The diet industry is FULL of lies that are making you store more fat in your worst trouble spots like your hips, bum and love handles.
So with so much clutter and confusion floating around… I felt I should pass on some awesome no-nonsense information about 3 common diet myths.
Nutrition Lie#1:
A CALORIE IS A CALORIE
Dieticians and trainers can often be heard preaching that in order to lose fat it does not matter where your calories come from just as long as you eat less than you burn. This is based on the incorrect calculation that a pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories and the notion that all that is required to lose a pound is to either a) expend 3500 calories through activity or b) reduce caloric intake by 3500 calories. According to this theory, you can eat nothing but candy bars and cookies and still lose weight just as long as you comply with one of these deficit-inducing methods.
This archaic method is based on some seriously flawed science. First off, it assumes that every morsel of food eaten is digested and assimilated by the body—it isn’t and they aren’t. When the 19th century chemist Wilbur Atwater devised the methods for calculating the calorie content of food that’s still used today, he used an incinerator. Incineration is vastly different from human digestion and the efficiency of digestion varies widely between individuals depending on hormonal activity etc.
Second, the quality of calories differs in terms of the body’s hormonal response to various foods. Protein has very different effect on hormones, satiation and metabolism than carbohydrates.
Third, food choices can induce various negative responses in some individuals. For example, many people are allergic to wheat and dairy and these foods can cause an inflammatory response and wreak hormonal havoc in them.
Calories do count when on a fat loss program but it is important to remember that the source of those calories matters as well as what part of your nervous system is dominant when you eat them (ask me to explain this ).
Nutrition Lie #2:
EATING BEFORE BED MAKES YOU FAT
Just like skipping breakfast is wrongly associated with higher body fat percentage, you will find people associate late night eating and increased body fat. This is a myth. When calories are equal, meal timing will have no impact on body weight.
A recent study compared two meal patterns, one group eating more calories earlier in the day and the other group eating most calories later in the day. Researchers discovered that those who ate more calories in the morning lost more weight; however, the extra weight was in the form of muscle mass. The subjects who ate in the late evening had less muscle loss and this resulted in a greater decrease in body fat percentage. I am sure you have heard some “experts” preach the benefits of fasting past six in the evening, claiming that doing so will speed up weight loss. However, the only reason this method sometimes works is because it eliminates evening snacking and forces a person to eat less total calories for the day.
The truth is, the time of day that you eat your meals won’t affect your body composition.
Nutrition Lie #3:
SATURATED FAT IS BAD FOR YOU
To this day, there remains a lot of propaganda surrounding cholesterol levels, saturated fat intake and heart disease. For years the message being preached has been to avoid eggs, butter, bacon and other saturated fats or you will pay the price with heart disease and high cholesterol. As a result millions of people have abandoned these foods in favour of high carb substitutions in the form of refined grain products, together with a dose of statin drugs to keep their cholesterol levels in check.
Here is the truth… In an article published in 2010; researchers looked at 21 prospective epidemiological studies with a total of more than 347,000 test subjects. Their results: absolutely no association between saturated fat and heart disease.
The truth is that consuming saturated fat does not increase the risk of heart disease. While eating saturated fat does raise cholesterol, it elevates levels of the “good” HDL form. In terms of LDL or “bad” cholesterol levels, consuming saturated fat changes the LDL from small, dense LDL (very bad) to large LDL, which is benign.
This fact should remove any unfounded fear you may have about my recommendation to eat healthy fats in the form of coconut oil, organic butter, cheese or, my personal favorite, whole eggs. All of these foods are high in nutrients. The bottom line is this: saturated fat does not cause heart disease and foods that are naturally high in saturated fat are good for you.
How do these snippets of info sit with you ?
Hit reply and let me know what your #1 diet struggle is
Have a wonderful Saturday,
Dee x
www.milliondollartrainer.com
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