Quickly and effortlessly lose a lot of weight – that’s what many diets promise. Tips and wisdom are ubiquitous, but what is really true of the good advice? Does sport help against the rolls on the belly? Can you lose weight while you sleep? Do carbohydrates really make you fat? We have compiled the most common wisdom and myths on the subject of weight loss for you and reveal what is truth and what is error.
1) Without breakfast you lose weight faster
True, you can save calories by skipping a meal. However, the danger of this is that after a few hours you will be gripped by ravenous hunger and then more likely to give in to the temptation of unhealthy snacks. The reason for the sudden stomach rumbling is that the body’s carbohydrate stores are emptied overnight, causing the blood sugar level to drop. The body then demands replenishment and we develop an appetite. By having a vitamin-rich breakfast with whole grain products, you can prevent a craving attack and start the day more efficiently. However, if you are not hungry in the morning, you should not force yourself to eat breakfast. Just drink a glass of juice or milk and take some fruit with you for the road.
2) “Dinner-cancelling” makes you slim.
Again, skipping a meal can help with calorie savings, as long as the calories are not consumed at another time. Going to bed without dinner requires discipline, but can be quite effective: This is because abstaining from food prolongs the nighttime food period and the body must draw on its energy stores in fat reserves. Thus two to three times “dinner-cancelling” per week can be an effective method to compensate for small sins and to keep the weight. However, a permanently reduced energy intake by more than 500 kilocalories favors the dreaded yo-yo effect: because as soon as you fall back into old eating habits, the weight has quickly returned to the initial value, because the body throttles the metabolism due to the reduced food intake.
3) Stomach growling is a sign of successful weight loss.
“When your stomach growls, you lose weight because it’s a sign that fat burning is starting.” Heard that before? Unfortunately, that’s just a myth. Stomach growling is not a sign of losing weight, nor does it always have to indicate hunger. So how does stomach growling occur? The stomach, much like the intestines, is constantly in motion to mix its contents well and allow digestion. An empty stomach contains mainly stomach acid and water. If the liquid mixes with swallowed air, the growling sound occurs. But even with a full stomach, the stomach can growl – although not as easily as with an empty stomach. Instead of liquid, a full stomach contains food in mushy form. When air is pushed onto it by the stomach’s movement, this can also cause grumbling sounds.
4) You gain weight faster than you lose weight.
Many people know this: excess pounds accumulate quickly, but it is very difficult to get rid of them. In fact, the body is designed to adapt flexibly, always providing for worse times. If we eat more than the body needs, it builds up reserves and small fat pads are created. However, if we eat too little to cover our needs, for example in the context of a diet, the body reduces its requirements and lives on the back burner, so to speak. If it then receives more calories again, it takes the opportunity to replenish its reserves and we gain weight again all the more quickly. This phenomenon is called the yo-yo effect. For this reason, many experts recommend a long-term change in diet, focusing on a healthy and balanced diet, in order to lose weight. In conjunction with sufficient exercise, metabolism and energy consumption are boosted.
5) Exercise alone is enough to lose weight.
Exercise is considered a magic bullet among weight loss methods – and for good reason: sports burn calories and build muscles when exercised regularly. These help to lose weight, because an increased muscle percentage in the body increases the basal metabolic rate, which means that more energy is needed even at rest.However, the desired effect only occurs if the energy balance of the day is negative: if you eat large amounts after exercise, you have easily regained the calories – this is faster than you think: by jogging for 30 minutes at a medium pace, you consume an average of just 350 kilocalories, the equivalent of about half a pizza.
6) Sit-ups will give you a flat stomach.
Unfortunately, fat burning cannot be controlled by specific exercises. Fat melts only if you permanently eat fewer calories than you burn. At which point the weight loss first appears is different for each person and cannot be influenced. Sit-ups strengthen the abdominal muscles, but alone do not make fat deposits disappear.
7) Sweets and fast food are forbidden.
From childhood is still well remembered: forbidden things are particularly interesting. This also applies to “fatteners” such as sweets, chips or the favorite pizza. So you should not forbid yourself anything, but follow some rules when sinning:
- Quality instead of quantity: a high-quality chocolate tastes better and strikes less than a whole bar of chocolate from the supermarket.
- Enjoy without regret: If you feel like a burger for lunch, treat yourself to it without a guilty conscience. Just pay attention to the other meals of the day to a balance of calories and vital substances.
- Snack strategically: sweet instead of as a snack in the afternoon rather enjoy as a dessert directly after the meal: so you avoid that by a blood glucose rise between meals additional insulin is released.
8) Light products help you lose weight
The label “light” in itself only means that a food contains less than usual of an ingredient such as fat or sugar, but also caffeine, alcohol or carbon dioxide. So “light” is not always synonymous with low-calorie. This is because low-fat foods in particular often contain more sugar so that the taste does not suffer. For this reason, you should always take a look at the nutritional information for light products and check whether they really contain fewer kilocalories than the normal version. If this is the case, light products may help you lose weight – provided you don’t eat twice the amount because the lower calorie content tempts you to feast without a guilty conscience. Caution is also advised with sugar-free beverages containing artificial sweeteners. Although a bottle of Diet Coke contains no calories, for some people the sweet taste stimulates an appetite for sugary foods.
9) “Low carb” leads to the dream figure.
Carbohydrates are the main source of energy for the brain and muscles, and therefore an important part of a balanced diet. In addition, carbohydrates have a lower energy density than fat: they provide four kilocalories per gram, compared to nine kilocalories for fat. Nevertheless, a diet low in carbohydrates is also recommended by nutrition experts as an effective way to lose weight. This is because carbohydrates are broken down in the intestines into simple sugar building blocks and absorbed into the blood. In this way, they quickly raise blood sugar levels, which leads to the release of insulin. Among other things, this hormone causes an inhibition of fat burning in the body and thus actually has an influence on weight loss success.
Do not neglect carbohydrates, otherwise the performance decreases
If you want to lose weight, you should therefore avoid carbohydrate-rich snacks as much as possible, so that insulin levels can drop and the body has time to burn fat between meals. Avoiding carbohydrates in the evening can also be helpful in losing weight, as long as your daily energy balance is correct. In the morning and at lunchtime, however, carbohydrates are important for physical and mental performance. You should prefer whole grain products, as these are broken down more slowly and thus ensure a low insulin rise and a constant blood sugar level.
10) “Slim while you sleep” is possible.
There are diets that advertise to make you slim while you sleep. Similar to “low-carb” diets, these concepts are based on controlling fat metabolism through insulin levels. Unlike “low-carb” diets, however, “slim while you sleep” calculates a daily allowable amount of carbohydrates, which is ingested at set times according to the separation diet principle.A five-hour break between meals is mandatory, and sleep should be seven to nine hours per night so that the body can burn fat. If this nutritional concept is implemented consistently, it can certainly lead to weight loss success, especially since studies show that sufficient sleep reduces the production of appetite-stimulating hormones. However, it is questionable whether “slim in sleep” can be implemented permanently in everyday life – again, the yo-yo effect threatens.
11) Formula diets keep what they promise.
Many commercial diet concepts are based on special drinks or shakes that replace one or more meals a day for a certain period of time and thus promise rapid weight loss. In this context, formula diets fall under the Diet Ordinance, which legally regulates what nutrient composition the products must have: for example, one meal must not contain more than 400 kilocalories. In this way, the amount of energy per day can be easily controlled and motivation increases due to quickly visible successes. However, the food intake is rather monotonous in the long run, so formula diets are recommended especially in the initial phase. To achieve long-term weight loss, a permanent change in diet is required.
