Posted on March 19, 2015 by Jenny Cromack
There is an awful amount of terrible information floating around regarding nutrition. The nutrition industry is largely unregulated, with so many self proclaimed nutritionists, companies pushing their own “research”, and pyramid companies forcing products down your neck it can be hard to see through the ‘fog’.
This has led to many fat loss myths coming to light. Here are my top 5 fat loss myths (but there are thousands more!
FAT LOSS MYTH 1: You Need To Eat 5-6 Small Meals A Day To Fire Up Your Metabolism
It is often stated that many multiple meals fire up your metabolism and help burn calories, but was does the literature tell us? Coriner et al(2013) examined 3 (traditional) vs 6 (high frequency) meals per day over a 4 week period and actually concluded that there is no difference in end fat oxidization, not only that the researchers even found a trend to suggest that appetite and satiety may even be worse in the high frequency group. This has been confirmed by numerous other studies (Munster., 2012, Campbell and Leidy., 2011).
What Should I Do? Decide what works best for you, do you prefer having 3 large meals? Or would you rather 6 small meals? It’s not going to effect your metabolism any where near enough to facilitate additional fat burning.
FAT LOSS MYTH 2: Eating Fat Makes You Fat.
Probably one of the most common fat myths around, the logic seems quite reasonable….put less fat into your body have less fat on the body. Unfortunately things are not all that simple and the body needs fat to complete numerous vital functions. This has been supported by numerous meta-analysis over the past decade and it is now common knowledge that certain fats should be a staple of our diets, the following conclusions can be seen below:
- Individuals assigned to a very low carbohydrate diet achieved a greater weight loss than those assigned to a low fat diet long term. (Bezzera et al., 2013)
- Furthermore, there is no evidence that high-monounsaturated-fat diets induce weight gain in patients with diabetes mellitus provided that energy intake is controlled. Therefore, a diet rich in cis-monounsaturated fat can be advantageous for both patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes who are trying to maintain or lose weight. (Garg et al.,2012)
- Mediterranean diets appear to be more effective than low-fat diets in inducing clinically relevant long-term changes in cardiovascular risk factors and inflammatory markers. (Briel et al., 2011)
What Should I Do? Enjoy good fats such as avocado, nuts, oily fish in your diet. Don’t be afraid of eating good fats, they are called good fats for a reason!
FAT LOSS MYTH 3: All Calories Are Created Equal As Long As You Don’t Exceed Your Daily Calorie Limit You Will Still Lose Weight
Before we get into this, remember the goal is not to lose weight, it is to lose fat! If you want to lose weight, sit on the sofa and don’t move for 2 weeks, watch as your body breaks down your muscle mass and reduces the density of your bones. This is ineffective weight loss, and so is the all calories are created equal view. Different macronutrients go through different metabolic pathways and have very different hormonal implications. High protein diets for example have been shown to increase daily metabolic rate by 80-100 calories (Veldhorst et al., 2010). Other studies have shown that individuals consume fewer total calories when they consume greater than 6 portions of vegetables a day.
What Should I Do? The take away message is look into your food more than simply counting calories! Look at the macronutrients of the food and view what the ‘use’ of the food is for. Carbohydrates are used for fuel, protein helps us to recover after a workout and keep us feeling full. Foods high in sugar and bad fats….well we will let you decide what they are used for…..not a fat lot!
FAT LOSS MYTH 4: Breakfast Is Great For Fat Loss
If I had a penny for everytime someone said this I’d be rich! Skipping breakfast is not a good idea if you’re looking to burn fat. I’m not going to go into this in detail, I’ll just refer you to a great article for sumo wrestlers “the sumo wrestler bulk up diet” please take note that these impressive athletes skip breakfast to slow metabolism and achieve their size. If you want to get involved in the sport by all means skip breakfast and consume two 10,000 calories meals a day, but if the goals fat loss, get the salmon out in the morning.
What Should I Do? Eat breakfast like it’s your religion, honestly I wake up every morning looking forward to eating breakfast every day. Focus on protein and good fats. Slow release carbs like porridge a couple of times per week is also fine.
FAT LOSS MYTH 5: Low Fat Dairy Is Better For Weight Loss
Full fat dairy has long been demonised, with claims of increasing the risk of heart disease, obesity etc there is more and more emerging evidence that full fat dairy products in moderation have numerous health benefits, as well as assisting in fat loss. There is normally only a 2% difference in low fat to full fat milk so unless your drinking litres a day the difference is minute.
What Should I Do? If you enjoy dairy then enjoy the full fat versions of yoghurt and milk. Just go easy on the cheese!
References
Garg, A. (1994) ‘High–Monounsaturated Fat Diet for Diabetic Patients: Is it time to change the current dietary recommendations?’, Diabetes Care, 17(3), pp. 242–246. doi: 10.2337/diacare.17.3.242.
Leidy, H. J. and Campbell, W. W. (2010) ‘The Effect of Eating Frequency on Appetite Control and Food Intake: Brief Synopsis of Controlled Feeding Studies’, Journal of Nutrition, 141(1), pp. 154–157. doi: 10.3945/jn.109.114389.
Munsters, M. J. M. and Saris, W. H. M. (2012) ‘Effects of Meal Frequency on Metabolic Profiles and Substrate Partitioning in Lean Healthy Males’, PLoS ONE, 7(6). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0038632.
Nordmann, A. J., Suter-Zimmermann, K., Bucher, H. C., Shai, I., Tuttle, K. R., Estruch, R. and Briel, M. (2011) ‘Meta-Analysis Comparing Mediterranean to Low-Fat Diets for Modification of Cardiovascular Risk Factors’, The American Journal of Medicine, 124(9), pp. 841–851. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2011.04.024.
Westerterp-Plantenga, M. S. with Veldhorst, M. A. B. and Westerterp, K. R., Anneke J. A. H. van Vught (2010) ‘Presence or absence of carbohydrates and the proportion of fat in a high-protein diet affect appetite suppression but not energy expenditure in normal-weight human subjects fed in energy balance’, British Journal of Nutrition, 104(09), pp. 1395–1405. doi: 10.1017/s0007114510002060.