5 Lies We’re Told About Food Making us Fat

First of all, can we all agree to stop using that word to describe people? Fat is a part of the body, an important one at that. It’s stored energy. We don’t call people who are musically inclined “ear,” do we?

(Source: answers.com)

Alright, well maybe that guy is the one exception.

Here are five lies you’ve been told about your eating, about how doing these things will lead to excess body fat gains. As a side note, none of these will affect your ear growth, promise.

(Source: dailymail.co.uk)

Skipping Breakfast

We should have smelled fraud on this one right away. How could skipping a meal cause us to retain energy? It is the calories our bodies cannot use that are stored as fat.

For many people, skipping breakfast may not be the best choice as they will drag through their mornings. They may even binge eat or overeat at lunch.

For these people, keep eating breakfast. For the rest of us, if you don’t want to eat it and have no hunger problems, then skip it.

(Source: bodybuilding.com)

Eating Less than Six Times a Day

In theory, if you eat more frequent and smaller meals per day, then you will be less likely to feel hungry. This is likely advice spawned by the low-fat crowd because low-fat diets often leave dieters feeling unsatisfied.

Regardless of whether you eat six times or one time per day, the balance of your calories consumed versus calories burned is going to have the greatest impact on whether or not you store fuel as fat.

Don’t force meals.

(Source: dailymail.co.uk)

Eating Carbs

Carbs, sugars, and grains, all get a hard time. You would think that if we would all just cut them out the world would be a thinner place.

Considering the massive number of calories in typical western diets that come from these sources, you can understand why they get such a hard time. That said, you can include all three in your diet, so long as you eat for your goals.

Don’t believe me? Here are four adults who lost weight eating carby diets, by only managing their calorie intakes.

(Source: huffingtonpost.com)

Eating at night

Yes, you can eat at night, so long as it’s part of your plan.

Nothing special happens with calories when the sun dips below a certain point in the sky. The moon has no lunar pull on your calorie expenditure, decreasing your effective calorie usage.

It’s as simple as we tend to make the worst dietary choices as the night wears on. It’s likely hormonal or hydration levels, but it’s certainly not because we need more food at that point.

(Source: coachmikeblogs.com)

Butter

The argument against butter is saturated fat, which, in case you hadn’t heard is off the naughty list. Butter also has calories with which to contend.

It’s true, butter is caloric. You will never lower your body fat levels eating sticks of butter, but who would do that? (I’m looking at you State Fair food.)

You can certainly cut your calories by using butter substitutes, but I wouldn’t recommend that either. There is a debate still raging about whether or not trans-fats are harmful to you or not.

Better that you include measured amounts of butter in your freshly-cooked meals. They’ll taste better, but they’ll fill you up better too.

(Source: epictimes.com

At the end of the day, there are way more factors at play than these lies.

You’re not likely to shed the pounds by just eating breakfast or cutting out the butter. You may notice cutting carbs or not eating at night takes a divot out of your total calories, but understand that it’s the calories removed, not the nutrients or time of day.

If you seriously want to lose weight, meet with a registered dietitian. Let them help you find a plan that works for your lifestyle.