Weight-loss myths

3 mins to read

With so much conflicting advice floating around about weight control, weight-loss coach Andrew Cate dispels some of the most popular mistruths.

Weight management

Myth: Low fat foods help you lose weight

Fact: Many low-fat processed foods are high in sugar, such as yoghurts, ice cream, cakes and biscuits, so using these alternatives may not significantly reduce your kilojoule intake. What's more, because these foods are perceived as healthy, they can be often eaten in larger portions, resulting in a greater consumption of kilojoules than if the higher fat item was consumed. While eating less fat can reduce your kilojoule intake, this needs to be combined with a much wider range of strategies before you can lose weight successfully.

Myth: Food combining accelerates weight loss

Fact: The theory that eating the wrong combinations of foods can result in health problems and weight gain has no scientific foundation. Rest assured that it is safe to eat carbohydrates at the same time as protein, drink water with your meals, and eat fruit after midday. Most foods contain a combination of carbohydrates, protein and fat, and these nutrients are not designed to be separated. Your body secretes a variety of digestive enzymes that are more than capable of breaking down any food, or combination of ingredients. If you consider that breast milk is designed for babies, and that it contains a combination of all nutrients, then this myth should be laid to rest.

Myth: There's such a thing as ‘the sweet tooth'

Fact: A sweet tooth is often used to describe cravings for foods such as chocolates, cakes, biscuits, pastries, ice cream and desserts. But these foods are not only sweet; they are all extremely high in fat. In other words, the sweet tooth is just a fat tooth with a nicer name. To see if your sweet tooth is genuine, try some sweet-only foods next time you have a craving. Foods like sorbet, jelly, boiled lollies, killer pythons, meringue and even fruit are all sweet, yet much lower in kilojoules. If your craving isn't satisfied after a sweet-only treat, then you might be getting more kilojoules than you think.

Myth: Lifting weights makes you bigger

Fact: Lifting weights can actually help you lose body fat, not gain it. Resistance training helps to strengthen and tone your muscles, and increase your metabolic rate. Lifting moderately heavy weights will not add muscle bulk. Even if you lift heavy weights (a weight you can only lift 6 – 8 times is considered heavy), very few men and even fewer women have the genetic potential to build bulky muscles. This myth unfortunately discourages a lot of women for performing resistance training, when in fact they have the most to gain from it, because they naturally have less muscle mass than men.

Myth: It's OK to drink fruit juice

Fact: Fruit juice is promoted as a healthy drink, and is even mentioned as a replacement for whole fruit. But this is not necessarily the case. Fruit juice actually has similar kilojoule content to a glass of regular soft drink. You need between three and four oranges to make one cup of juice, so you get all the kilojoules but lose the fibre and some of the nutrients. In other words, you will still feel hungry after drinking the equivalent of three oranges. Drink water instead, and eat fruit whole, as nature intended.

Myth: Bread, pasta, rice and potatoes are fattening

Fact: High carbohydrate foods like bread, pasta, rice and potatoes may or may not be fattening depending on their quality, their portion size, and the company that they keep. Highly processed varieties of these foods, such as white pasta, white bread and white rice are easy to over-consume because they are so low in fibre. They provide less fullness, so it's easy to eat large portions and consume too many kilojoules. It's also the accompaniments with these foods that can give them a fattening reputation. For example, butter or margarine with bread, a creamy sauce with pasta, coconut milk with rice, and sour cream with potatoes.

Myth: All salads are healthy

Fact: Many a fatty item has been bundled up under the guise of a ‘salad'. For example, a chicken caesar salad has more fat than a hamburger. Salads with creamy dressings or mayonnaise, cheese, sour cream, fatty meats or large quantities of oil can convert an otherwise healthy plate of salad vegetables into a high kilojoule, fat storing junk food. Order your dressing on the side, and look to use a little bit of oil mixed with accompaniments like balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar or lemon juice.

Four warning signs of a weight loss myth

1. Programs or products that promise fast, miraculous results
2. Diets that suggest the elimination of whole food groups
3. Programs or products that are disputed by qualified experts, or respected organisations
4. Diets that claim that you can eat as much as you want, or that you don't have to exercise

Andrew Cate is a weight loss coach, and author of Walk Off Weight, which includes an 8 week food and exercise plan designed to get results. RRP $19.95, available from www.andrewcate.com