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Weight Loss – Myths and Reality

Few commercialized areas of science are as filled with myths as is the science of weight loss. Everyone wants a simple, safe, no-willpower solution to losing weight. Someday, we may actually get one. For now there are no magic cures. But there are quite a few myths that need to be exploded.  Here are a few.

Myth: Eating after 8 p.m. causes weight gain.
Reality: It doesn’t matter what time of day you eat, it’s how much you eat during the entire day and how much exercise you get that make you gain or lose weight. No matter when you eat your meals, your body will store extra calories as fat. If you want to have a snack before bedtime, make sure that you first think about how many calories you have already eaten that day.

Myth: Eating ice cream actually causes weight loss.

Reality: The so-called theory is that since ice cream is cold, and it takes energy (measured in calories) to warm it up, your body is consuming energy while eating it.

Your body does certainly require energy to warm up ice cream, and even to digest it. Any action the body takes requires energy, that’s basic physics applied to physiology. But the devil is in the details. Eating ice cream, usually high in fat and sugar, takes in far more calories than are used to warm and digest it. Sorry, you still need to go easy on the dessert.

Myth: Adding a pound of muscle makes the body burn an extra 50 calories.

Reality: A pound of new muscle will burn at most a dozen calories per hour. Just sitting consumes about 70 calories per hour.

Still, adding muscle is a good idea, since to do so requires high effort – either through running, weight training or other vigorous exercise. Mild exercise, such as riding an exercise bike, is good but tones more than builds muscle. The average man will burn about 350 calories in an hour long workout.

Vigorous exercise also raises the metabolic rate for a day, burning about 250 calories more than if one hadn’t exercised. A brisk walk outside or on a treadmill will do so also, but at a much lower level. It’s still a good idea to workout every other day and walk on the non-workout days. It keeps the muscles toned, stretched and helps prevent the lactic acid buildup that causes sore muscles.

Myth: High-protein/low-carbohydrate diets are a healthy way to lose weight.
Reality: A high-protein/low-carbohydrate diet provides most of your calories each day from protein foods (like meat, eggs, and cheese) and few calories from carbohydrate foods (like breads, pasta, potatoes, fruits, and vegetables). People often get bored with these diets because they crave the plant-based foods they are not allowed to have or can have only in very small amounts. These diets often lack key nutrients found in carbohydrate foods.

Many of these diets allow a lot of food high in fat, like bacon and cheese. High-fat diets can raise blood cholesterol levels, which increases a person’s risk for heart disease and certain cancers.

High-protein/low-carbohydrate diets may cause rapid weight loss–but most of it is water weight and lean muscle mass–not fat. You lose water because your kidneys try to get rid of the excess waste products of protein and fat, called ketones that your body makes.

This is not a healthy way to lose weight. It overworks your kidneys and can cause dehydration and headaches. It can also make you feel nauseous, tired, weak and dizzy. A buildup of ketones in your blood (called ketosis) can cause your body to produce high levels of uric acid, which is a risk factor for gout (a painful swelling of the joints) and kidney stones. Ketosis can be very risky for pregnant women and people with diabetes.

By following a reduced-calorie diet that is well-balanced between carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, you will still lose weight, and you will be more likely to keep the weight off.

The reality is if you take in more calories than your body uses, the remaining energy is stored generally in the form of chemical bonds in fatty tissues. When the body requires more energy that you’ve supplied, it will turn to those fat stores in order to get some needed energy. That leads to lower fat in the body and weight loss. That reality is best achieved by the old-fashioned combination of proper diet and adequate regular exercise.