The Biggest Weight Loss Myths to Stop Believing Today

In an age where you can get any information you want with the click of a button, it's the easiest it's ever been to learn new things. But, you've probably heard the phrase, "don't trust everything you see on the internet". While it's easy to find any information online, all that information isn't always true.

This is especially true with news, social media, and weight loss. Although some weight loss information contains cold, hard facts, such as eating fried food everyday is bad for you, other information circulating on the internet is straight-up bogus.

It's quite possible that this misinformation wasn't put out there maliciously, rather someone heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend, but some articles about quick ways to lose weight or lose 30 pounds in a month are simply clickbait.

With so much conflicting information out there for anyone to see, it can be hard for someone trying to lose weight to determine what is actually real or fake. You likely don't have the time to read through countless articles and do hours of research, so we did it for you.

Learn the biggest weight loss myths to stop believing today.

1. Carbs Make You Fat

In all foods, there are three main macronutrients - proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Some foods contain all of them, while others may only contain one or two. Often athletes or people trying to lose weight will track their macros to make sure they're eating a balanced amount of them.

Carbohydrates are one of the macros that get a lot of slack because there has been so much misinformation that tags them as the bad guy. So, the million dollar question is do carbs make you fat?

Let's start by saying eating anything in excess can cause you to gain weight, but carbs alone will likely not be the culprit. In fact, carbs are our main source of energy and are essential for fueling vitals organs such as the brain, kidneys, and central nervous system.

We use carbs as energy when we work, play, exercise, and more as the digestive system breaks down the carbs we eat and turns them into glucose AKA blood sugar, which is the main source of energy for our bodies' cells, tissues, and organs.

However, it's important to note that not all carbohydrates are created equal. Some carbs are healthier than others. For example, nutrition experts consider healthier carbs to be foods like whole grains and vegetables, while unhealthier carbs such as cookies and white bread can raise blood glucose quickly.

Another way to classify this macronutrient is: simple carbs and complex carbs.

Simple carbs, such as sugar and highly processed food, lack a lot of nutrients and are quickly digested. These types of carbs can not only raise your blood glucose quickly, but they can make you feel hungrier sooner and make you eat more, potentially leading to weight gain, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

On the other hand, complex carbs, such as leafy greens, nuts, and fruit, contain necessary vitamins, minerals, and nutrients and also are digested slower. This helps keep your blood sugar at a healthy level and can help you stay fuller longer.

While you may have heard of low-carb diets, the answer to: "do carbs make you fat" is a no! Low-carb diets can be beneficial to people looking for excessive weight loss but do not mean you cut out carbs completely. Typically, these diets only limit the amount and kind of carbs you eat - meaning cutting out simple carbs.

It's important to consult your doctor to see if a low-carb diet is right for you, as there can also be health risks associated with it.

2. Fat Makes You Fat

Just another macronutrient that gets a bad wrap - fats. One of the reasons fat is labeled as the bad guy is simply because of its name. People don't like to even hear the word fat because that's exactly what they're trying to avoid, however - similar to carbs - there are healthy and unhealthy fats.

As you probably already guessed, the unhealthy fats are what can contribute to weight gain more, while the healthy fats help your body function properly. According to the American Heart Association, fats are essential for energy, cell function, nutrient absorption, hormone production, and protecting your organs.

There are four main fats: saturated fats, transfats, monounsaturated fats, and polyunsaturated fats. The unhealthy fats, such as butter, are saturated and trans fats. Whereas the healthy fats, such as canola oil, are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

You can spot the difference between these fats just by looking at the. Unhealthy fats are solid at room temperature, while healthy fats are liquid. Think bacon grease when it's cooled versus olive oil.

When you eat too many unhealthy fats, you risk raising your cholesterol, which could lead to heart disease or stroke. On the other hand, your body needs healthy fats to function and incorporating them into your diet can help lower your risk of heart disease and high blood pressure, improve blood cholesterol and blood sugar levels, reduce inflammation, and support gut health.

So, is the solution to buy food labeled "transfat free"? Not necessarily. While the food product may not contain transfat, it likely will contain saturated fat, be high in sugar and low in nutrients.

To maintain a healthy diet and overall healthy lifestyle, it's important to read the nutrition facts and ingredients of the food you're eating. Consult a dietician or your doctor for help.

3. Calories Are All the Same

In order to lose weight, it's important to keep track of what you're eating. However, simply counting calories might not be the solution. If counting calories was the solution to weight loss, then you could theoretically only eat cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner as long as it reaches your caloric intake.

Unfortunately for cake lovers, this isn't the case. Remember those macronutrients we were talking about? They're coming back into play here. You need a balanced amount of protein, carbs, and fat in order to help your body function properly, have enough energy, and to lose weight.

So, while counting calories can be important, not all calories are created equal. This is because 1g of each macronutrient contains a different amount of calories. Protein and carbs contain 4 calories per 1g, while fat contains 9 calories per 1g.

Even if you're not good at math, it's clear that fat contains more than double the amount of calories per gram than protein and carbs. That's why counting macros can be more important than counting calories.

All these macronutrients also have different responsibilities in the body. Just some of these responsibilities include: carbs provide you with energy, fat helps absorb nutrients, and protein can increase metabolism.

4. If You're Skinny, You're Healthy

There is a huge stigma, especially in Western culture, that says you have to be skinny in order to be healthy.

Excess weight is often associated with an unhealthy lifestyle, and while obesity can lead to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, some people who are considered "overweight" are metabolically healthy. Conversely, skinny people are often associated with a healthy lifestyle, but that's not always the case.

There are plenty of factors outside of diet and exercise that can contribute to your weight, such as genetics, metabolism, age, gender, race, certain health conditions, medications, and more. So, just because the number on the scale may say a smaller number than someone larger bodied, it doesn't mean you're not at risk of diseases often associated with obesity.

There's a phrase called "skinny fat", which refers to a person who is at a "normal" weight for their body type, but has a high amount of body fat and little muscle mass. Skinny fat can happen when a person doesn't exercise and eats foods high in unhealthy fats, but may remain smaller bodied due to certain factors.

This is the main reason experts don't recommend using the body mass index (BMI) scale to determine how healthy you are since it doesn't take your fat or muscle mass into equation.

Plenty of larger bodied people are considered metabolically healthy since they workout and follow a relatively healthy diet, but others factors may be contributing to their size. However, this doesn't mean you shouldn't try to get rid of excess bodyweight, but it does mean that the number on the scale doesn't always reflect how healthy you are.

5. These Foods Will Help You Burn Fat

We all love to hear the phrase "burn fat", and if you do one simple Google search, you'll find that phrase everywhere. Whether it's an exercise that will help you burn fat or a concoction of foods, someone somewhere is claiming you can burn fat their way. Unfortunately, there is no magical food on the market that can help you burn fat.

However, there are foods that can help speed up your metabolism. A high-protein diet has been shown to help reduce body fat and aid in weight loss, as this macronutrient helps increase metabolism.

Some foods to start incorporating into your diet are chicken, lean meets, fish, eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, almonds, cashews, and other nuts, and legumes and beans.

6. Cardio is Key

One of the biggest misconceptions in exercise for weight loss is cardio is king. Will cardio help you lose weight? Yes, but at what cost? Only doing cardio can cause you to burn off muscle. While it won't happen immediately, if you do cardio too much, it's likely to happen.

Burning off muscle can be bad for weight loss because muscle dictates your metabolism. The less muscle you have on your body, the slower your metabolism, which can slow down your weight loss journey.

Just one of the reasons why cardio has been considered an ideal choice for weight loss is you typically burn more calories during a cardio session than you would a strength training session. While this may make cardio sound more appealing, strength training has a better ability to burn more calories up to 48 hours after your workout. This is known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC).

Additionally, strength training can lead to greater fat loss and increased lean muscle mass compared to cardio.

Stop Believing These Weight Loss Myths

It's hard to take everything with a grain of salt when the internet is telling you so many different things. One day eggs are healthy for you, then the next they make you fat.

It's important to remember that there is a lot of good and accurate information out there, but you have to do your research and consult medical professional or registered dietician if you're unsure.