Can a ship reach its destination without a GPS? Can a business grow without knowing if in the financial balance sheet the net earnings are going up or down? Yet, some people believe that you can effectively reach your weight loss goal without knowing how much you are weighing along the way.
Fact: The scale is necessary. When you are on a diet to lose weight, your body weight does not follow a straight downward line. It fluctuates up and down exhibiting an overall downward trend. If you step on the scales every single day, you become aware of these periodic “ups”, and this may discourage you or even sabotage your initial enthusiasm. Therefore, weighing yourself every day may sabotage your weight loss efforts. Weighing yourself in longer intervals (i.e once a week) is absolutely necessary to lose weight effectively.
How often do we hear somebody say: “I will not eat because I want to lose weight”. Obviously, they think that by cutting calories drastically they will lose weight. You can playfully tell them: “Lock yourself in a room, have a friend throw you stale bread once a day, and in time you will come out thinner”.
Fact: Starvation is never good for weight loss. Restricting your calories is necessary for weight loss. However, you need to be aware of two things. First, there is a limit to calorie restriction. Usually, going lower than 1,000 calories a day for an extended period of time becomes unhealthy. Starvation lowers your metabolism—the rate you burn energy. You will surely lose weight following a crash diet but when you start eating again you will gain weight much easier because you are not burning calories as fast as you used to prior to starting the crash diet. Secondly, severe calorie restriction sets the stage for nutritional imbalance. It’s almost impossible to follow a crash diet and ensure that you are taking the necessary nutrients at the same time. Calorie restriction must be moderate and carefully planned to safeguard nutritional balance.
Weight loss pills work by either reducing your hunger, increasing your metabolism or blocking fat absorption. Either way, you may end up losing some weight. What about long term though?
Fact: You cannot use slimming pills indefinitely. Drugs have side effects, and herbal supplements are just an aid that cannot rescue you from poor food choices and physical inactivity. Ultimately, you have to learn how to eat properly and exercise.
The misconception goes like this: “it’s healthy so it must be expensive”. Not necessarily.
Fact: Organic foods cost more than regular food. Healthy food need not be organic, though, and therefore it can be pretty cheap. You can buy cookies that are full of trans fat and sugar or buy healthy ingredients (oats, brown sugar and eggs) to make healthy cookies yourself cheaper.
I once asked a friend how he gained so much weight. He reasoned: “I snack a lot”. Is it true that snacking makes you gain weight?
Fact: Snacking is good. The question is, what do you snack on? It’s 4pm and the vending machine is whispering your name. Instead of reaching out for the 440 calories Drake’s Apple Fruit Pie, get the 180 calories Nature Valley Granola Bar with Oats & Honey, or reach out in your bag for the Protein & Greens smoothie you have brought from home.
“Water melts the fat”, some people assert. Many would wish this statement were true.
Fact: Drinking water does not accelerate your metabolism. It does, though, make you feel full especially when taken before a meal. Some times thirst can be confused with hunger. You feel you want to snack but once you gulp down a glass of water or fruit juice, hunger has disappeared, and you have just saved your body from storing in its fat reserves this 200-calorie cookie.
You have managed to keep your weight healthy for two years now by working out 1 hour a day and by eating 1,600 calories, and you mistakenly think that you will not gain any weight if you just keep following this eating and exercise pattern.
Fact: As you age your metabolism goes down. This is because your composition changes. A 70-year old man has typically less muscle and more fat than a 20-year old man of the same weight. Therefore, with a metabolism facing downward year after year, you need to decrease your daily caloric intake and/or increase your physical activity in order to maintain your weight.
“You need to follow the plan to a T in order for it to work” is the mantra we often hear in the dieting world, which makes people think that cheating is a bad thing. But is that true?
Fact: Cheating from time to time is a good thing. In fact, many weight loss programs are now adopting a “weekends off” approach. Cheating is for many the key to successful weight loss. This is because when you take a day or two off you get a mental break enjoying the foods you like. Moreover, by eating more calories during the non-diet days you apply the principle of “calorie shifting” which helps speed up your metabolism.
Low calorie diets abound. Yet, none of them works in the long term. In a desperate effort to lose weight, some people adhere to a very low calorie diet. They lose some weight and they get excited. Sadly, they lose muscle, too. As a result, their metabolism decreases and weight loss reaches a screeching halt. They soon realize that it is impossible to stay longer on that low calorie diet and they quit. They return to their normal eating habits until they decide to try another low-calorie diet. This pattern is typical to Yo-Yo dieters and it is haunted by the myth that it lowers your metabolism permanently.
Fact: The change in the metabolism brought about by Yo-Yo dieting is reversible. What you need to do to bring your metabolism back to the desired rate is to exercise and eat a healthy diet that promotes muscle gain. Muscle building is the remedy to a wrecked metabolism.
The most common physical exercise prescribed to overweight people is walking or jogging. This is because aerobic exercises (cardio) are easier to perform than anaerobic strength training (weight lifting). Most people can walk an hour a day but they find it tiresome to do resistance exercises day in and day out. Besides, there is this misconception that cardio is more effective for weight loss than strength training. Is that true?
Fact: In the long run, strength training burns more calories than aerobic activities. There are two reasons that explain this: First, aerobic activities burn energy only during the time they are performed. Once you step off the treadmill you stop burning fat. In contrast, strength training keeps your metabolism high even 24-48 hours after the activity has been performed. You can lift weights for 30 minutes today, but you will keep burning fat even in your sleep or when you watch TV a day later. Second, strength training results in muscle gain. Muscle tissue is metabolically active and burns calories even when you sleep.
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most of this information is misinformation, anecdotal or misleading. For example the fact that people who eat fewer meals are usually heavier- misleading. There is no direct correlation to being overweight with eating fewer meals- the scientific evidence doesn’t exist. There are other variables at work. For example people who eat more meals more often are most likely more concerned about what they eat and total calories than people who eat fewer meals. There is a lot of evidence to support intermittent fasting and eating only 2 or three meals in the hours you are not fasting. check out “eat stop eat” for just one example.
Informative piece!. We just have to remember that the key to successful weight loss is a commitment to making permanent changes in your diet and exercise habits.
Hi i’m doing the 500 calorie diet! As it goes when followed fully, for 1 month intake 500 calories then up it to 750 for 1 month then up it to 1000 for 1 month. Then stick to 1200 a day, Add 100 calories every month until you reach 1900. and stick to that!
DO NOT! Subtract calories the next day if you go a little over! just carry on and try again!
The reason people put the pounds back on fast is because they suddenly start eating 1200 – 1600 calories a day! You need to slowly introduce calories back!
Stick to this, depending on your weight a typical 17 stone person will loose around 3 – 4 stone
But remember, to ask your doctor before doing this diet! you have to remember this is a fast crash diet, And some people are not recommended to do it!
the reason u gain weight when u go back to 1600 cal is because eating 500 has slowed ur metabolism to a crawl. its not calories or burning more than u eat, its WHAT u eat and total calories are what keeps metabolism up.
Yes you can eat a whopper a day and nothing else and lose weight….you will look great in your skinny coffin.
This gives me hope. I follow a lot of fitness blogs which act like processed foods are the food of the devil and won’t help you lose weight, but with a full time job, I struggle to find the time to prepare natural food all the time (and before the job I didn’t have the money). So it’s good to know that I don’t have to completely cut it out like others have been saying. I’m trying to cut out junk food and cakes to be healthier, but I still love how it tastes, so it’s good I can still enjoy it from time to time.
I’ve just read your list and I totally agree with you. I am considered “obese” and even I know that weight loss is a matter of calories in vs calories burnt. I lost 35kg using a “magic diet pill” and within one year gained it all back and more. And also found out that out of my 35kg that I lost, 70% of that was lean muscle and water. Thanks for your myth busting list. Gives me hope!!
You should avoid using any kind of junk food because it is responsible for over weight. It is better to take some healthy food that helps in burning the fats and provides your body all the necessary nutrition.
DId you miss the part about calories consumed vs calories burned? It’s true that some foods are more calorie -intensive with more calories pre gram than others, think of potatoes vs celery.
It all comes down to simple math. Intake minus consumption. You don’t even need long division. I don’t quite agree about the “portion control” part, though. Unless you want to stop eating things you like forever, you’ll have to learn to eat less of them. That’s a lot easier than thinking, “I’ll never eat this again.” Think instead, “I won’t eat as much of this, but I’ll eat it slowly, chew thoroughly, and enjoy what I do eat.”
An excellent list! It repeatedly says the most basic truth. Weight control is simple math. If you consume fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight. Consume more, and you will put on fat.
Exercise alone will not make you lose weight. It will help you become more fit, but the math will still be there,
I have been in the fitness business for 40 years and still have a difficult time convincing people of the simple truths given here. It seems most are looking for a “magic” solution that does not require any effort or intelligence on their part.
yes, exercise clpeoud with good nutrition can really jump-start a weight loss program and help you to reach your goals more quickly. a good natural weight-loss supplement makes it even quicker and easier.
What would be a “good natural weight-loss supplement?” I’ve been in the fitness business for 40 years and I have yet to see any such thing. Almost all supplements serve only to supplement the incomes of those selling them.
If you have an inadequate diet, some supplements can help compensate for that but none do it as well as eating correctly.
There is only one way to lose weight, consume fewer calories than you burn. Everything else is BS. Exercise will increase your fitness and help increase your calorie burn. You still have to eat less than you consume. You also have to look at your genetics. If you are an endomorph body type, it will be more difficult to look slim, but not impossible.
Hi James,
You are so right. Being in the fitness business you can easily tell what is true and what is a myth.
Thank you for your kind words
Matthew
Like you, I have seen what works and what does not. In most cases, people that take a lot of supplements, vitamins or others, have the most expensive urine.
YOU are grossly ignorant. The body DEFENDS fat mass aggressively INVOLUNTARILY WITH COMPENSATORY MEASURES.
FAT MASS IS AN ENDOCRINE ORGAN AND VERY METABOLICALLY ACTIVE.