Want to lose weight? These are the 5 myths that are keeping you from losing weight

Wanting to lose kilos quickly can lead to adopting habits that not only do not lose weight, but can also directly affect your health. There are a large number of “miracle diets” and false myths that can lead you to periods of stagnation in which you fail to lose a gram.

Losing weight requires time and effort, which will vary according to the goal, but you should always combine a balanced diet and the practice of physical exercise, two basic concepts for a healthy life. It is important for a nutrition professional to recommend a diet that adapts to your physical and health characteristics, and, in addition, you will have to banish false myths that can negatively affect weight loss. Here are some of the most common misconceptions:

1. If you exercise, you can eat whatever you want.

Exercise is crucial to maintaining good fitness and health, but you always have to be accompanied by a good diet. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a minimum of 150 minutes of physical exercise per week. So you have to adjust food to energy expenditure, that is, to burn more calories than we consume.

2. Light foods are not fattening and are healthy.

They are foods that have a lower calorie load than the “no light” version, but this does not mean that they are not fattening. But, by Regulation 1294/2006 on nutrition and health claims of foods, a food is considered light if the content of one or more nutrients (sugars, sodium, fat, or energy (calories)) has been reduced by at least 30% compared to its reference product.

3. Skipping dinner is effective for weight loss

One of the keys to losing weight is to distribute the diet into various shots. Nutritionists usually advise eating 5 times a day, spread out at certain specific times to get used to breakfast, eating something in the middle of the morning, lunch, a snack, and dinner. So, we’ll eat less, so we’ll avoid obesity. The circadian cycle will help us metabolize food, leading to optimal health. In this way, the elimination of meals can cause a negative effect on satiety and a higher intake of the rest of the day’s meals.

4. To lose weight, you have to go hungry

Diets are not about eating little, but eating in a healthy and balanced way. To avoid the feeling of hunger during a slimming diet, foods have to be consumed with low calorie density, which allows larger portions and less hunger. As we have commented, spreading your diet over several meals can be beneficial.

5. If a diet has worked for someone, it should work for me, too.

Each person’s biology is different, and other factors such as the emotional state, stress, or reaction of each body to certain foods also influence, which requires different types of guidelines. While it is true that a healthy diet combined with an exercise routine is the basis for weight loss, there are multiple ways to follow them and adapt them to each one. In this respect, the help of a nutrition professional is essential.