We are guided by many myths in the course of our weight loss efforts. Unfortunately, many of us blindly follow such myths in the false hope that we get to lose weight. Here are some of the common myths with respect to weight loss.
1. Skipping breakfast: Most of us skip meals, particularly breakfast in the wrong notion that avoiding meals helps to lose weight. But in effect, your body tends to hoard on fat stores if you deprive yourself of food.
2. Following a liquid diet: Those who want to lose weight eliminate solid intake and subsist on purely liquid foods. But it is difficult to sustain such a diet on long term basis. Nutritional deficiencies are caused as a result of following such diets and all that you lose is only water weight.
3. Crash dieting: Many of us go on a crash dieting mode to lose weight. We cut down on essential food groups and as a result you only end up being fatigued without experiencing any weight loss in effect.
4. Weight loss supplements: One of the quick fix solutions adopted by people for weight loss is to buy over the counter weight loss supplements. They are available in the form of diet pills and capsules. These are not capable of offering you permanent and healthy weight loss. In fact, they cause many health side effects.
5. Exercise till your burn out: There is a pre conceived notion that you must stretch your workouts to the maximum limits. In fact, this is more detrimental as it can lay you up with injury and sore muscles. Short burst of high intensity training is the most effective for weight loss.
6. Eliminating fats from the diet: those who are trying to lose weight would immediately jump to the conclusion that all weight gain is due to the consumption of fats. But fats are essential foods and consumption of healthy fats is a necessary part of balanced diet. If you really need to lose weight, follow a low carb diet than a low or no fat diet.
7. Eating late dinners: Many people are led to believe that you will gain weight if you eat your dinner well late into the night. It is not at what time you eat, but how much you eat that matters. You need to count your calories because the difference between weight gain or weight loss is all to the extent of calories ingested and calories spent out.
8. Mid meal snacking is bad: On the contrary, if you eat small and healthy snacks in between your meal times, you are likely to be less hungry, thus preventing bingeing at meal times. Small and frequent meals also keep your metabolism going.
9. Drastic reduction in calorie intake: Without any scientific basis, we cut down drastically on the intake. When you provide your system with far fewer calories, you get tired and your metabolism slows down, with the result your weight loss efforts will stall.
10. Adherence to strict diet: Settling yourself to following a rigid diet plan has far from beneficial effects. In fact, when you are deprived of certain foods, your cravings for the same increase. Eat everything sensibly and in moderation.