Weight loss lies and myths

In this post we will take a closer look at 4 of my favorite ridiculous ideas people believe in. Some of these are extremely dangerous and I suggest avoiding them at all cost.

1)   Detox diets – a claim made by people who are trying to con you out of your money is that your body is full of mysterious toxins and that their juices will help you get rid of them and lose weight in the process. We’ve already established that a calories deficit is the reason you lose weight and with that in mind it is to be expected that you will experience rapid weight loss if you only consume very low calorie food. However, those quick results will also cost you your hormonal health and you will be deficient in more nutrient groups than you can count on your fingers and toes combined which is obviously less than ideal. One bad thing you can expect to happen is muscle loss due to the extreme conditions you will be putting your body through. Such a low intake will resemble starvation and your body will get rid of the “energy expensive” processes like keeping muscle. It certainly doesn’t help that you are not providing sufficient fuel in the form of protein for it to keep muscle. Consuming essential fatty acids which are necessary for a large number of hormones, brain function and heart function will also be scarce because those detox smoothies and juices are usually made by blending veggies and fruits which means no healthy fats. On top of all of that, such a low calorie intake will impact your level of activity and mood. There is a very good reason why these detox cleanses usually last 10 days or less and that is because they are not sustainable. The second big issue is the fact that you’ve been sold a bloody lie that your body is full of toxins. Our bodies have a process of cleansing and it is done by our magnificent livers. If this was not the case, the rate of deaths due to mysterious poisoning would be significantly greater than 0% it currently is.

2) Weight loss wraps – this is on the border between tragedy and comedy because sweating is not a weight loss mechanism. What’s more, the amount of perspiration during a workout, in the sauna or in a foil/weight loss belt wrap has literally zero impact on your body fat levels. Sweating is a result of temperature regulation and wrapping your belly or any other body part will lead to two things – sweat and prevention of your skin respiratory system from regular function. That second one probably doesn’t sound good and that’s because it isn’t good for you. One of the reasons people believe in this myth is because they think it’s possible to spot reduce fat which leads us perfectly to the third item on this list.

3) Targeting fat loss from specific body parts – read the following sentence out loud and then repeat it: fat loss is not site specific. Fat loss is a consequence of a calorie deficit and has nothing to do with what you eat as long as you are in a calorie deficit, it also doesn’t have anything to do with your training and most certainly has nothing to do with your belly being wrapped or not. If you do 1000 sit ups a day, you will not preferentially lose fat from your abdominal region. If you squat often, you will not target the fat on your legs. Your genes determine where you will lose body fat from first. That doesn’t mean that you are doomed and you will have fat in your problematic areas. That just means that the time required for you to lose fat in those areas will be slightly longer. This is the reason why there are people who lose fat on their face and arms first and then the rest, some lose leg fat quickly but struggle with the fat around their mid-section for 10 or 12 weeks of their diet. On average, women tend to keep more fat around their legs while men hold more fat in their lower ab and lower back area but as always there are exceptions.

4) Food intake after a certain time of day makes you fat – your body does not know what day it is and it knows even less what time it is. If you consume too many calories until 4 p.m. you will get fat. If you are in a calorie deficit but you eat only one, huge meal at 8 p.m. you will lose weight. Metabolism doesn’t magically slow down while you sleep because your body still needs to keep you alive. What’s more, most of the “reparations” happen during the night, those include regeneration and muscle building as well as recovery in general and all of these processes demand energy. There are two things that happen if you limit yourself to only eating during the day. One is stress because you will often be hungry and the other is that you will be limited in terms of your social life. The biggest problem with eating late at night is that we tend to consume high calorie food – potato chips and other snacks, pizza and often we wash that down with liquid calories in the form of a carbonated drink or juice. I recommend time restrictions to your diet only in two scenarios and those are intermittent fasting and if you are the type of person who often overeats at night. However, in the second case I would also highly recommend changing your food environment by replacing high calorie options with low calorie, high satiety options.