If you walk while eating, not only will you lose weight because you are moving, but you also tend to eat less because your brain gets pre-occupied with the destination, and therefore you pay less attention to the food.
Makes sense, right?
The only problem with it, really, is that I created this 'truth' for myself as something works for me, but in all reality, it is probably a myth.
We all have 'truths' we have heard through the grapevine about food, and you'd be surprised - or perhaps not - with how many are false.
I used to be told that eating most of your calories in the evening was bad as the food would sit in your stomach all through the night with a half functioning metabolism, and therefore make you gain weight.
It is a myth. Eating in the evening does not make you gain any more weight than eating in the afternoon or in the morning. It all depends on how many calories you consume. What makes you gain weight is the pointless munching of sugary and unhealthy snacks while watching your TV show.
As for those of you who walk around the shopping aisles looking for fat free foods because you believe if it is fat free, it must be good for your waste line, be careful.
Just because it is fat free doesn't mean it is calorie free. It has been found that many people increase their portions, believing they can eat more and not gain weight.
The safe bet is sticking to vegetables and fruits because they are low in fat and calories - although you still have to be careful with the natural sugars in fruits. Always check the nutritional panel, before you put it in your mouth.
We are always told to stay away from the carbs and sugars because they will make us fat, but that too is a myth.
Carbohydrates do not cause weight gain... I repeat, they do not cause weight gain unless you over-consume. In a study by the National Weight Control Registry, it was found that people on diets with more carbohydrates and lower fat, while watching their calorie intake, maintained weight loss.
Yoghurt no longer has to be banished. Yoghurt is rich in calcium and recent research has found that calcium does help reduce weight gain, but there is one catch: you can't eat yoghurt that contains sugars or sweetened fruit, which is pretty much every yoghurt on the shelves these days.
For those of you who try to convince yourselves that by doing exercise, your body will naturally make you want to eat more, you can no longer use that excuse. It has been found that people who exercise over 20 minutes have the same appetite as that of a person who hasn't done any exercise. The only difference is that when you exercise, you're burning off some of those calories, and that is a plus if you ask me.
All the macho men and women out there who believe that cutting everything out and just putting extra protein in your food makes you strong, you will be disappointed. Eating high protein diets may appear to work, however, such diets lack other nutritional supplements found in carbohydrate foods, making your body crave what it's missing elsewhere. Remember, there is no super diet for super performance, it is all about balance.
Yes, lettuce does make your figure smaller because it barely has any calories but think back, did you put dressing on your lettuce salad last time you ate it? Well, that sauce is high in fat, and that is where people falter with salads.
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My favourite food myth is the grapefruit diet - consuming half a grape fruit before every meal is supposed to help you lose weight because the fruit supposedly has fat-burning enzymes.
Under the diet, people are encouraged to eat 800 calories a day and since grapefruit has low calories and sodium, and is a good source of vitamin C, many people think the diet is good for you.
But the limited calories, lack of fibre, protein, and important vitamins and minerals has led some doctors to label the diet as being potentially dangerous. There is no such thing as foods that can burn fat; all foods can do is speed up your metabolism.
And here is one for my personal trainer who used to tell me that processed foods were not as nutritious as fresh foods: they are... and some are even more nutritious than fresh foods.
For example, frozen vegetables are usually more nutritious than their fresh counterparts because, since they are frozen soon after being harvested, there is barely any nutrient loss. Fresh vegetables, meanwhile, take days being transported before they reach the store, then sometimes more days before they reach your dinner table, and therefore, they lose nutrients along the way.
You must be questioning some of your other food beliefs by now...
What food myths can you bust?