16/03/14 This advice is WRONG
1. Fat makes you fat
It depends on the type of fats you're eating, fats in chips, cookies, and greasy foods can increase cholesterol and your risk for certain diseases, but good fats, like nuts, avocados, and salmon, protect your heart and support your overall health. When paired with a healthy diet, the right fats can help keep you from being, well, fat,
2. Stop snacking to lose weight
Eating in small, frequent amounts is a great way to curb hunger, control portion sizes, and make better nutritional choices, smarter snacks like nuts, fruits, and yogurt will keep your energy levels high throughout the day.
3. A calorie is a calorie and you should count them
Not all calories are the same, the type of calories, the timing of the calories, and the quality of the calories can significantly alter the effect of the calories on the body, food creates reactions within our bodies and the type of food you eat is an important component in diets. For example, 50 calories of an apple will cause a different internal reaction than 50 calories of cheesecake. The quality of the calories is also important because the chemicals, hormones, and general by products that are found within processed food effects the absorption of real nutrients. Quality calories are nutrient dense, like spinach. Calories that don't contain any nutrients, also known as "empty" calories are like the ones found in French fries.
4. Cut out carbs
The research on carbohydrate intake is often misinterpreted, yes, it is true that excessive intakes of refined carbohydrates, like white bread or white rice, may lead to weight gain or increased cardiovascular risk. But there is no research suggesting that healthy carbohydrates, such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, or legumes, can negatively impact health or weight. On the contrary, many studies suggest a diet high in these plant-based foods is associated with better overall health. Increasing the intake of fruits and veggies, can help lower dietary glycemic load and insulin demand, this, in turn, can ultimately reduce the risk of both type 2 diabetes and heart disease. So, keep the carbs! And aim for those that come from 100% whole grains or fruits
5. Load up on protein
Sorry, caveman lovers: eating lots of protein is not the key to healthy weight loss. Why? The body needs three macronutrients: Protein, carbohydrates, and fat. You not only deprive your body of fibre and other antioxidants found in healthy carbohydrates, whole grains, fruits, and veggies, but you also run the risk of eating too much fat in your diet which can lead to high cholesterol and triglycerides
6. Go gluten-free to lose weight
There's no scientific evidence that gluten is a particularly fattening ingredient, the problem is that we eat too many refined grains foods made of white flour or other refined grains. Cutting gluten without checking with your doctor first can lead to deficiencies in important nutrients, such as fibre, iron, vitamin B12, and magnesium. In the meantime, focus on getting healthy whole grains in moderate portions.
7. You burn more calories working out on an empty stomach
Working out with or without food in your stomach doesn't affect calorie burn but skipping meals before sweat sessions may result in muscle loss. Before you settle for a sports drink, know this: While a quick sip of sugar energizes your muscles, the drink’s other artificial additives can be harmful to your health. Instead, go for naturally sweet fruit, like bananas, peaches, and mangos before your sweat session. Or try a piece or two of dark chocolate for the same caffeine fix you get from a half cup of coffee. Chocolate also contains feel-good substances, called neurotransmitters, which are the same release during a 'runner's high,'
8. Eat every 2 hours to rev your metabolism
Eating more frequently may help stave off hunger, which can help you fight temptation. But to do this, you have to be careful to keep your meals and snacks really small. Otherwise, eating every 2 hours can simply lead to taking in too many calories over the course of the day.
9. Watch what you eat during the week, but take the weekends off
Throwing caution to the wind on the weekends can offset the consistency and success you had all week. On the weekends, we tend to sleep in, maybe missing our workout, typically drink more alcohol and have heavier meals. So if you lose about one pound between Monday and Friday, you just might gain it back or at least maintain it, really taking away the efforts towards weight loss. Which means if you're trying to lose weight, the weekends shouldn't be a free-for-all, you still need a plan.
10. Swear off forbidden foods
We tend to be in 'all or nothing' mode when we diet and never seem to find a middle ground. You have to realize that you can’t have pizza, French fries, and chocolate cake all in the same day, but, with careful planning, you can enjoy these foods when they are presented to you. Just don’t go for seconds and share if you can. In fact, research shows that moderately indulging in "forbidden foods" is what keeps people from bingeing on the stuff.
11. Drink your fruits and veggies
While shoving five servings of fruits and vegetables into a juicer seems like a simple and efficient way to get the daily recommended amounts, it comes at a cost. Unfortunately, juicing fruits and vegetables removes one of their most valuable components: fibre. Found in the pulp, skin and seeds, fibre’s list of benefits ranges from filling you up to maintaining stable blood sugar levels. If you're juicing more sweet stuff (fruit and carrots) than green stuff you're also going to seriously spike your sugar. (Some juicers allow you to keep in the pulp, so that's another option.)
12. Eat as few calories as possible
Ugh, awful tip. When you cut your calories too low, your body acts as if it's going into starvation mode and your metabolism slows down. But a reasonable goal, is to cut approximately 500 calories each day through diet and exercise, which will lead to a healthy rate of weight loss of one kilo per week.
13. Skip breakfast to save up calories for later
This backfires, people end up overeating at lunch and dinner, often in excess of what they 'saved' at breakfast, in fact, research on individuals who have successfully lost weight shows that they regularly eat a healthy breakfast, better if it's high in protein.
14. Say no to nuts
Yes, nuts are calorie dense, but that doesn't mean they can’t or shouldn't easily be incorporated into a healthy diet when eaten in proper portions. Tree-nut consumers (think almonds, pecans and pistachios) had a lower BMI and smaller waist circumference compared to non-consumers, remove a less nutrient-dense food from your meal plan and incorporate heart-healthy nuts instead.
15. Schedule regular detoxes
Your digestive system, kidneys, and liver are all actually fairly amazing at 'detoxing' your body on a regular basis, there's no need for special cleanses or juices.
16. No food? Grab a multi!
While insurance for your health, life, and car are often essential, insurance for your diet really doesn't exist. That's because, except for a few exceptions, folic acid and vitamin D, the vitamins and minerals you get from whole foods are significantly superior to the same nutrients you’d get in a pill.
17. Avoid fatty egg yolks
Let’s crack this case for good: Eating dietary cholesterol through egg yolks can actually boost a person's HDL, or "good," cholesterol. Compared to egg whites, which offer nothing more than protein, the egg yolk contains 100% of the carotenoids, essential fatty acids, vitamins A, E, D, and K. They also contain choline, which boosts brain and liver health, as well as reduces inflammation.
18. Artificial sweeteners are a great substitute for sugar
This one's gonna hurt, diet soft drink drinkers: Research indicates a possible link between artificial sweetener consumption and weight gain. Daily consumption of diet soft drink drinkers had a 36% greater relative risk of developing metabolic syndrome and a 67% greater relative risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared with non-consumption. The presence of constant artificial sweeteners in the diet means you're never really letting your taste buds get a break from the sweet taste you love. The more you drink diet soft drinks, the longer you'll remain trapped in the sugar cycle and continue to crave.
19. Your burn more calories eating your food raw
Many studies show that cooking method; heating, grilling, and microwaving, etc. makes a nutritional difference. So while some food may be best eaten raw, that's not the case for all foods. Oh, and if the whole myth about "negative calories" (you know, the dubious idea that just the act of eating certain foods burns more calories than you actually take in from those foods) draws you to raw foods, think again. Some foods do require more energy to digest than others, but to live on these so called 'negative calorie foods' results in unsustainable weight loss and can also slow your metabolism down, as well as break down muscle.
20. Use fat-free and sugar-free labels as your best guide
Fat-free does not mean healthy. There are plenty of foods that are low in fat but high in calories, sugar and sodium. (And sugar, we know now, can keep us fat.) Most low-calorie, sugar-free products are full of artificial sweeteners, which do more harm than good and actually have been linked to weight gain. Sugar-free beverages in particular have to replace the sugar with chemicals to enhance the taste.
21. Too much sugary fruit makes you fat
The sugar in fruit is not what makes you fat, since its unprocessed sugar found in its most natural state. Also, cutting fruit out of your diet is a poor choice because of all the fibre that you would be missing. Fibre keeps you full and the nutrients in the fruit nourish your body, which far outweighs the concern of natural sugar that you are consuming when eating, say, an apple.
22. Eat the same thing every day
Um, boring, being bored will lead to one donut, then two...and you know how it goes. Not to mention you miss out on nutrients if you're eating the same old foods. "Your line-up of foods gives you a broad range of vitamins, minerals, and healthy phytochemicals. Otherwise, you could choose a dozen healthy foods, but every single one might be low in, for example, vitamin C, or zinc, or both.
23. Chew mint gum to eat less
Not to burst your bubble, but the lingering taste of mint can actually reduce the palatability of healthy food. That means that when you spit the gum out and go for a snack, that lolly is likely to look and taste a lot more appealing than a carrot.
24. When doing dairy, only choose skim
The reality is that dairy contains fat, removing all the fat changes the hormonal effects dairy has on the body and can make you struggle to feel full. Skim doesn’t attract fat from our system as we digest it either; skim milk is a poor choice, try low fat if you must.
25. Bypass the meat counter
Yes, vegetarians may live longer, but the idea you should cut out red meat is a little misguided. Beef is a healthy and convenient protein that contains iron. The problem is when you eat it with bacon, cheese, and onion rings. A better bet: lean, grass-fed meat. It's pricier than regular beef, but the health perks vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids make it worth the splurge. Try to limit yourself to small portions twice a week. You want to leave room for other animal and vegetarian protein sources, such as chicken, fish, beans, lentils, chia seeds, and avocados.