Everyone wants to lose weight. We all want to achieve a healthy and fitter body so that we can do all the things we want. However, the road to living a healthy lifestyle can be confusing and overwhelming with back-to-back conflicting advice and tips you get from self-proclaimed nutritionists. What diet tips should you ignore and which ones should you follow? This registered dietician debunks these diet tips so you can stop committing them right now!
A Certain Food/Product/Supplement Enhances Your Metabolism
According to Abby Langer, R.D., most people fall into buying certain food supplements or products that offer “too good to be true promises” of boosting your metabolism to burn more fat. Langer says you should stop believing this myth. She emphasizes the only way to boost your metabolism is by keeping an active lifestyle and by eating the right set of healthy foods.
Beware of taking food products or supplement that offer too good to be true promises.
Our body is already burning our energy by keeping us alive and all our systems working efficiently to maintain our body’s homeostasis. Abby says you need to incorporate it with eating the right foods and active movement (like exercise) to boost your metabolism. You shouldn’t rely on taking pills or any “miracle” supplements at all to boost your metabolism and improve your health.
You Lose X Weight in X Time.
As you sign up and undergo a particular diet plan, you’re ecstatic to see you’re losing weight at first. However, you noticed you’ve gained the lost weight back (or even more) as you come back to your real life. Do you suffer from this horrible cycle too?
If so, Abby advises you drop the belief that you can lose a specific weight in a specific time. According to her, our body is complicated enough, and our weight can’t be treated by one diet plan or supplement all alone.
Our weight is greatly influenced by genetics, lifestyle, environment, activity levels, and even your preferences. Not to mention one diet plan will not work for all body types.
Instead of obsessing over what diet plan works for you perfectly, you should shift your focus to meal eating and planning. You need to understand your body signals like hunger or full cues, thirsts, etc to act and eat accordingly.
Does the food you eat make you feel restrictive? Can it sustain and keep you full until the next meal time? Does it teach you how to choose and prepare food? What about size portion? Does it emphasize the benefits of eating healthy, fresh, and whole foods? A healthy and good meal plan aims to educate you on how to plan your foods effectively. If it promises quick weight loss, that’s your red flag to stay away from these weight loss frauds.
You Need to Stop Eating a Certain Food Group
Another myth Abby wants to debunk is the belief that you need to totally eliminate a certain food group (e.g. sugars, carbs, protein, meat, legumes, processed foods, etc.) to lose weight. According to her, all foods are created to bring comfort to our life and body, even the unhealthy ones. You may start losing weight physically because of depriving yourself of one food group, but what about your emotional or mental health? It isn’t healthy if you keep depriving yourself of the foods you want to eat, or you feel guilty just by the thought of eating it.
It’s okay to indulge yourself in sweets or your favorite foods once in a while, as long as you do it in moderation.
Instead of eliminating a certain food group from your diet, you should learn how to eat in moderation. Practice food portioning whenever you eat food so that you won’t feel any guilt or deprived at all. According to her, you must make peace with food and have the freedom to eat it to gain a healthy physical, emotional, and mental health. Unless you have autoimmune diseases, there’s no reason to restrict yourself to eating a particular food group.
Eating Superfoods Will Make You Healthy Instantly
Incorporating superfoods like chia seeds, flax seeds, turmeric, matcha, etc. in your diet is good. Its proven health benefits help you lose weight and improve your well-being. However, you shouldn’t rely on these superfoods alone to undo or compensate for your unhealthy habits. You should learn how to balance out your foods and apply healthy habits to optimize the superfoods’ health benefits and improve your health and wellbeing.
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