Whether it is a health scare or your wish to slip into your old clothes, there are varied reasons why people want to lose weight. Some take the help of a professional or watch videos or take weight-loss tips from a family member. Right from your diet to exercises, they have an opinion on everything. But you’ve got to watch what you follow. If you fall into weight-loss diet traps, you may hit a dead end. To make tour weight loss journey successful, you have to fight diet traps. They might sound true, but they aren’t.
There can be many factors that are not helping in your weight loss journey, and diet traps happen to be part of that list. Health Shots got in touch with integrative nutritionist and health coach Neha Ranglani, who shared a list of weight loss diet myths that you should avoid believing.
1. To lose weight, you have to follow strict calorie-deficit diet
We have heard this a number of times, and it seems like there is some weight in it. Ranglani says that it’s the half truth. She notes that calorie-deficit is important, but you need to eat as per your hunger. Not that you should overeat. Only counting numbers or calories doesn’t help to lose weight. If you have underlying health problems like a gut issue, thyroid, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and liver problems, you need to address those through diet and lifestyle. They can then nudge your body to lose weight. It doesn’t happen by just calorie deficiency. If you only follow diet with calorie deficiency, you will lose weight but that will come from your muscle mass, water and bone weight and not from your fat. So, you have to be very careful of how you are losing weight and what diet you are following.
2. You have to eat every two hours for weight loss
This is simply wrong because there is no clock in our bodies. You need to eat as per you hunger. When you get hungry, it works as a signal to allow your body for digestion and to take in more food. But if you eat every two hours, you will only load your digestive system with a lot of work. Then the body won’t be able to do other things like repair and recovery. It won’t be able to cleanse your gut too, so keeping a gap between your meals, and not just two hours, is important. Once cleansing of the gut happens, eventually it will help to improve metabolism and weight loss. It’s important eat according to hunger and not as per the clock.
3. You need to eat complete protein in every meal to lose weight
We know that protein is very important to lose weight and to improve your metabolism. But it is not necessary that you have to eat a non-vegetarian dish or go “completely protein” in every meal. The expert says that you need to eat a balanced diet throughout the day. Have some pulses, beans, nuts and seeds. These are all important ingredients to up your protein intake because all these foods have amino acids which your body need to make the protein. It is needed for muscle-building and repair and recovery. So it’s not just food full of proteins, but a balanced diet with amino acids that you should consume.
4. You need to go low on carbohydrates and high on protein during weight loss journey
This is another weight loss diet trap that seems to be true, but it’s not. The expert points out that carbohydrates are important for your gut health. They feed the bacteria in your gut health which helps to improve metabolism. You need to eat the right carbohydrates which are complex carbohydrates like whole grains and pulses. Fruits are also great for weight loss. So, have some apples, prunes or and bananas. Just make sure that you don’t go low on carbohydrates and restrict yourself too much. Ranglani warns that if you do that, you may start eating all the wrong foods in excess and nullify the effect of low-carbohydrate diet. Her advice is that you should do something that’s sustainable.
