It's not the fat in foods that makes you feel full.
Healthy Diet Facts: That greasy cheeseburger will leave you feeling full all day, so it's worth the splurge, right? Wrong! Fat is the slowest food component to clear the stomach, so for years it was assumed that fatty foods slowed digestion and kept you feeling full longer. Recent research proves the proportion of sugar and fat has little or no difference in satiety ratings.
In fact, protein tends to leave people feeling more satisfied than either carbs or fat. The problem with fat is that it has more than twice the calories of protein or carbs.
For a balanced healthy diet that will help you to lose weight, eat more healthy foods. Reach for foods high in fiber, like fruits and veggies and healthy whole grains. Fiber and whole grains affect feelings of fullness and satisfaction. We don't know exactly why, but fiber and healthy whole grains could affect the hormones that send the signal to your brain that you've had enough to eat.
Shatter a diet myth and know this: Missing meals is not a good way to lose pounds.
Healthy Diet Facts: Research has repeatedly shown that people who eat at regular intervals, starting with breakfast, are better nourished, think more clearly and report fewer mood swings than those who eat erratically. Meal skippers are more prone to weight problems probably because once they do eat, they eat too much of all the wrong stuff and not enough healthy foods. People often think they can save calories by skipping meals, but if they kept food journals they'd find that they more than make up for those saved calories at other times of the day.
Once meal skippers do eat, they find it very difficult to stop, consuming way more calories than people who eat more frequently. Researchers at the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) report that spacing food evenly throughout the day is key to weight-loss success. Weight maintainers eat healthy foods every four to five hours, regardless of whether it's a weekday, weekend or holiday.
Are there good and bad foods? Does a low carb diet flush calories from the body? Shape shatters the diet myths and shares healthy diet facts.
Shatter a diet myth and know this: There are bad and good healthy foods.
Healthy Diet Facts: You may have heard that there are no good foods or bad foods, only good and bad diets. Nutritionally, a potato chip can't hold a candle to a baked potato. We usually don't have a problem treating ourselves to those tasty foods, so to say there are no bad foods might be a license for some people to eat anything whenever they want.
If having cookies in the house triggers a person to binge, then that food could be a problem simply because it results in unhealthy behaviors. Enjoy bad foods only once in a while and in reasonable portions, but always stock your kitchen with good healthy foods, such as fruits, vegetables and whole-grain breads.
Shatter a diet myth and know this: A low carb diet doesn't flush calories from the body.
Healthy Diet Facts: Those that recommend a low carb diet sometimes claim that the body can excrete fat fragments (called ketones) in urine on this type of diet, essentially flushing calories out. But a study at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg found no correlation between urinary ketone levels and weight change in women on a low carb diet.
Carb cutters restrict so many foods that are normally accompanied by fat, they end up slashing calories overall. The initial rapid weight loss some carb cutters experience is caused by the body draining glycogen stores for energy. With each gram of glycogen used, 3 grams of water are released, with the result being a rapid loss in weight due to increased urination. After about 10-14 days, increased urination ends and so does the rapid weight-loss phase.
Balanced Healthy Diet Cheaper than Junk Food?
Think eating healthy foods will cost you more? Think again.
Shatter a diet myth and know this: Eating healthfully can save you money.
Healthy Diet Facts: With a little planning, eating healthy foods can actually cost less than typical fast-food fare. Are you surprised? A study at the Mary Imogene Bassett Research Institute in Cooperstown, N.Y., found that a person who follows a diet of heart healthy foods can reduce her grocery bill by up to $8 a week.
That translates to an annual savings of $416 a year for a single person or $1,664 for a family of four. Granted, wild salmon and imported olive oil cost more than a Happy Meal, but you need to factor in the hidden costs of a diet that is high in fat.
More than half of all Americans eat too much, with the extra pounds costing about $400 per person in added health-care bills, not to mention the more than $30 billion spent annually in this country on weight-loss products and services.
Pound for pound, a balanced healthy diet with health-boosting whole foods is a lot cheaper than a fast-food diet. To help pare down your grocery bill, swap legumes for meat products; buy less-expensive produce such as apples, oranges, carrots, spinach and cabbage; and purchase healthy whole grains like oatmeal, rice and bulgur in bulk.
You’re looking for a safe effective cellulite treatment. Controlling your calories, choosing healthy foods and exercising is the solution.
Shatter a diet myth and know this: No miracle diet will banish cellulite!
Healthy Diet Facts: Medically speaking, there is no such thing as cellulite. It's a marketing term for plain old pudge that ripples (mostly on the thighs) in varying degrees in 50-90 percent of women, regardless of clothing size or fitness level.
This clumpy fat results from fat cells stored just under the skin in honeycomb-like structures held in place by bands of connective tissue. The more fat cells stuffed into each honeycomb, the more puckered the texture.
Women are more prone than men to dimply fat because our skin is thinner, we have less-even fat distribution, and we store more fat in our hips and thighs. Since cellulite is just ordinary body fat, there is no unique low carb diet trick or cellulite treatment to remove it. The bottom line? A calorie-controlled, balanced healthy diet plus exercise will help you lose fat throughout your body.
Shatter a diet myth and know this: Your body doesn't need loads of protein.
Healthy Diet Facts: Even if you exercise regularly, you don't need any more protein than the average couch potato! Most Americans consume more than enough protein, averaging 77.5 grams a day, or 146 percent of the Dietary Reference Intake (53 grams) for a 145-pound adult.
If it were true that only a high-protein diet was important for building muscles, everyone on the Atkins-type low carb diet would look like a bodybuilder. The best diet is one that contains 15-20 percent lean protein, 55-60 percent healthy carbs and 20-30 percent fat. Eat this way, including the healthy carbs, and you'll have no trouble achieving and maintaining a healthy weight.
