Functional Fitness Facts

Top 10 Diet Myths

diet myths

There are a lot of diet myths out there. Here are 10 of the most common ones.

1. Drastically reducing calories is the best way to lose weight. You'll lose weight initially on a very low calorie diet, but much of the weight loss will be water, not body fat. Also, a drastic reduction in calories will cause your body to go into "starvation mode." Once your body is in starvation mode, your metabolism will slow down, you'll lose muscle, and fat loss will come to a stop. You have to cut back on calories in order to lose weight (fat), but you should never drastically reduce calories. For more information on weight loss, visit the Best Way to Lose Weight page.

2. All fat is bad. The truth is that the body needs fat in order to function properly, but you need to eat the right type of fat. Unsaturated fat is healthy fat that can lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease. Some saturated fat is needed by the body, but too much can raise LDL cholesterol and increase the risk for heart disease. Trans fat raises LDL cholesterol, lowers HDL (good) cholesterol, and increases the risk for heart disease. For more information on fat, visit the Healthy Eating Plan page.

3. Carbohydrates make you fat. What makes you fat is eating more calories than your body needs, regardless of if the calories come from carbohydrates, fats or proteins. Carbohydrates are your body's primary energy source for both physical and mental energy, so they need to be a part of your diet. But some people are more "carbohydrate sensitive" than others, and they would need to limit their intake of carbohydrates, especially simple carbohydrates, if they're trying to lose weight. For more information on carbohydrates, visit the Healthy Eating Plan page.

4. Dietary cholesterol causes high blood cholesterol. The truth is that most of the cholesterol found in the body is produced in the liver and only a small part of it comes from dietary cholesterol. As long as you don't have a genetic predisposition for high cholesterol, dietary cholesterol will most likely have minimal effect on your blood cholesterol level. For more information on cholesterol, visit the Healthy Eating Plan page.

5. Eating at night makes you fat. This is one of the newer diet myths. The truth is that no matter when you eat, if you don't use all of the calories you've consumed, your body will store the extra calories as fat. If you're less active at night, then you need to eat less at night. If you work out at night, especially if you lift weights, then you need to make sure that you eat enough after your workout to fuel muscle recovery and growth. Adjust your food intake based on your energy expenditure.

6. Low-fat or fat-free means low calories. Even though a gram of fat contains 9 calories and a gram of protein or carbohydrate only contains 4 calories, don't assume all low-fat and fat-free foods are low in calories. Many low-fat and fat-free foods are actually high in calories because sugar and refined starches have been added to them to make up for the lost fat. Don't just check the fat content of your food, also look at the ingredients list and the calorie content.

7. Diet sodas help you lose weight. Not necessarily. Even though diet sodas contain little or no calories, recent research strongly suggests that the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas may actually increase your appetite.

8. Certain foods can burn fat. This is one of those diet myths that comes and goes. There are some foods, such as fibrous vegetables and lean proteins, that have a high thermic effect and a low calorie density. This means that a lot of the calories in these foods are burned off during digestion. But there are no foods that can burn fat from your body.

9. Brown color equals whole grain. Just because a food is brown in color doesn't mean it contains whole grain. You need to look on the label to see if "whole wheat" or "whole grain" is one of the listed ingredients.

10. Skim and low-fat milk have less calcium than whole milk. Skim and low-fat milk actually have more calcium than whole milk because the calcium is in the watery part of the milk, not the creamy part.

Don't be fooled by any of these diet myths. Rely on proven information to help you meet your fitness goals.



Leave the Diet Myths page and return to the Health and Fitness Articles page
Leave the Diet Myths page and return to the Home page


free fat loss report
Get Your FREE
Fat Loss Report



By subscribing to the free Fitness Alert newsletter

Email Address

First Name


Your email address will never be rented, sold or shared


Highly Recommended

[?] Subscribe to the
RSS Feed

XML RSS
Add to Google
Add to My Yahoo!
Add to My MSN
Add to Newsgator
Subscribe with Bloglines

About the Author | Contact Me | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | Disclosure

Copyright 2007-2010 www.Functional-Fitness-Facts.com
All Rights Reserved