Remember the advertisement where a girl says: “Jyaada khayegi toh moti ho jayegi, I don’t care”? This attitude of being fat and not caring is passé.
In today’s fashionable world, every girl wants Deepika Padukone abs and Kareena’s size zero figure. Looks and fitness have never been this important. “I always skip dinner and drink lots of water daily but I cannot lose those extra kilos,” says Siya Sehgal, a DU student. Like her many of us blindly follow any crash diets and fitness programs to lose that stubborn fat and crib endlessly for not achieving the desired results. For all of them Team AAW lists the five most common weight loss myths, we all get entrapped in:
Starving is the key to weight loss
This is the biggest misconception crash dieting and skipping meals never help in cutting flab. Starving doesn’t work in the long term and is an unhealthy mean of losing weight because your body gets deprived of basic nutrition. Remember the body needs energy to keep you working throughout the day. Initially starving makes you lose weight, it is just fluid loss but once you resume your normal diet the scales will start going up again.
Tip: Don’t starve just eat right and stress on a healthy lifestyle over starvation.
Water helps in losing weight
Water flushes out the toxins and impurities but not fat. Water is one of the elements in weight loss and not the sole component. Drinking water before every meal will make you feel full and curb your appetite but will never cut fat. Keep a tab on what you eat rather than drinking too much water for weight loss.
Tip: Water gives glossy skin by improving your complexion, hydrating your skin and toning muscles.
High-protein, low-carbohydrate diet aids weight loss
For a healthy body a diet comprising of all essential nutrients is a must. But getting most daily calories from high-protein food is not a balanced eating plan. Increase the intake of dietary fibre in the form of fruits, veggies and whole gain to avoid constipation. Always remember not all fats are harmful, good fat promotes good health and protects the heart.
Tip: Include monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats in the diet.
Skip dinner
For the body, calories matter and not the time you eat. The body needs time to digest food, eating a big meal before sleep may give you indigestion. A small healthy dinner will not ruin your diet.
Tip: Don’t look at the watch when hunger strikes at night. Eat a small healthy dinner.
No snacking between meals
Calories are the culprit not snacking. Snacking is bad because of the unhealthy choices we all tend to make. Stop reaching for those chips, cookies, candies and other fried stuff. Dieticians always recommend healthy snacking between meals to control the urge to overeat. Eat six small meals in a day instead of three heavy ones.
Tip: Choose a healthy snack because snacking is not a bad idea. Reach for fruit over chips.
