There are millions of weight loss tips on the internet today, with many of these making the headline daily. These tips usually focus on diet and exercise – that by ‘eating this and not that,’ ‘drink this and not that,’ or ‘exercising for this long,’ you can lose weight faster than ever. While some of these tips are undoubtedly helpful and effective, others are misleading, fruitless, and harmful, according to health professionals.
This article put together 6 of these misleading and fruitless weight loss tips you must avoid totally.
1. Do not weigh yourself daily.
Your weight can change from time to time due to the body’s response to several environmental factors. Many have now believed that to lose weight faster, you must avoid weighing yourself every day. While this claim may appear to make some sense, it is not true as doing this may be counterproductive.
A 6-months study conducted on overweight people on a weight loss regime revealed that people who weigh themselves daily on a scale are likely to consume fewer calories and lose about 6.6% of their body weight. In contrast, others are only likely to lose less than 1% of their weight. Another study of 40 overweight people showed that taking breaks in weighing (more than a month) increases the risk of gaining more weight.
When you are on a weight loss schedule or program, it may be important to weigh yourself as this could help in the area of accountability and confirm if your program is heading in the right direction frequently.
2. Never skip breakfast, even when you are not hungry.
This tip is one of the most popular of all the misleading weight loss tips. They tell you that it’s important to have breakfast at all costs because it boosts metabolism after a long night’s sleep. For this reason, most people force themselves to eat breakfast, even when they are not hungry.
According to studies, not skipping breakfast does not necessarily help lose weight as skipping or eating breakfast has very little or no effect on weight loss. Another study has it that skipping breakfast could slightly result in more weight loss. From the study, individuals that skipped breakfast ate more calories at lunch (144 kcal) than those that had breakfast. However, the total calorie intake of those who skipped breakfast was 408 kcal lower than those who had breakfast.
Skipping morning meals is a form of sporadic fasting that has helped some people to lose weight and have some health benefits, according to other research. Ignore the idea of eating breakfast at all costs. The best thing is to avoid breakfast when you are not hungry and eat a protein-rich breakfast when you are hungry, as this will help avoid overeating at lunch.
3. Lose weight slowly
The conventional advice of “don’t lose weight quickly” so you can have a better chance of making progress in your weight loss journey is untrue. Though it’s not bad to lose weight slowly, a recent study shows that losing weight quickly from the start doesn’t increase the chance of regaining weight.
A report from another study indicates that unlike those that begin their weight loss slowly, people that lose weight fast in the first month were more likely (five times) to lose their body weight by 10% within 18 months. So, there is no risk of regaining weight when you lose weight quickly from the start.
4. Eat small every two to three hours.
You may have heard of this myth that – frequently eating small meals two to three hours throughout the day will help up your metabolism. Sadly, this claim is false, as eating frequently does not boost metabolism and cannot help in weight loss. Frequently eating small meals or snacking makes us consume more calories than our body needs.
A controlled study showed that frequently eating small meals doesn’t reduce weight than taking three or fewer meals per day.
5. Reduce foods that contain high natural fat
Many believe that fats cause you to gain more weight as they contain twice as many calories as carbohydrate or protein and requires a longer time to digest. Despite this fact, some fats are good for our health, and avoiding every fatty food would not necessarily help in weight loss.
A study has shown that low-fat diets, in which less than 30% of all calories are fat, generally perform poorly than other diets like low carbohydrate diets in terms of weight loss. Whereas high natural fat foods such as nuts, coconut, and avocados can help reduce weight. Research has also revealed that drinking or eating low fat or fat-free product to reduce calories is dangerous to health, as most of these products contain a lot of refined sugar.
6. Focus on Cardiovascular exercise
Also known as aerobic or cardio exercise, cardiovascular exercises help reduce stress and benefit the heart and general health. In reality, cardio exercises are not the best when it comes to weight loss.
According to a study, losing weight with cardio exercise largely depends on the individual. Few of the participants in the study lose weight, while many others maintained or gained more weight. Other studies, however, showed that combining cardio with strength training may help you keep fit, maintain muscle, and lose some weight.
Conclusion
With this piece, I believe you can now see that not every weight loss tips available out there works. While some are a sheer waste of time, others are dangerous to your health and wellbeing.
