The New Year will be here in a few hours! What are your resolutions? Like most girls, to lose some weight is one of my dearest New Year resolutions. However, it is very important to lose weight healthily and gradually. You wouldn’t want to fall ill or have wrinkly skin from crash diets and starvation!
Here are some common myths pertaining to weight loss! Get your facts right and you’ll be able to draw up an effective weight loss plan for the new year!
Myth: I can slim down quickly by only eating vegetables and fruits
Truth: Research indicates that there are fewer obese vegetarians in comparison to non-vegetarians. However, if you intend to turn vegetarian, you must plan your diet carefully to ensure that you do not leave out any types of nutrition essential to your wellbeing. Vegetables and fruits alone will not provide you with all your body’s necessities, such as iron, calcium, vitamin D, VitaminB12, Zinc and animal protein. So be sure to include non-vegetable foods that contain these in your diet.
Foods rich in iron: Cashew, Spinach, Bean products, black fungus
Foods rich in calcium: Diary products, soybean products, tofu, rice, flour, spinach, cabbage
Foods rich in Vitamin D: Skim milk, cheese, nuts
Foods rich in Vitamin B12: Soya bean, Tofu
Foods rich in zinc: Bean products, peanuts, rice, carrot, cabbage
Not all meat is fattening. You can also include lean meats in your diet.
Myth: High impact exercises will turn me into muscle woman
Truth: High-impact exercises like weight-lifting, sit-ups, push-ups etc are good for weight loss. They also tone your muscles. It’s not so easy to turn into a muscle woman. Doing high-impact exercises for a few minutes twice or thrice a week won’t generate so much muscle. You get hard muscles, not big ones. Athletes on the other hand, exercise vigorously on a daily basis so small wonder that they develop muscles!
You can do medium-impact activities on a daily basis, such as 30 minutes of brisk walking a day, and inculcate sit ups, push-ups and weight-lifting into your exercise regime thrice weekly.
Myth: Eating food containing starch will make me fat
Truth: A lot of food products contain starch, so if that was true, there would be a lot more overweight people in the world! Food like bread, rice, spaghetti, oats, soya bean, potatoes, even fruits are rich in starch, but they contain little calories. Overeating such food or adding all sorts of sweet and fattening ingredients are the reasons why people seem to get fat from it.
Myth: People who claim they can eat anything they like without getting fat are liars!
Truth: Pretty sure most of them are being honest as there isn’t much point in lying about such matters. The lucky ones can count on their high metabolism rate to utilize energy fast so it doesn’t stay in their body and become fats. Others just do lots of exercise to burn off the energy. If you don’t have illnesses, you are pretty much free to eat any sinful food without worrying as long as the amount of calories you consume is equivalent or under what you can burn off. And of course, eat with moderation.
Myth: Cutting down 1 or 2 meals a day is an efficient way of losing weight
Truth: Research indicates that people who skip breakfast and meals are more likely to become fatter than those who eat 4 meals (breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner) a day. Eating little at each meal helps to contain your appetite, whereas skipping meals, especially breakfast, only makes you ravenous and over eat for the next meal.
In short, don’t skip any meal, but keep your servings small.
Myth: Fast food must stay outta my sight if I want to lose weight!
Truth: While most fast food is indeed unhealthy, there is no need to avoid it like plague. Depending on what you choose to eat, fast food isn’t so scary!
Don’t choose the set meals. One burger and drink are usually sufficiently filling for most people, especially girls. You really don’t need fries or mash potato to go with it. Going ala carte is the best way to prevent yourself from eating more than you need, or share the meal with your friend. Choose skimmed milk, tea or plain water in place of soft drinks. Choose a salad to go with your meal.
Myth: Eating after 8pm will make me fat
Truth: Putting on weight isn’t related to when you eat, but rather, how much energy you consume. People put on weight when they eat at night because they tend to consume extra energy that they do not need, such as TV snacks and supper. However, it is still good to avoid eating late at night because it disrupts your sleep by overworking your digestive system.
Myth: Diary products contain fats and are unhealthy
Truth: Diary products are necessities because of their calcium content and shouldn’t be avoided just because they contain higher fat content. Choose skimmed products instead, these contain less fat while still retaining equal nutrition value. The downside is that it doesn’t taste so good.
Myth: I'll just starve myself until I lose weight which won't take long, and then I can easily get back to eating proper meals!
Truth: Never go on crash diets or low calorie diets. They may produce results within a short amount of time, but having been put on a stringent diet for a long time, most people fall back to their past eating habits, even binging on the unhealthy stuff because they’ve missed it so much. And thus it’s back to square one. Worst, food ends up putting some people off and as a result, succumb to illnesses like anorexia or bulimia. Unnaturally quick weight loss (3 kg and above within a fortnight) results in gallstones. If your daily energy intake is less than 800 calories, you may contract heart diseases in the future.
The best way to lose weight is to exercise regularly, eat small but regular meals and eat unhealthy food in moderation. If you’re enjoying your weight loss regime, you’ll stick by it!
Good luck and Happy New Year!
Here are some common myths pertaining to weight loss! Get your facts right and you’ll be able to draw up an effective weight loss plan for the new year!
Myth: I can slim down quickly by only eating vegetables and fruits
Truth: Research indicates that there are fewer obese vegetarians in comparison to non-vegetarians. However, if you intend to turn vegetarian, you must plan your diet carefully to ensure that you do not leave out any types of nutrition essential to your wellbeing. Vegetables and fruits alone will not provide you with all your body’s necessities, such as iron, calcium, vitamin D, VitaminB12, Zinc and animal protein. So be sure to include non-vegetable foods that contain these in your diet.
Foods rich in iron: Cashew, Spinach, Bean products, black fungus
Foods rich in calcium: Diary products, soybean products, tofu, rice, flour, spinach, cabbage
Foods rich in Vitamin D: Skim milk, cheese, nuts
Foods rich in Vitamin B12: Soya bean, Tofu
Foods rich in zinc: Bean products, peanuts, rice, carrot, cabbage
Not all meat is fattening. You can also include lean meats in your diet.
Myth: High impact exercises will turn me into muscle woman
Truth: High-impact exercises like weight-lifting, sit-ups, push-ups etc are good for weight loss. They also tone your muscles. It’s not so easy to turn into a muscle woman. Doing high-impact exercises for a few minutes twice or thrice a week won’t generate so much muscle. You get hard muscles, not big ones. Athletes on the other hand, exercise vigorously on a daily basis so small wonder that they develop muscles!
You can do medium-impact activities on a daily basis, such as 30 minutes of brisk walking a day, and inculcate sit ups, push-ups and weight-lifting into your exercise regime thrice weekly.
Myth: Eating food containing starch will make me fat
Truth: A lot of food products contain starch, so if that was true, there would be a lot more overweight people in the world! Food like bread, rice, spaghetti, oats, soya bean, potatoes, even fruits are rich in starch, but they contain little calories. Overeating such food or adding all sorts of sweet and fattening ingredients are the reasons why people seem to get fat from it.
Myth: People who claim they can eat anything they like without getting fat are liars!
Truth: Pretty sure most of them are being honest as there isn’t much point in lying about such matters. The lucky ones can count on their high metabolism rate to utilize energy fast so it doesn’t stay in their body and become fats. Others just do lots of exercise to burn off the energy. If you don’t have illnesses, you are pretty much free to eat any sinful food without worrying as long as the amount of calories you consume is equivalent or under what you can burn off. And of course, eat with moderation.
Myth: Cutting down 1 or 2 meals a day is an efficient way of losing weight
Truth: Research indicates that people who skip breakfast and meals are more likely to become fatter than those who eat 4 meals (breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner) a day. Eating little at each meal helps to contain your appetite, whereas skipping meals, especially breakfast, only makes you ravenous and over eat for the next meal.
In short, don’t skip any meal, but keep your servings small.
Myth: Fast food must stay outta my sight if I want to lose weight!
Truth: While most fast food is indeed unhealthy, there is no need to avoid it like plague. Depending on what you choose to eat, fast food isn’t so scary!
Don’t choose the set meals. One burger and drink are usually sufficiently filling for most people, especially girls. You really don’t need fries or mash potato to go with it. Going ala carte is the best way to prevent yourself from eating more than you need, or share the meal with your friend. Choose skimmed milk, tea or plain water in place of soft drinks. Choose a salad to go with your meal.
Myth: Eating after 8pm will make me fat
Truth: Putting on weight isn’t related to when you eat, but rather, how much energy you consume. People put on weight when they eat at night because they tend to consume extra energy that they do not need, such as TV snacks and supper. However, it is still good to avoid eating late at night because it disrupts your sleep by overworking your digestive system.
Myth: Diary products contain fats and are unhealthy
Truth: Diary products are necessities because of their calcium content and shouldn’t be avoided just because they contain higher fat content. Choose skimmed products instead, these contain less fat while still retaining equal nutrition value. The downside is that it doesn’t taste so good.
Myth: I'll just starve myself until I lose weight which won't take long, and then I can easily get back to eating proper meals!
Truth: Never go on crash diets or low calorie diets. They may produce results within a short amount of time, but having been put on a stringent diet for a long time, most people fall back to their past eating habits, even binging on the unhealthy stuff because they’ve missed it so much. And thus it’s back to square one. Worst, food ends up putting some people off and as a result, succumb to illnesses like anorexia or bulimia. Unnaturally quick weight loss (3 kg and above within a fortnight) results in gallstones. If your daily energy intake is less than 800 calories, you may contract heart diseases in the future.
The best way to lose weight is to exercise regularly, eat small but regular meals and eat unhealthy food in moderation. If you’re enjoying your weight loss regime, you’ll stick by it!
Good luck and Happy New Year!
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