Common myths about dieting

[DavideFitbit]

I know there can be very different opinions about these "myths", but I'm interesting to see what members in the Community think about them or what has been their experience. 

These are some of the myths I found online, let me know what you think, if they are true or not, or if you have another myth that you'd like to share. Feel free to share your thoughts! 

• Slow weight loss is the only way to lose weight and keep it off.
• If you want to lose weight, you’ll have to go hungry.
• Eating at night will make you gain a lot of weight.
• It doesn’t matter what you eat as long as you count calories.
• Skipping breakfast makes you gain weight.
• The only way to lose weight is to avoid carbs.
• Slimming pills and teas are safe and effective for weight loss

[Baltoscott]

Slow weight loss … I’ve lost significant weight (about 40 lbs) a couple of times.  Mostly it was at the 1-2lbs a week rate, which isn’t that fast, but when I was counting calories it also seems that my loss rate was about 1/2 as much as I expected when I calculated the calorie deficit.  Based on the deficits I calculated 1000-2000 a day, it should have been 3-4lbs a week, but 1-2 is how it worked out. Every time I’ve shot for a 250 calorie deficit a day nothing happens.

The last big drop was about 4 years ago and I’ve kept it off. A bit longer than other times. The difference this time seems to be focusing on less processed food, more protein, lots of veggies (half the plate most meals), and keeping an eye on the alcohol. So, looking at the myths you’ve listed @DavideFitbit, I think relatively slow weight loss might work long term (though I was really trying to lose more quickly), you don’t really have to go hungry if you eat relatively unprocessed foods, and what you eat probably does matter (less processed is better)..

I don’t skip breakfast or avoid carbs, but both approaches are ways to limit how much you eat and make you more mindful, so I think they can be good strategies to weight loss. Eating at night is usually means excess calories and weight gain unless you work at night, and I’ve got no idea about slimming pills or teas 🙂

[DavideFitbit]

Excellent, thank you for sharing your experience, @Baltoscott! Eating a lot of vegetables is what helped me lose 30 ponds as well, that's always a great to thing to do when it comes to weigh loss. I don't skip breakfast either or any other meal, but I do try to limit the portions or I include healthy options. 😀

[modapillsriver]

Dieting without any activity is nothing. Workouts is the burner of the fat, not diet which is common sense.

[NellyG]

When I am on my low calorie days (which help me maintain my weight - I don't need to lose any), I always skip breakfast and lunch entirely and just have a very vegetable heavy , moderate sized meal at night. I think the danger of skipping breakfast (or one of them anyway) is getting hungry and having a robust and sugar heavy morning tea!

[DavideFitbit]

Thanks for sharing your routine, @NellyG! I've seen many people have started to do this. We used to think about the days as basically 3 meals, and this has been changing for the last few years.  😁

[emili]

Let's see:

I lost weight really fast and have kept it off over 7 years and counting. 

I never felt hungry but it had to do more with determination than actually feeling anything. I also firmly believe people "think" they are hungry when they are actually craving something they are missing because they are watching what they eat.

I eat dinner at 830 every night and my snack at 930. I go to bed at 1030. no weight gain. recent studies have actually said that eating later will prevent the munchies from happening or waking up in the middle of the night thinking you are starving and counting the minutes till breakfast where you eat a full English in America.

it actually is true that for weight loss as long as you are in a deficit you will lose weight. how you get to the deficit is another topic. The twinkie experiment is a good one to read. 

I have never skipped a meal voluntarily so I have no opinion about breakfast other than I will never skip it voluntarily. 

I have never avoided carbs voluntarily and I lost weight. I love carbs. I choose the good ones and sprinkle in the less good ones- but carb me up. 

tea and pill- not for me. and I think everyone can pretty much agree that its not a good idea. 

[DavideFitbit]

Thank you for sharing your experience with this as well, @emili, it's great to see that you've been able to maintain your weight for 7 years!

That's very true, many times we think we're hungry because we're craving something. I love to cook, so this happens to me a lot when I'm learning new recipes.