Five Weight Loss Misunderstanding
1) Low Fat = Low Calorie?
Another misunderstanding is that when a food is labelled low-fat, it has no calories. While low fat foods may also be low-cal, some of these low-fat products have just as many calories as the normal high-fat foods. They may even be loaded with sugar or flour, which actually increases the total calorie count. It’s wise to check all nutrition labels on food to be sure about the calories per serving. It’s also important that you find out how large a serving size is, so you will not be likely to overeat.
2) Drink more water will cause Water Retention?
Drinking enough water is the BEST TREATMENT FOR WATER RETENTION. When the body gets less water, it perceives this as a threat to its survival and begins to holdonto every drop. Water is stored in extracellular spaces (outside the cells). This shows up as swollen feet, legs and hands.
The best way to overcome the problem of water retention is to give your body what it needs -- plenty of water. Only then will stored water be released. If you have a constant problem with water retention, excess salt may be to blame. Your body will tolerate sodium only in certain concentrations. The more salt you eat, the more water your system retains to dilute it. But getting rid of unwanted salt is easy - just drink more water. As it's forced through the kidneys, it takes away excess sodium.
The overweight person needs more water than the thin one. Larger people have larger metabolic loads. Since we know that water is the key to fat metabolism, it follows that the overweight person needs more water.
3) Dieting will eliminate fat?
Your body can’t discriminate between intentional calorie deprivation (as in a diet), and starvation. When you dramatically reduce your caloric intake, your body shifts into a protective mode by slowing your metabolism down and holding onto fat (an important energy source) and burning muscle instead. In the beginning of a diet you WILL lose weight by dramatically cutting calories. But it won’t be fat loss, it will be water weight and lean muscle tissue – the exact OPPOSITE of what you want to get rid of.
Not only will harsh diets slow your metabolism down to a crawl, causing your initial weight loss to come to a gradual halt, they will also inevitably bring about a “rebound” effect.
This rebound will make you even fatter than you were before starting the diet. When you rebound, not only do you generally put on more weight than you actually lost with the diet, your percentage of body fat generally increases because your body cannibalized muscle tissue as an energy source during the dieting process.
Thus the “yo-yo” effect that almost all dieters experience.
To permanently lose the fat stores in your body, you’ve got to burn more calories and increase your metabolic rate (the rate at which your body burns fuel throughout the day – even when you’re NOT exercising) with a precise exercise routine and proper nutrient ratio adaptations (that means eating the right stuff at regular intervals). Even if you don’t exercise (but I recommend you do), just eating 5-6 small, high quality meals each day (and by a meal, I mean anything from a nutritious snack to a sit-down dinner) will substantially increase your metabolism – and you’ll burn more calories!
4) Take sugar substitute won't gain weight?
Sugar in large quantities drives up insulin secretion. This insulin floods the brain, and in particular the hypothalamus, which regulates energy use in the body. As a result, leptin, a hormone that tells the brain when the body needs more or less energy, can't get its signal to the hypothalamus because the insulin is blocking the way.
The result is that the body is thrown into starvation mode -- the brain thinks it isn't getting enough energy, so it needs more calories and it needs to save energy. People end up feeling the symptoms of starvation, including malaise, depression, a lack of motivation and, of course, hunger.
5) More Sweat, Less Fat?
This is false! The amount you sweat is indicative of your body's ability to maintain its normal body temperature. You sweat when your body starts to store heat so you can experience cooling via evaporation of that sweat. So it doesn't correlate to how much energy, or calories, is being expended.
Another misunderstanding is that when a food is labelled low-fat, it has no calories. While low fat foods may also be low-cal, some of these low-fat products have just as many calories as the normal high-fat foods. They may even be loaded with sugar or flour, which actually increases the total calorie count. It’s wise to check all nutrition labels on food to be sure about the calories per serving. It’s also important that you find out how large a serving size is, so you will not be likely to overeat.
2) Drink more water will cause Water Retention?
Drinking enough water is the BEST TREATMENT FOR WATER RETENTION. When the body gets less water, it perceives this as a threat to its survival and begins to holdonto every drop. Water is stored in extracellular spaces (outside the cells). This shows up as swollen feet, legs and hands.
The best way to overcome the problem of water retention is to give your body what it needs -- plenty of water. Only then will stored water be released. If you have a constant problem with water retention, excess salt may be to blame. Your body will tolerate sodium only in certain concentrations. The more salt you eat, the more water your system retains to dilute it. But getting rid of unwanted salt is easy - just drink more water. As it's forced through the kidneys, it takes away excess sodium.
The overweight person needs more water than the thin one. Larger people have larger metabolic loads. Since we know that water is the key to fat metabolism, it follows that the overweight person needs more water.
3) Dieting will eliminate fat?
Your body can’t discriminate between intentional calorie deprivation (as in a diet), and starvation. When you dramatically reduce your caloric intake, your body shifts into a protective mode by slowing your metabolism down and holding onto fat (an important energy source) and burning muscle instead. In the beginning of a diet you WILL lose weight by dramatically cutting calories. But it won’t be fat loss, it will be water weight and lean muscle tissue – the exact OPPOSITE of what you want to get rid of.
Not only will harsh diets slow your metabolism down to a crawl, causing your initial weight loss to come to a gradual halt, they will also inevitably bring about a “rebound” effect.
This rebound will make you even fatter than you were before starting the diet. When you rebound, not only do you generally put on more weight than you actually lost with the diet, your percentage of body fat generally increases because your body cannibalized muscle tissue as an energy source during the dieting process.
Thus the “yo-yo” effect that almost all dieters experience.
To permanently lose the fat stores in your body, you’ve got to burn more calories and increase your metabolic rate (the rate at which your body burns fuel throughout the day – even when you’re NOT exercising) with a precise exercise routine and proper nutrient ratio adaptations (that means eating the right stuff at regular intervals). Even if you don’t exercise (but I recommend you do), just eating 5-6 small, high quality meals each day (and by a meal, I mean anything from a nutritious snack to a sit-down dinner) will substantially increase your metabolism – and you’ll burn more calories!
4) Take sugar substitute won't gain weight?
Sugar in large quantities drives up insulin secretion. This insulin floods the brain, and in particular the hypothalamus, which regulates energy use in the body. As a result, leptin, a hormone that tells the brain when the body needs more or less energy, can't get its signal to the hypothalamus because the insulin is blocking the way.
The result is that the body is thrown into starvation mode -- the brain thinks it isn't getting enough energy, so it needs more calories and it needs to save energy. People end up feeling the symptoms of starvation, including malaise, depression, a lack of motivation and, of course, hunger.
5) More Sweat, Less Fat?
This is false! The amount you sweat is indicative of your body's ability to maintain its normal body temperature. You sweat when your body starts to store heat so you can experience cooling via evaporation of that sweat. So it doesn't correlate to how much energy, or calories, is being expended.