Many people face the challenging task of losing weight for either health purposes, or they wanna have a better figure. Whichever the reason, there are many weight loss myths out there that can make this process much harder, and in some instances, it can even diminish the results and lead to compromised health. Here are some of the most common of these myths, and the facts behind them to disprove the false claims.

Weight Loss Diets

Weight loss diets don’t fall under the weight loss myths entirely, because well, they do help you lose weight. However, 9 times out of 10 the chances are the given diet seriously lacks proper nutrition, and as soon as you stop dieting the specific way (which usually has a given period) you will slowly start gaining back the same weight you lost. Extreme weight-loss diets are unhealthy not only because they lack proper nutrition, but because they promote rapid weight loss which can be devastating for the body. Firstly, you will be depleted of proper nutrition. Secondly, if you don’t intake enough of the main food types such as protein, you will lose muscle mass. Not all weight loss is healthy weight loss. Proper nutrition is restricted within the right amount of calories you need per day, combated with exercise is the only way to approach any kind of “weight loss dieting” idea.

Carb Intake Prevents Weight Loss

This weight loss myth is maybe the most common one of them all. Many people trying to lose weight will go out on a limb to cut all the sources of carbs out of their diet. What they don’t realize is that our whole organism, and the organisms of other animals in general, are built to use carbohydrates as the main source of energy. To make things more graphic, a liver can store enough carbs to feed your brain alone for only half a day! Depleting your body of its fuel, so to speak will do two things: it will starve you, and it will force the body to create alternative molecules from fat to feed itself (literally). These molecules are called the ketone bodies, and however crazy it may sound, one of them is acetone. And the only reason our bodies can “switch” to this source of energy is that there had to be a backup biochemical pathway to feed itself during the long periods without food.

A Bad Diet Can Be Balanced Out with Exercise

Regular exercise is crucial for our overall health, and it can certainly help with weight loss, however, it’s not all-powerful as many may think. The truth is – a bad diet can’t be taken back or corrected with exercise. As the experts at NutritionDietNews.com point out, the simple reason behind this is that an unhealthy diet will bring in plenty of “empty” calories, that our bodies physically can’t shake off in a single, or even a dozen workouts. It’s well established that exercise has many benefits towards improving our health, but while this is very true, the damage that can be done from a bad diet, such as diabetes, for example, can’t be prevented with exercise. The only way a bad diet can be balanced out is by not having it in the first place, and simply replacing it with healthy and properly nutritious food that doesn’t pose a danger to our bodies in the long run.

All Calories are Equal

The term calories have been around for as long as people have been working out for whatever purpose. What many don’t realize is that food isn’t made up of only calories, but different types of foods, if we’re talking about the main types (carbs, fats, and proteins), have different caloric values. For example, carbohydrates, or short carbs have the same amount of calories as proteins. That means that if you eat a cup of rice or a cup of meat, it will have the same caloric effect. BUT, even though they are equal, fats provide almost twice as many calories per gram as carbs and proteins. To be more exact – 9 calories per gram as opposed to only 4 calories for proteins/carbs. The reason behind this is that the fat molecules have a more favorable structure to be broken down, giving more molecules than the proteins and carbohydrates.

Losing weight should be taken very seriously, and very slowly. In addition to this, people should do their best to get all the information about the molecular basis of human metabolism which will help them bust all the weight loss myths. Not only this, but it will help them be healthier in general.