6 Weight Loss Myths Debunked

1.0 Cut or Burn 3,500 Calories to Lose a Pound

The 3,500-calories-equals-a-pound rule is known to nearly every dieter on the planet. What most don't know is that this bit o arithmetic comes rom a small starvation study done in the !"50s. #iana Thomas, a mathematician who is director o the $enter or %uantitative &besity 'esearch at (ontclair )tate *niversity in +ew ,ersey, said the ormula -rossly underestimates real-world wei-ht-loss e orts and o ten leaves dieters sorely disappointed by their lack o results. Outsmarting Your Appetite .$lickin- o 3,500 calories to lose a pound may be close enou-h to the truth or the irst !0 to !/ days o a diet as you lose water wei-ht, but when the body wei-ht drops you carry less mass and start to burn ewer calories or the same activities,. she said. .0 ter a period o time, you stop losin- wei-ht even i you continue to cut back by the same amount.. Thomas said new prediction models were developed in the !"10s that took into account everythin- rom a-e, hei-ht, se2 and body at, but they required so much complicated math they never really cau-ht on. Thank ully, this 3nternet calculator does the math or you.

2.0 You Gained It o You Can Lose It

+ikhil #hurandhar, an obesity researcher at the 4ennin-ton 5iomedical 'esearch $enter in 5aton 'ou-e, 6a., con irms that it is, o course, possible to lose wei-ht -- but -ainin- wei-ht takes much less e ort. 7ou can consume hundreds or even thousands o calories more than you require without too much e ort, #hurandhar said, and every time you do, e2cess calories are stored as body at. 8owever, losin- wei-ht requires a sustained daily e ort and you can only cut back or burn o so much beyond your baseline requirements.

(eanin- ul wei-ht loss usually happens slowly over a lon- period o time with lots o plateaus alon- the way, somethin- most o us don't have the patience or. .3 it was easy, you'd see more people pullin- it o ,. he said. !e" #iet #rugs $it t%e &ar'et 8eroic e orts don't always pay o , either. 0s virtually every wei-ht loss trial has shown, wei-ht loss tends to -rind to a halt at around the si2month mark. .3t could be because o chan-es in restin- metabolism or people be-in to slip a little, we really don't know,. he said. .5ut we do know that the body likes to hold on to wei-ht..

3.0 ()er*ise +on,t $elp You Lose +eig%t

#o coach potatoes have an easier time sheddin- wei-ht than -ym rats9 That's what a spate o recent studies appeared to su--est when they ound e2ercisers tended to compensate or any e2tra physical activity by eatin- more. 8owever, ,ames 8ill, the e2ecutive director o the 0nschut: 8ealth and Wellness $enter at the *niversity o $olorado, said such studies are misleadin-. .3n the irst place, many studies don't use a hi-h enou-h dose o e2ercise to promote wei-ht loss,. he said. .0nd secondly, e2ercisers do tend to compensate by eatin- more, but not enou-h to make up or all o the calories they burn up in e2ercise. They still create a ne-ative ener-y balance and they still have an easier time losin- wei-ht and keepin- it o than people who don't e2ercise..

8ill was adamant that it is virtually impossible to keep wei-ht o

or any

period o time without workin- up a sweat on a re-ular basis. 8e said that lack o e2ercise promotes metabolic de ects that make it harder to lose wei-ht and are -enerally bad or your health. - urprising (..e*ts o. O/esit0 The +ational Wei-ht $ontrol 'e-istry, run by 8ill, tracks the health habits o thousands o people who have lost an avera-e o ;0 pounds and kept it o or at least two years. (ore than "0 percent o re-istrants say they e2ercised or an hour or more a day.

1.0 2emo3ing One 4ood 4rom Your #iet Is t%e e*ret to +eig%t Loss u**ess
8ill also cautioned a-ainst the idea that removin- a speci ic ood rom the diet will ma-ically make the wei-ht melt o your body. <ven thou-h most diet books are based on this premise, it simply isn't true. .7ou mi-ht lose wei-ht initially by limitin- a certain ood, but it's because you eat ewer calories,. he said. .(ost people can't sustain it in the lonterm, so the approach is doomed to ailure.. Gluten54ree !o $elp .or +eig%t Loss <ven soda, o ten mali-ned or its contribution to the obesity epidemic, is a -ood e2ample. 8ill said that he supports limitin- su-ar-sweetened drinks and believes overconsumption is bad or health, but he said the data is mi2ed on whether removin- soda rom the 0merican diet would shrink our collective waistlines.

.3t mi-ht have a tiny e ect, but there's nothin- stoppin- people rom replacin- it with somethin- else,. he said. .3 you eat more than one thin-, it will probably take chan-in- more than one thin- to lose wei-ht..

5.0 (3er0one Gains 6and Loses7 t%e ame +a0

3n !""0, $anadian researcher $laude 5ouchard wanted to test the idea that everyone -ains wei-ht in e2actly the same way, so he asked !/ sets o male identical twins to overeat by !,000 calories a day while limitin- their physical activity to =ust 30 minutes. To ensure they stuck with the pro-ram, he locked them in a room and care ully controlled every morsel they ate or "0 days. 5ouchard predicted that by the end o their stay, each o his volunteers would -ain /> pounds. 5ut that's not what happened. )ome sets o twins -ained as little as !0 pounds while other sets added nearly 30 pounds. The twins in each set -ained virtually the same amount o wei-ht, but the di erence in wei-ht -ain between unrelated sets o twins was three old and their pattern o at distribution di ered by si2 old. #ining Out on a Calorie Budget !earl0 Impossi/le When the researcher turned the tables in a later study and asked sets o twins set to burn o more calories than they took in, the pounds melted o some but clun- stubbornly to others. +umerous other studies have produced similar results, hi-hli-htin- the act that some people are predisposed to -ain wei-ht easily and must work harder than the avera-e person to burn it o .

8.0 (ating i) mall &eals Is Best .or +eig%t Loss

There's little evidence to support the idea that eatin- smaller, morerequent meals will improve wei-ht loss results. ?or e2ample, a recent 5ritish ,ournal o +utrition investi-ation ound no wei-ht-loss di erence between dieters who ate their calories in three meals versus si2 daily meals. 0nd, in act, another study in the same =ournal concluded that eatin- two lar-e meals a day can be the ideal wei-ht loss strate-y or some. .<atin- si2 meals a day can work or someone who has a lot o discipline,. #hurandhar said. .5ut or others, it's like o erin- an alcoholic a -lass o wine si2 times a day. Their willpower =ust can't take it..
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