6 Diet Myths

Need to lose weight? Before you give up the late night crunching and go on a no-fat detox frenzy to kick your sluggish metabolism into shape, read what the experts have to say about these popular dieting myths.

Myth No. 1: Don’t Eat After 8 p.m.
The reality: Calories can’t tell time. “Your body digests and uses calories the same way morning, noon, and night,” says Mary Flynn, Ph.D., a research dietitian at the Miriam Hospital, in Providence. They may sit around a little longer if you eat, then lie on the couch and watch Letterman, but when you move around the next day, your body will dip into its stores. That said, there are other solid reasons to avoid late-night snacking, not least of which is that snacks you grab when you’re tired tend to be unhealthy ones.

Myth No. 2: Eating Small, Frequent Meals Boosts Your Metabolism
The reality: Food intake has a negligible effect on metabolism. Some foods, including those with caffeine, may slightly and temporarily increase metabolism, but the effect is too small to help you lose weight. What most affects your basal metabolic rate (BMR), the rate at which your body burns calories at rest, is body composition and size. More muscles and bigger bodies generally burn more calories overall.

Myth No.3: Fattening foods equal rapid weight gain.
The reality: Believe it or not, true weight gain is a slow process. You need to eat an extra 3500 calories to gain one pound of body fat (and vice versa for losing it).

Lyndel Costain explains: ‘If the scales say you’ve gained a few pounds after a meal out, it’s largely due to fluid, which will resolve itself - as long as you don’t get fed up, and keep overeating!

‘A lot of people feel guilty and think they’ve blown their diet if they eat rich foods. But, how can a 50g chocolate bar make you instantly put on pounds?

‘For long-term weight control, balance high-fat foods with healthy food and activity.’

Myth No. 4: Low-fat foods help you lose weight.
The reality: ‘Low-fat’ or ‘fat-free’ doesn’t necessarily mean low calorie or calorie-free, warns Lyndel Costain. Check the calorie content of foods, especially cakes, biscuits, crisps, ice creams and ready meals. Extra sugars and thickeners are often added to boost flavor and texture, so calorie content may be only a bit less, or similar to standard products.  Foods labeled low-fat should contain no more than 3g fat per 100g.

Myth No. 5:  Cholesterol is bad for you.
The reality:  Cholesterol is a fatty substance that is made mostly by the liver. It can be bad for us, because it forms deposits that line and clog our arteries. Clogged arteries contribute to heart disease. But we all need some blood cholesterol because it’s used to build cells and make vital hormones - and there’s good and bad cholesterol. Lyndel Costain explains: ‘Saturated fats found in food like meat, cheese, cream, butter and processed pastries tend to raise low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, known as ‘bad’ cholesterol, which delivers cholesterol to the arteries. ‘High density lipoprotein (HDL), or ‘good’ cholesterol, transports cholesterol away from the arteries, back to the liver. ‘So choose unsaturated fats such as vegetable oils, nuts and seeds.

Myth No. 6: You always gain weight when you stop smoking.
The reality:  Some people gain weight when they stop smoking, some lose weight and some stay the same. While nicotine does increase the body’s metabolism, its effect is small. It’s far healthier to be an overweight non-smoker than not bother giving up because you think you’ll put on weight. Alison Sullivan says: ‘Where people tend to fall down is when they replace a cigarette with comfort food. ‘Chewing sugar-free gum or snacking on vegetable strips kept in the fridge is a good idea because you can have these instead of reaching for the biscuit tin. ‘And something like a satsuma keeps your hands occupied until the craving goes away.’

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