Health & fitness: Busting some common nutrition myths

There is no shortage of misconceptions in the world of nutrition. Every day, there are new trends, new discoveries and new concepts making nutrition seem more and more complicated. Truth is, it really is not that difficult if you look past these nutrition myths. Whether it’s about meal timing, cutting out foods or depriving yourself of key macronutrients – these fads have plenty of loyal followers. The good news is that you don’t need to try any of these for weight loss.

Myth #1: Restricting carbohydrates makes you lose weight.

Restrictive diets are typically not sustainable. Furthermore, they don’t work if you are consuming too much food. You can have a kilogram of butter in a day which contains no carbohydrates, but you would not lose weight eating that. This is because you only lose weight if you are on a calorie deficit, meaning you consume fewer calories than your body expends.

Myth #2: You must stop eating fat to lose fat.

Similar to low-carbohydrate diets, low-fat diets are also not sustainable. Additionally, certain vitamins can be absorbed better with dietary fat which means fat can actually be beneficial for your diet. As long as you are in a calorie deficit, there is nothing wrong with consuming fat especially unsaturated fat like avocado, nuts and salmon.

Myth #3: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for weight loss.

Eating breakfast does not magically make you lose weight. If you like having breakfast, have it. If you don’t like eating first thing in the morning, don’t. Whether you choose to spread your recommended calorie intake in a few larger meals or many small meals, is entirely a matter of preference. Once again, the key factor is whether or not you are in a calorie deficit.

Myth #4: A gluten-free and dairy-free diet is the best way to lose weight.

A lot of people are intolerant to gluten and dairy, in which case it is recommended to cut it out of your diet. However, if your body responds well to gluten and dairy, you do not have to stop consuming it to see results.

Yasir Khan is a Dubai-based transformation expert with 17 years of experience in fitness and mind coaching.