Top Weight Loss Myths

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Weight Loss Myth

• Weight loss stops weight gain
• A calorie is a calorie
• Carbs are bad
• Cutting calories creates lasting results
• Fast and slow oxidizers

1. Weight loss stops weight gain

The number one weight loss myth is the idea that Weight loss solves the problem of gaining weight. 
Losing weight does NOT solve the problem of weight gain. Anyone who has ever lost weight and then summarily gained it all back knows the simple truth of this.

Weight loss addresses the symptoms, it does not address the problem.
As a sustained problem, weight gain has unique drivers - damage to your ability to use food for energy, aging, the binge inducing effect of processed food, and the pace and demands of modern life.
You can lose weight but that does not erase the underlying reasons why weight gain keeps occurring. This is at first a very difficult idea for most individuals to accept and understand, but it is true in every sense. Here are 3 examples of how this is true.
Damaged fat cells in the midsection promote weight gain. Weight loss does not solve the problem.
Processed foods induce binge eating. Weight loss does not stop the effect of processed foods.
As we age, it gets easier to put on weight. Weight loss does not solve age related weight gain.

This does not diminish the need for weight loss, or the importance of reducing your bodyfat. You must get your bodyfat down. Once your bodyfat is down, the key is to understand what the drivers of long term weight gain are. This is the approach we take at lookCut.com.

2. A calorie is a calorie

The idea that all calories are equal is simply false. 'A calorie is a calorie' is the underlying idea behind the idea that equally false idea that many nutritionists, trainers and guru's still cling to - that if all calories are equal then weight gain or weight loss simply boils down to not over eating your daily caloric need, no matter what the calories consist of.

Modern research shows us that the idea that a calorie is a calorie is a nutritional old wives tale.
The truth is different types of calories have profoundly different characteristics, properties and consequences for your midsection. New research show
You can gain belly fat eating BELOW your caloric needs by eating trans fats.
Certain types of carbs such as liquid fructose almost always go straight to fat.
Certain types of carbs such as lima beans promote intense gastric action and can promote weight loss even when eating MORE than your caloric needs.

The point is this - different types of calories have unique properties and characteristics that affect how your body uses and stores them.

3. Carbs are bad
To say processed carbs are very bad at certain times, notably evening, would be fairly accurate. To generalize that statement to include all kinds of carbohydrates without regard for the time of day or what else you eat them with is simply wrong
For us to really understand the issue with carbohydrates, we have to get beyond the idea of "good" and "bad" to look at the differences between processed foods and whole foods. Once we look at carbs in terms of processed foods and whole foods, things start to make a bit more sense. Consider this with respect to whole food carbohydrates
Many whole food carbs promote weight loss
Many whole food carbs improve  blood sugar metabolism
Many whole food carbs increase meal induced  thermogenesis
The idea that carbs are bad takes a beating when we consider the vast differences between  whole food carbs and processed carbs.
Even processed carbs are ok if you restrict them to  a couple of days per week in the morning.  Early in the day your  need  for calories is greater and there is more room in the muscles and liver to store  sugar.
Processed carbs in the evening are another matter. Processed carbs in the evening clearly induce weight gain more often than not.

4. Cutting calories results in permanent weight loss

Actually cutting calories often results in long term weight gain. Give yourself a moment to consider the reality of what is known as "energy homeostasis" and you will readily see this is true.

Energy homeostasis is a term that describes the many systems your body has to regulate how much energy (or food) you eat.

Your body has a system of hormones that work to tell you when to eat, when you are full and how much food you need in total. Cutting calories often sets off a rebound effect with the various hormones that control food intake.

The more dramatic and you cut calories, and the longer you stay in low calorie mode, the greater the hormonal backlash to induce overeating.  Have you ever dieted by cutting calories and then 6 months later found yourself eating with abandon? This is the rebound effect in action.

Uppsala University in Sweden has discovered the obesity gene, FTO, becomes highly active following food deprivation, resulting in overeating. 

The Aberdeen Center for Obesity has demonstrated in experiments with mice that hunger signals in the brain do not subside under protracted calorie restriction. Post calorie restriction always resulted in protracted hunger until the lost body weight was restored.

5. Fast and slow "oxidizers"

Recently different types of diet plans and metabolic profiling systems have sprung up around the idea "fast oxidizers" and "slow oxidizers". Specifically, what this concept is trying to illuminate is the fact that different people burn fat at different rates.

The notion of the fast and slow oxidizer is an example of trying to define a problem in terms of the symptom. The simple truth is that slow oxidation of fats is a function of insulin resistance. Period.  The problem is not that you are a slow oxidizer. The problem is you have insulin resistance.

A study published in 2006 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism clearly established that fat oxidation rates correlate exactly with body mass index and insulin resistance.

The wave of 'oxidizer diets' and metabolic typing we are seeing today is a bit like labeling people who need glasses as 'poor focusers'.