Dietitians Debunk 18 Weight Loss Myths

Lorraine Kearney: One of the biggest

myths

I get from my clients is that I need to skip meals and starve myself to lose

weight

. Is not true. So if you skip meals, it will have such a negative effect on your body that when you sit down to eat, you will probably overconsume. Narrator: That's Lorraine Kearney, one of the three

dietitians

we brought to our studies. My name is Ryan Turner. My name is Nikita Kapur. Narrator: Debunking 18 of the most common

myths

about

weight

loss

. Kearney: The biggest myth that frustrates me the most is that all calories are created equally.

A calorie is not just a calorie. It depends on the source of the calories, whether they come from calorie-dense foods or nutrient-dense foods. High-calorie foods would be our cookies and cakes. We can eat a cookie that's 100 calories, we'll eat it, it digests very quickly, then it will spike our blood sugar levels and when we start to drop again, we'll crave more sugar for that energy. -me-up. Narrator: And that can make you gain weight. Kearney: On the other hand, you can eat a banana. Narrator: Which is an example of a nutritionally dense food. Kearney: I get asked a lot: Do bananas make you fat?

Bananas do not make you fat. Bananas are a great source of potassium, but for those 100 calories you will also get the fiber and nutrients your body needs at that cellular level to ensure you are healthy and nourished. Narrator: And you definitely need to nourish your body if you're trying to lose weight. Kapur: When we restrict calories, you are restricting your body's energy source. You are also restricting your brain's energy source. And if that happens, then, you know, very primitive protective mechanisms start to kick in where your body perceives it as a physiological threat and starts to change your metabolic balance to burn less because you're consuming less.

It's something like a budget. Good? So if you have one paycheck and you're running out of funds, you'll keep how much you pay until your next paycheck. Your body does the same. Your body will go into this protective physiological biological mechanism to reduce the amount of energy it uses, which is why people find it difficult to maintain weight. Narrator: And starvation can also shrink your muscles. Turner: You want to make sure you don't consume less than 70% of your total calorie needs. If you do, that's where you'll probably not only get really hungry and move away from whatever goals you've set for yourself, but you'll probably also start to compromise your muscle mass, and that's where the weight

loss

is.

It's going to be unhealthy. Narrator: But while the number of calories you consume matters, the timing may not. Turner: Meal timing is always a big issue. They all come to me and smile a little and think I'm going to give them the thumbs up when they say, "I don't eat after 6 or 7 o'clock." And I'm like, "Oh, okay, do you enjoy it?" And they say, "No." And I say, "Well, then maybe eating afterwards will be okay." Because the time of day will not affect weight loss. Calories are what will affect weight loss or body fat loss. So if you eat a lot of extra calories and you have a surplus of calories that come in late at night, then that's what's causing something like weight gain.

Narrator: And how about eating first thing in the morning? Kearney: It depends on the body and it depends on the person and their relationship with food. For many people, including me, if I don't eat a meal, I usually feel very deprived and it's like I want to make up for it later. If that happens, that's when we can add a lot of calories. Personally, I'm a big proponent of breakfast. Our body runs on fuel and food is our fuel. So if we eat breakfast, we feel like we have more sustained energy throughout the day. Narrator: And if you choose to have breakfast, feel free to opt for that 2% yogurt.

Turner: Now, fat is incredibly necessary. We should not be afraid of fat. We need fats in the diet. Fat will be necessary for things like nutrient absorption, like fat-soluble nutrients like vitamin A, D, E, and K. And you also want to make sure that fat, specifically cholesterol, is what's going to help you make things. like hormones, so things like estrogen and testosterone, growth hormones, so we need all those kinds of things. Narrator: Not only is fat healthy, but fat-free foods are often loaded with sugar or salt. Kearney: So if you have a healthy product and you remove the fat, it will taste completely different.

You probably wouldn't even like it. But what they will do is replace that flavor with something else, and usually it's sodium or sugar. So with the sugar, when we have a yogurt that has the fruit at the bottom, they will have a lot more sugar than if you had a 2% Greek yogurt. Narrator: And it turns out that fat isn't the only nutrient you can keep in your diet and still lose weight. Kearney: One of the biggest myths I have about carbs is that you have to omit them from your diet to lose weight, or my body doesn't digest them well and I have to omit them because I would never lose weight unless I restricted myself. .

Is not true. Narrator: And it's just not sustainable. Kearney: It's almost impossible to eat a carbohydrate-free diet. Fruits and vegetables are known as carbohydrates and we must obtain them for their nutrients. Why do carbohydrates have a bad reputation? It's because of the simple carbohydrates. The carbohydrates you see packaged are cookies, cakes, soft drinks, chips. They are called simple carbohydrates because their chemical structure usually consists of one or two glucose molecules together. So when you have a small molecule of glucose, it's easy for them to break down. But with our complex carbs, they're really long carbon chains that are usually around 18 carbons long, and then when your body starts to break them down, it's going to take a while, and that's exactly what we want because it helps balance our carbohydrate level. blood sugar and also that fiber keeps us full longer and then also prevents us from snacking.

So, eat your carbs. Definitely eat your carbs and eat your bread. The bread is delicious; It's one of my favorite things. Narrator: And he has a pro tip for finding bread with more complex carbohydrates. Kearney: Read your ingredients list. With bread, many of those mass-produced breads found in the bread aisle that are shelf-stable can last a month without getting moldy. And when you look at the ingredient list, it probably has about 50 ingredients. They are the ones we want to avoid. When buying bread, buy fresh bread that comes from the local bakery, which is usually found in the deli counter area inside grocery stores.

It will have maybe four or five ingredients, it will go moldy after two days, but you can preserve it by just putting it in the freezer and taking it out when you need it. Narrator: And, speaking of bread, how about we don't use gluten to lose weight? Kearney: Going gluten-free for weight loss can be a great marketing strategy. So with the gluten-free diet, there are many people who have a gluten intolerance. Or they have celiac disease, which is where the body begins to attack itself and can deteriorate the body. Narrator: But there are also people without these conditions who look to...

Kearney: Blame something like gluten without reviewing the rest of their diet. If you are honest with yourself, log your food, check the ingredients and then eat the gluten and feel the intolerance, then great. But many people will choose to jump in and say that gluten is the enemy. Narrator: So most of us don't need to eliminate gluten, fat, or carbs to lose weight. But there are some products that are better left on the shelf. Kearney: Diet sodas are terrible, with all the additives, preservatives, and hidden sugars. Many of the added sugars are synthetic sugars that are supposed to be great because they don't release insulin, which then doesn't cause a spike in blood sugar levels.

But internally, if we don't stimulate the release of insulin, those sugars, the synthetic sugars, go to the liver, they build up around the liver, they make it difficult for the liver to function, and then they can lead to non-alcoholic fatty disease. If I'm going to have a soda, which I have once in a moon, it will be real. Yes, it contains more sugar, but it's something I don't eat regularly. Narrator: Better yet, he says, drink water. Kearney: Bring water to life. Add fruit, add some mint or cucumber, lemon. Yes, it will take a little while for your taste buds to reset, but you're getting a lot of nutrients from that water and your body needs water to function optimally.

Water is one of the six nutrients the body needs. And when we are dehydrated, it also mimics the signs of hunger. That's why people turn to food a lot if they're dehydrated, not realizing that they're not hungry, it's just their body saying, "Give me some water, I'm thirsty." Narrator: And what about the juice? Kearney: Oh, the juice cleanses. So juice cleanses are one of my pet peeves. If you have a juice once in a while, great. You still get the antioxidants, you still get the nutrients, but you're cutting out that fiber. And fiber is key for the body to support gut health.

Many cleansing juices are very expensive and we have the belief that they will be better for our body or that they will have a cleansing effect on our body. Realistically, what happens is, when you have those juice cleanses that come primarily from fruit sugars and then from plant sugars, there's a very, very high amount of fructose in the body. When the body consumes excess fructose, it has a spasmodic effect on the gastrointestinal tract that can contribute to the cleansing effect. So when we actually have a reaction to high amounts of fructose in the body, people think it's the cleansing effect because marketing tactics have led us to believe that way.

But is not. You would be better off cleansing your body by eating the apple, eating the spinach, and eating all the other fruits that are in that cleanse. That would be better for you because fiber is our natural detoxifier. What it does is go through the body, picking up excess fat and metabolic waste and helping to clean it out. Narrator: But juice cleanses aren't the only diet fads that often don't work. Turner: Intermittent fasting is probably a question I get asked all the time. It's... we can put it in that category of myth. Narrator: Now you can restrict calories and, at least temporarily, help you lose weight.

Turner: If you're only allowed to eat for eight hours, that gives someone a lot of structure, and that can be very, very helpful. You can only take in so many calories in your mouth in that time. On the other hand, someone can also take in a lot of calories in their mouth during that time. So someone can, and I've seen a lot of people do it, they've gained weight through intermittent fasting. So it won't just be a quick fix; There is nothing magical about it. Narrator: And the same goes for many popular diets. Kapur: So one of the common diets that is gaining popularity right now is the ketogenic diet.

So a lot of people who do that just cut out carbs, so it's hard to maintain, because your body needs carbs for a reason. To be honest, there's not a lot of research that says that's a useful thing. Maybe there is a lot of research in mouse models, but that has not been translated into human studies. Narrator: And although people have lost weight on the ketogenic diet, it is often not without side effects. Kapur: They are eliminating whole grains and legumes, certain fruits and vegetables, and greatly increasing the consumption of fats, which, although fats are important, the excess of any nutrient can cause metabolic changes in your body that will impact your cardiovascular health, your Physical Health. health, your metabolic health.

So an example would be patients that we're seeing in the clinical setting that are on ketogenic diets, they see weight loss, yet they have higher cholesterol markers, they have higher LDL markers, they have more irritable bowel symptoms, they come with more gastrointestinal discomfort. Narrator: The truth is that there is no single tool that will magically make you lose weight. Kapur: I think the most prevalent concept around health these days is biohacking, which is the idea that you can defeat biology, you can fix your genetic predispositions, your metabolic parameters, and that's actually not true. And the reason is that you can't defeat biology, you can't control hunger, you can't control access to healthcare, you can't control motivation.

And this idea that, again, if those results are there, you'll be able to feel more satisfied is also not true. So this biohacking works on this concept and this belief that, you know, you can work your way and fix your body, and that prescribes to the social construct that it's up to you to change that. Narrator: And that's also why most diets don't work. Kapur: They are difficult tomaintain, they are difficult to maintain, so the results are very temporary, which is why we go back to something, we try something new. It is important to focus on behaviors rather than results.

Kearney: What you should start with is logging your food. A simple food journal for weight loss is about being honest with yourself, identifying your foods and the hidden ingredients that could be contributing to hundreds and hundreds of excess calories per day. Take olive oil. Olive oil is great. But when we cook with it, we usually pour it freely into a pan. Each tablespoon of olive oil has 128 calories. Now, if you add like 6, 7, 8 tablespoons with your vegetables, you're going to get almost 1,000 calories that you don't need. Narrator: So, pro tip for cooking with olive oil: Kearney: Put it in, wait until the pan is hot, once it's hot, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil and then add the vegetables.

When the pan is hot enough, it will disperse more easily and then you will use less. Also, once you put the vegetables in, some water and moisture will come out of those vegetables and add to the liquid in the pan, so you don't really need to add excess. Narrator: And if you're being mindful of what you eat, that idea of ​​cheating? Kearney is not a fan. Kearney: I don't think there are cheat meals. I don't like the word cheating. I think it gives this, it gives us this higher power, like, oh, this is really bad and I can't believe I did this, I completely lost it.

No, take that off. Because then you will want it more and feel even more guilty about it. If you go out, socialize and try one of the best restaurants in New York full of cream and butter, enjoy it. Try getting a salad to start. And filling up on salad is a great way to cut calories and then grab one of the appetizers that aren't in line with your health goals on your table and share, because sharing is caring. Narrator: And there's more good news. Kearney: You can still lose weight by drinking alcohol occasionally, if you continue to eat cleaner foods.

And by skipping all the foods you used to enjoy in the past, by skipping alcohol, by trying to increase your exercise and then doing this, like a detox fad, all at once, it's overwhelming and sets you up for failure. So do it in stages and be more realistic about what you can change now, and then work towards it. What I usually recommend to my clients is to take care of their diet now. You'll understand how your body feels when it's nourished, you'll understand how your gut health is supposed to be supported, and then we'll focus on alcohol and exercise.

Narrator: But the thing is, as much as we care, weight definitely isn't everything. Kapur: I think one of the biggest myths around weight loss and weight is that overweight equals unhealthy, normal weight equals healthy, as defined by BMI category. BMI is a very inaccurate measure of health because it simply looks at your height and weight without taking into account what your metabolic factors and parameters are, what your physiological health is, your physical health, your sleep, your mental health, your relationship with food. And I think it's very important to take those things into account if we really want to define someone as healthy.

And if we don't look at it more holistically, I think what that does is marginalize people with larger bodies. Narrator: Plus, not everyone can lose weight, even if they try just as hard. Kapur: That is a very common myth, that everyone should have the same ability to lose weight, and if everyone eats the same way, they will look the same, which is very false and incorrect. And the reason is that I think it's important to understand that a person's weight is a factor of many different things. It's so complex. From your genetic predispositions, your family history, your past medical history, your relationship with food growing up, because not everyone has access to food.

Because health is about inclusion, access, connection, joy, physiological well-being, and we have to take those factors into account.