9 Indian weight loss diet myths you’ve been believing all your life

“Does this have egg? Sorry, I’m on a diet.”

“I gave up my favourite paranthas, ‘coz I need to lose weight.”

“(Looks at clock) Oops! Lunch hour over already?! (sigh) Anyways, skipping it is gonna help me as I’m dieting.”

You began crafting your workout routine to your schedule for your new weight loss journey. BUT THEN an avalanche of DO’s & DONT’S about your diet just muddled it all up. So, you just shrugged off all those healthy promises you made to yourself, because if eating healthy were so ‘difficult’, it’s really not worth it!

Sounds like your story?

If yes, please do read further.

If no, still read. Because busting myths about diet that have iterated over time has never been so interesting, umm…well,… relieving!

Here are the top 9 Indian weight loss diet myths debunked for you!

1. MYTH: Whole eggs are bad for people who want to slim down.

FACT : Eggs are high on proteins, vitamins & minerals (that you may lose during an indiscriminate weight loss!) being extremely low on calories. A single boiled egg contains only 78 calories! Moreover, eggs provide greater satiety as compared to other protein sources of food like meat; which means an egg included in your meals can keep you full for a longer spell of time, thereby curbing your urge to unhealthy snacking. Eggs, in fact, are known to catalyze metabolism. If the yolk is to blame for cholesterol, well, it’s only going to reduce your LDL (bad cholesterol). So unless you are advised by the doctor to avoid eggs, there’s definitely a lot eggs can do for you to lose weight.

2. MYTH: GHEE causes weight gain.

FACT : As per celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar, ghee contains essential amino acids that help mobilising fat cells, thereby letting them shrink in size. So, you need not toss paranthas out because you can’t spread them with ghee! However, this doesn’t grant you a thumbs up if you want to consider ghee or oil as an option for deep frying. Refrain from having more than 2 teaspoons of ghee for a day as too much of anything ain’t good.

3. MYTH: Rice is fattening. Rotis are NOT.

FACT : WRONG! A bowl of rice just contains lesser fiber than an equivalent quantity of chapatis. And, surprisingly, both provide the same number of calories. Therefore, the fiber in the chapatis takes longer to digest and keeps you feeling full for a longer time than rice. This fact has supposedly fostered the notion that rice makes you gain weight as you feel hungry soon next. So, it’s not about the type of food, but the quantity of the food that you eat. Be it a roti or a bowl of rice, overeating any of them will make you fat in the long run.

Instead, watch how much you eat rather than avoiding rice.

4. MYTH: When on diet, have ONLY fruit juices.

FACT : Whole fruits are rich sources of fiber, vitamins & antioxidants in the right amounts. Juicing them only makes you discard the natural fiber out of them and rendering the remainder bland, that makes most of us add unnecessary teaspoons of sugar to it. It’s the sugar which, ironically, makes it unhealthy and detrimental for weight loss. Many people take to packaged juices that just house preservatives, artificial flavors and other chemical additives, which do more harm than good.

5. MYTH: ONLY 3 meals if you want to lose weight.

FACT : A healthy weight loss calls for an active metabolism. And such a process must include the 3 main meals (breakfast, lunch & dinner) plus 2 mini snack meals (post-breakfast snacker & evening snacker) for a day. Having 5 such meals helps boost our metabolism proactively along with the 3 main meals, provided they are eaten in the right quantity and contain all the nutrition required.

6. MYTH: NO Cheat meals!

FACT: Most people do not seem to understand the difference between a cheat meal & a cheat day. An orthodox weight loss diet usually restricts a lot of calories and carbohydrates, which often leads to lower energy levels & lack of motivation to still stay disciplined and sane until you reach your target weight. Losing weight takes time & not seeing the results at the expected rate may leave you frustrated or demotivated too.

Nevertheless, see to it that you ‘plan’ a cheat meal and not get it impulsive at a last-moment party or a hangout. When you plan a cheat meal, it helps keep your appetite and energy levels in control as you know you will not deprive your disciplined self from any happy meal that you will have, say once in every 10 or 15 days.

7. MYTH: You can guzzle anything if you are exercising enough.

FACT : A very subconscious yet common belief that catapults even the fitness freaks into a sense of complacency is that if you are working out enough, you can eat anything. Yes, anything beyond limits. Of course, weight loss is 20% exercise & 80% nutrition. But, clearly, hours of your workout are definitely going to be flushed out if you shove an unhealthy pizza or burger down your throat out of ‘entitlement’. Clean eating is, after all, the key to weight loss.

8. MYTH: Losing weight is ONLY about losing the calories somehow.

FACT : You can never equate the nutrition provided by a cupcake (178 calories, 26% fat, 3% protein), 100gms of chicken (110 calories, 37% fat, 63% protein) & 1 gulab jamun (143 calories, 43% fat, 9% protein). That’s because each type of food is absorbed differently by our body and has different effects on it, be it good or bad. So, if scaling your calorie intake has been your ONLY weight loss strategy, it’s time to change it, buddy!

9. MYTH: An ALL-fruits diet is the best way to burn all body fat.

FACT : Fruits are, undoubtedly, the ultimate low-fat, low-calorie and high-fiber food that we can enjoy. That makes them equally essential not just for a person during weight loss, but for every human being. But a diet that has only fruits charted on it is quite a bad idea. That’s because an exclusively low-cal diet over a considerable period of time is bound to cause various nutritional deficiencies &, God forbid, health adversities.

So, the bottom line goes without saying that weight loss ain’t about punishing oneself with boring & bland food all the time unless you have your facts right & let moderation anchor your journey to the leaner & healthier YOU!

What do you say?
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