5 Diet Myths That Sabotage Weight Loss

At age 20, Lisa Lynn couldn’t understand how she had gotten to be 40 pounds overweight. She ate a vegan diet and exercised three hours daily—still she continued to pack on the pounds.

“I was gaining weight, and felt depressed and hopeless,” the author of the new book, The Metabolic Solution, tells Newsmax Health.

Lynn, Martha Stewart’s personal trainer for 13 years, has appeared as a regular guest on the “Dr. Oz Show” and many other TV shows.

In the midst of her search for a solution to her weight problems, Lynn realized that much of the common wisdom about diet and fitness is wrong. Today, at age 46, she is 40 pounds lighter and in the best shape of her life.

“If you are serious about losing weight and getting rid of excess body fat, you need to forget a lot of what you’ve been told about getting in shape because you’ll do nothing but keep gaining,” she says.

Here are the five top lies that sabotage weight loss, according to Lynn:

1. Fast weight loss is bad. Fast weight loss is actually the best way to reach your goal because we tend to stick to programs that get results, she says. As long as you are eating healthfully and not starving yourself, you can decrease your caloric intake to ensure speedy weight loss.

Even though you are restricting calories, make sure your diet is well rounded, with protein, healthy fats, and 10 servings of vegetables and fruits daily.

2. All workouts lead to weight loss. Some workouts can actually stop you from losing weight. Exercising causes stress levels to rise, and even though it is positive stress, your blood sugar spikes and you become ravenous.

The result is overeating. The best exercises for weight loss are “metabolic workouts” that burn calories without causing appetite to soar, says Linn.

“For maximum fat burning you need to work both the upper and lower body,” explains Lynn. 

Bicep curls for arms and squats for legs are two excellent metabolic exercises for weight burning, she says.

3. The more exercise, the better. Over-exercising causes our bodies to retain fat as a survival mechanism. It also causes physical stress to the body that can impair the immune system. Successful weight loss is based on 90 percent diet and 10 percent exercise. No amount of exercise can compensate for a terrible diet.

“I know from personal experience that you can’t make those burgers disappear no matter how much you work out,” Lynn says.

4. All fats are created equal. Some fats burn easier as fuel compared to others, says Lynn. Avoid animal fats like those found in red meat, butter, and cheese, she says. Healthy oils include olive, walnut, canola, and palm oils (especially Malaysian and red palm oils).

5. Government standard serving sizes will help you lose weight. If you follow what the government suggests, you are guaranteed to have a weight problem, says Lynn.

To determine how much you should eat each day, take your target weight and multiply by 10. That is how many daily calories you should eat. This means a person who wants to weigh 150 pounds should strive to eat 1,500 calories a day, Lynn recommends.

For the original article, visit newsmaxhealth.com.