Dieting was. . .
- A past time of mine
- A hobby
- A waste of money
- A source of frustration
Along my 10 year obesity journey, I tried many, many diets and experienced no long term success with any of them. Also during my journey I had a lot of preconceived ideas of what “good dieting” looked like. In thinking back I realized many of the things I thought about dieting where actually myths I had heard at one time or another, and deemed them to be true. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at a few dieting myths, and analyze how reality differed from the myth.
Diane’s Dieting Myth # 1: Eating Very Few Calories A Day Is Best
Diane’s Reality: Whenever I tried to cut my calories too drastically, instead of losing weight and keeping it off, I lost a few pounds initially, but then quickly gave up and gained back the pounds lost plus a few more.
The Reason This Doesn’t Work: Eating too few calories can cause you to lose pounds, but it also causes a loss of lean muscle and tissue. This can reduce your BMR, and by doing so, will probably result in a weight gain once you stop that diet. Eating too few calories isn’t healthy, and should never be part of a lifestyle change. I guess the exception to this would be a medically supervised diet.
Diane’s Dieting Myth #2: Eating At Night Caused Me To Get Fat
Diane’s Reality: When I was obese, I ate all times of the day and night. I’d often use the fact that I had eaten after dinner time as a reason to quit trying to lose weight. I would tell John that “Eating at night was just a habit I couldn’t break.” In reality, it wasn’t having an after dinner snack that caused my problems. It was the fact that my after dinner snack contained enough calories to sustain me through the next 12 hours. The amount of food was the problem, not the time of day!
Why It Really Isn’t Important When You Eat: Over and over studies have shown that it’s not when you eat, but what you eat that makes us gain weight. Nighttime eaters tend to be eating out of boredom, habit, and the desire for high fat foods. For me, I ate because I was trying to fill some kind of emotional void. Remember, that although the nutrient value in calories is important, the bottom line is a calorie is a calorie.
Diane’s Dieting Myth #3: Low-Fat or Fat-Free Foods would help me lose weight.
Diane’s Reality: Choosing reduced fat cookies didn’t do a thing for my waistline. Instead, once I saw the reduced fat logo on the label, it was as if I had permission to overindulge. After all – it was reduced fat!
Why This Is Wrong Too: Often times, when manufacturers reformulate their products to include a low-fat or reduced-fat version, they substitute sugar for fat. So the fat content goes down. The calorie content also goes lower, but doesn’t disappear. Here’s an example. Ritz crackers regular formulation has 80 calories for 5 crackers. Their low-fat recipe has 70 calories for 5 crackers. The fat content is reduced, but the calories aren’t much different. If you were like me, you’d see the reduced fat sign, and eat 50 crackers. It happened to me more than I’d care to admit!
What’s the bottom line on these three dieting myths? They are just that. Myths. The reality is that the best way to make a long term change in your weight, is to get back to the basics. For me that included daily exercise, diligent attention to portion control, and awareness of the fat percentage in the food I was eating. By letting go of the myths that were holding me back, I was finally able to make long term forward progress.
Care to share any dieting myths you’ve heard of lately? Or any dieting myths you used to believe? I’d love to hear them. Diane
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One of my myths that I tried to convince myself about was the one that said, “Eat all you want and lose weight” I used to take those unhealthy diet supplements you can get at the grocery and hope they worked. They didn’t. I don’t use them anymore, now I’m trying to do it the right way. Thanks again for this.
I know when I try to cut any particular type of food from my diet, I go crazy. Restrictions of that type backfire for me.
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@Monica – I’m so glad that you don’t take supplements anymore! Good for you on losing weight in a way that is healthy for you.
@Amy – Restrictions backfired for me too. Thanks for the comment.
Thanks for all of the helpful information in this post. As always, your posts are so informative!
The one diet myth that I have learned to ignore is to eliminate certain foods from your diet. i.e., the ones that you love to indulge in. It’s all about having a balanced diet and portion control.
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I completely agree with this post! I think most of what baloney we’ve heard these last few years about diet has only INCREASED peoples addictiona and unhealthy additude toward food. Thanks for the great sound diet advice
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@Alissa – Thank you for coming by. I hate that myth too, because it often does just make us crave that particular food, or group of foods even more!
@MyKashiDiet – You are right on about the influx of strange and inaccurate information causing diet confusion. For me, it all came down to common sense, and healthy eating.
I love your blog – you draw attention to important, pertinent issues. I too have been through and suffered through all of those “diet myths”. I am so glad I broke free of those horrible cycles.
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You mentioned three myths that I have come to learn over the past few months. So very true. My OB/GYN years ago told both me and my mom that’s there’s no magic way to lose weight – it’s calories in vs. calories burned.
All I can think is I learned a long time ago diet pills don’t result in quick weight loss. In fact, anything that promotes “fast and easy” is usually a myth. Like you said, you may lose quite a bit at first, but it won’t stay off unless you’re going to stick to that particular strange and strict diet forever, and we all know that rarely happens.
Good post. Slow and steady wins the race.
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@Lainie – Thank you. I’m too glad that you broke through the mess of myths out there! By the way, I liked your Starbucks blog yesterday!
@Leah – Slow and steady isn’t always fun, but it does get the job done. Thanks for the great comment!
You said it all as usual! AWESOME POST! I have been there with all of them.. eating too little, eating at night & low/no fat foods! You are right.. myths!
When I ate too little, I also ate too little fat (good fat) & that is NOT healthy. When I learned to eat right & not be afraid of the good fat, I felt & looked healthier! And YES to lean muscle tissue!
Eating at night.. YES, it is about how much you eat. The big problem with night eaters is like you said, they consume too many calories & most of the time, the wrong food. I do have a small snack at night after dinner BUT it is portion controlled.
You again are right on with the low/no fat foods. I remember when the Snackwell cookies came out. YIKES! People were eating a box of them! They were a lot of sugar & once again, even if it is low/non fat, there are still calories & calories add up. Lots of sugar lots of calories are not good for the weight loss plan!
Diane, you are always so in tune & right on with your posts!
Hi Diane, I am new to your blog and just wanted to say that I really enjoy your straight forward approach to weight loss.
Thanks!
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@Jody – I read something the other day about someone who was also afraid to eat any fat. You bring out a great point about the type of fat versus the quanitity of fat. And you are really wise about planning your snack, and I remember those Snackwell cookies – they were way too good, and I did eat many a box of them!
@Laura – Thank you for coming by. I’m glad that you are enjoying it!
I have a friend who insists low-fat diets don’t work. She says it’s proven. Everyone eats low-fat products and we’re getting fatter, she says.
I roll my eyes, but I agree with her. Sure, if you eat an entire package of low-fat cookies or crackers or junk and don’t watch the calories, duh, of course it won’t work. And the problem to begin with is relying on low-fat processed stuff. My diet is low fat, and I do use some low-fat products, but I am very careful because I know in order to make food taste good, they have to shoot it full of something else. It’s all a balancing act. When make healthier food choices, they usually are lower in fat. (Apples, fruit, vegetables, etc.)
I also like your comment about eating at night. I always have a bedtime snack. I do it to keep my blood sugar uniform. I do it because it helps make me sleepy. The thing is, I plan for it. It’s worked in to my daily calorie (points) allotment. And I don’t eat a lot, a glass of milk and something very, very small. And it works for me.
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Yes, letting go of diet myths is so important.
I think all the low-fat and fat-free foods out there have done so much damage… I used to think, “Oh, it’s okay to eat these, they are low fat.” And then I would eat way too many. Now I sometimes pick up a box of things I used to eat and look at the ingredients list, and I’m horrified by what I used to put into my body…
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@Jo – You have the right attitude when it comes to low-fat products. You can use them, but just have to be aware of where the calories are coming from, and how much you can have.
Eating at night is fine, as long as its planned. That’s what always got me into trouble – no planning!
@Andrea – I agree with you on the low-fat foods getting people in trouble. I did what you described all the time!
Diane! These are great myths. I love all of them. The second one is my favorite though. I get so hungry at night before I go to bed. In fact, if I don’t eat something I end up waking up in the middle of the night starving. Great myth for me
She-Fit´s last blog ..Yoga: Can it Replace Cardio Workouts?
This myth – you will get bulky if you lift heavy. It scares so many women from a very important aspect of getting and staying fit and healthy.
I fell for the fat-free thing about 15 years ago. Remember when Snackwells came out? I was all over those!
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@She-Fit – I like the way you described that second myth. Thanks so much for the comment!
@Lori – Very good myth! I think working out is vastly under discussed, even though research after research supports and importance of it! Jody mentioned the Snackwells too – those were dangerous!
This is great, Diane! Whenever I eat very few calories one day, I ALWAYS overeat for the next three. We’ve gotta have balance.
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Diane, it is sad how often these myths really hold us back. The one that always gets me is when someone says they just need to diet for the next few months. It is a little different take than your myths, but just as destructive. It leads to a life of yo-yo dieting.
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@Sagan – It is all about balance. And that’s what your whole blog talks about so eloquently. If you try and give your body what it doesn’t need, it doesn’t stay happy!
@Steve – It is sad about the myths holding us back. We tend to believe what we hear, without really taking ownership of the truth. Yes, the “diet for a little while” one is why I kept losing and gaining the same 20 pounds over and over.
Diane, it is sad how often these myths really hold us back. The one that always gets me is when someone says they just need to diet for the next few months. It is a little different take than your myths, but just as destructive. It leads to a life of yo-yo dieting.
South Beach Steve´s last blog ..Ready for the Weekend!
Sorry… forgot to say great post – can’t wait to read your next one!
Diane,
My sister and I recently ordered a Basikbox. The concept is really neat, we thought. All the food compartments are properly measured and you simply go online (basikbox.com) and pick a meal plan that you can make yourself. The box is a little bigger than an average lunch tote. And of course it a little weighs more because of the water bottle but it makes way more sense when you think about how much trail mix and other high-calorie stuff we all eat in the afternoon.
@Elizabeth – That concept sounds very interesting. I guess it helps you keep your portions under control! Thanks for commenting.
A dieting myth that I’ve struggled with in the past is that dieting has to be all or nothing. For example, say after lunch or sometime in the afternoon I would cave and have a piece of candy or a cookie or something else that was “strictly forbidden”…the rest of the day I would have myself convinced that my diet was shot so what’s the point in sticking to it for that day? And of course, it was all downhill from there. It was really hard to dispell this mentality, but the truth of the matter is that no diet is sabotaged because of one piece of candy, and in thinking so I did much more harm to mylself than would have been done if I had just allowed myself to human and slip up once in a while.
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Hey these sound awfully familiar! Have you been spying on me?
#1 and #2 were personal challenges for years. Also the “all or nothing” challenge. I either had to be 100% “on a plan” or I was a failure. And then there was the “So-and-so lost 100 pounds eating this way; I should be able to do that too” challenge.
I finally got wise (well, I was already wise, I jsut wasn’t showing it *G*) and devised my own plan that incorporated foods *I* liked in proper portions, and then I followed that plan only 90-95% of the time.
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@Faith – I think this is so wise, and something I had to learn too. One mistake doesn’t ruin your diet, but it will ruin it if you let it make you quit!
@Cammy – I haven’t been spying on you – I promise! I think it’s great that you used your own wisdom to do something that worked for you!! Congratulations!
I can’t stand the weightloss ad’s on tv. They make it look so easy with a shake or too. If all I had was a shake all day I would starve to death!
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LOVE this post! I’m sure we have all thought those things at one time or another.
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