Myths and mistakes of dieting

Dieting is important for muscle gain, fat loss and other fitness goals. Whenever I mention “diet”, people can only think of starvation. They will lose weight through limiting their food intake.

“Dieting doesn’t mean starving!”

Some of the diets have its uses. Just that you are doing it wrongly when you think you are doing it correctly. I won’t be discussing on the right way of doing it and how should you cycle your diet.

*Please note that these diets are only useful in the short run. They should never be used in the long run.

Low-carbohydrate diet

• People can go on a “low carbs diet” by reducing their white rice intake etc. The problem is the amount of carbs into their body. Very often, I just see they reduce their carbs intake from “too much” to “moderate”. You are just eating the right amount of carbs, not low carbs yet!

• Yes, some can be eating doing low carbs correctly. The problem is that you cannot go long term. There is time when you need to refuel your body by taking moderate to high amount of carbohydrate so that you can get another run of result with a low carbs diet.

High protein diet
Protein is the thing for muscle building! This is true, I won’t deny this. I do see newbies getting anal on their protein intake for muscle building. They will go gulping down bottles and bottles of protein supplement in hope of getting that extra pound of muscle.

With that extra protein, yes you may recover faster and possible get more muscle growth. The problem is that you need to get your basic diet (consisting of carbohydrate, protein & fat) correct first. Extra protein with a poor basic diet will not give you the muscle that you want.

Just remember that protein gives calories too. By over-eating protein, it is possible that you will get that extra fat.

Too much protein causes gout
This is just not true. Too much protein doesn’t cause gout. Just go and google around for researches that have been done.

Just one thing to note: if you have gout, then you shouldn’t take too much protein.

Fat is the evil! It causes you to get fat!
There is just half-truth in this statement. There are good fat & bad fat, just like good and bad carbs. By overeating anything, the excess calories will be stored as fat.

We still need a good amount of fat everyday. I will cover this in another article.

An apple an day, keeps my fat away.
This is the worst fad diet ever. You are just restricting your calorie intake by an insane amount. You can see weight loss instantly. Just remember that your weight will rebound as soon as you resume your usual diet.

You just need to know what is happening.

Your body goes into “survival mode” by shutting down some of its normal function because of the lack of calories. You are losing your lean body mass. Your metabolism started crawling. You get moody and bark at anything that annoys you. You start to fall sick easily and experience hair loss too.

As soon as you see the figure on the weighing scale is correct, you resume your usual diet. (Just pray that you are alive to see this stage) Within weeks, your weight rebound. It’s even higher this time. You cannot even squeeze into your jeans anymore. Yeah, now you know it's bad.

This article is long enough and I should stop here. Just remember to read through all my other articles to find out more about dieting.