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Is there a solution to dieting? If you want to lose weight, you are bombarded with hundreds of diets, programs and miracle pills that promise to make you lose weight and get back into shape, almost overnight. Unfortunately, most of those promises involve unrealistic if not unhealthy methods that result in weight loss that only lasts as long as the diet.
Let's go over some of the myths and debunk them!
1. Low calorie diets
The calories that we ingest when we eat provide our bodies with the nutrients they need to create energy. The diet theory is that reducing your calorie intake will force your body to burn up fat reserves in order to make enough energy to sustain you. There are two problems with this theory. The first is how much to reduce your calorie intake, an amount that varies due to individual differences in metabolic rates. Reduce it by too much, and your body goes into 'starvation' mode, with your metabolism slowing down to conserve energy rather than burning fat.
The other concern is that your body needs calories to burn calories - if you reduce your intake drastically, your body does not have the energy to burn fat never mind keep you functioning optimally.
Reducing calories is vital if you want to lose weight, but you have to be sure that you are still providing your body with the nutrients it needs to keep you alert, energetic and healthy enough to burn fat.
2. Low fat diets
The association between body fat and the fats in your diet leads to a quick leap to the conclusion that all fats are bad. This is not the case, and in fact, your body needs some fats to perform vital functions. The trick is to identify the good fats and eat those, and reduce the bad fats to a minimum.
Good fats are fats that lower bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol in your body. They include monounsaturated fats such as those found in nuts and in avocado, canola and olive oil. Polyunsaturated fats, which contain Omega 3 fatty acids, are found in salmon and fish oil as well as soy, corn and sunflower oil and are good fats.
Saturated fats raise our bad cholesterol, and are therefore considered 'bad' fats. These are found mainly in animal products like meat and dairy products as well as in eggs. If you are not vegan or vegetarian, then avoiding these fats is a little more difficult, but possible if you are vigilant about trimming visible fat off meat, and eating skinless poultry and healthier types of seafood.
Be careful with 'low-fat' dairy products, and check the labels carefully, as they often have added sugar to improve the taste.
3. Low carb diets
An excellent source of fiber and energy, carbohydrates are an important part of a balanced diet. Refined carbs have had much of that goodness refined right out of them and retain empty calories with no nutritional value. Any white bread or goods baked with white flour, white pastas, sodas and most candy products contain bad carbs.
Good carbs are high in fiber, give you energy and will make you feel full - really great if you're trying to lose weight! Whole grain breads, cereals and pastas contain good carbs, as do fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds and beans.
4. 'Eating only one type of food' diets
Your body should - run like a well-maintained machine. You need fats, carbs, proteins, and even sugar, to keep your body functioning properly. Cutting out any food group causes an imbalance and leaves your body lacking in whatever it normally gets from that source. Diets that recommend eating, for example, just grapefruit, can be harmful as they starve your body of all the nutrients provided by the other food groups. It may make you lose weight in the short-term as your body has to find those nutrients in fat reserves. However, as soon as you start eating a combination of food types again, your body will store as much as it can to prepare for another 'famine' - and you pick up all the weight again!
Few of us can afford to visit dieticians and doctors for advice on what to eat, and we cannot all become nutritionists. The right weight loss program, based on healthy nutritional guidelines and eating habits, will help you work out what you should be eating. There are many programs based on sound nutritional information designed not only to help you lose weight, but to maintain a healthy lifestyle as well.
Find out about programs that will help you lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle - we review several, including the Diet Solutions Program that provides a solution to diets. Just what we need!
