1. To Lose
Weight, You Have to Eat Less
False. You have to eat better. It seems that if we don't starve ourselves, we're not making the "effort" to lose weight.
But sometimes changing our diet to lose weight can even mean eating more, because we include foods such as fruit and vegetables that are not part of many people's menus or, more commonly, not in the proper proportions.
Caloric density: To eat more but not have a high-calorie intake, you have to choose foods according to their caloric density. There are three types of foods that are suitable for you because of the nutrients they contain and their caloric intake:
✱ Very low
caloric density: These are fresh fruits, vegetables, and dairy products.
✱ Low caloric
density: Such as white meats (chicken, turkey, and rabbit), fish, eggs.
✱ Moderate
caloric density: They are cereals (pasta, bread, rice...) and legumes.
✱ High or very high caloric density: They are sweet and salty snacks, butter and fats, sauces, industrial pastries, and alcoholic beverages. These are the foods that you should avoid or moderate a lot.
2. The Key Is to
Reduce the Number of Calories
False. It is also essential to know where they come from. There must be a calorie deficit to lose weight, i.e., you have to consume fewer calories than your body needs to burn to perform its functions (breathing, walking, etc.).
✱ But... You could eat a croissant for breakfast, lasagna for lunch, and pizza for dinner and not reach the 1,500 kcal of a hypocaloric diet if you take nothing else.
However, if you consistently eat this way, the lack of nutrients from healthy foods may prevent you from losing weight.
✱ Why. Suppose the basis of your diet is not fresh fruit and vegetables. In that case, you can have nutritional deficiencies and dysfunctions in your gut microbiota that can lead to overweight and fluid retention, bloating, constipation...
✱ Also, "toxic hunger" is triggered. If you lack essential nutrients, you can feel a "toxic hunger," a hunger that is not real.
You distinguish it because it is not satiated with any food, but it seems that the body asks you for particular ones, such as sweets or pastries.
3. If I Do
Sport, I Will Lose Weight
False. Sport complements the diet. Eating a bad or excessively caloric diet and thinking that exercising we will lose weight is a mistake.
Why? Because we overestimate what we burn doing sport and, in general, we will never achieve the caloric deficit we were talking about before if we do not change the way we eat.
One example makes this clear. The Mayo Clinic in the U.S. conducted a study showing that eating well and doing sport should go hand in hand.
Seeing the calories burned by different sporting activities, it was complicated to leave it all to exercise.
For example, walking fast (at 5-6 km/h) for 1 hour burns 314 kcal or the equivalent of a potato salad.
4. It Is Very
Important to Leave Home After Breakfast
False. Not if you are not hungry. As people who do intermittent fasting diets know, extending the fast between dinner and breakfast can help you lose weight.
✱ And by the way... Breakfast doesn't necessarily have to have dairy, fruit, and cereal. This is cultural.
You can have eggs and beans like Americans or hummus with carrots like vegans. The important thing is what you eat as a whole throughout the day.
Three Sweet and
Light Breakfasts
✱ Oatmeal and
banana pancakes: Serve with whipped yogurt, chopped fruit, and a little dark
chocolate?
✱ Sugar-free
granola: Toast whole grain oat flakes with nuts, raisins, etc., lightly oiled
and with a bit of honey; add them to yogurt.
✱ Toast: You can make them with vegetable pâté or avocado, instead of ham, tuna, etc.
5. It Is Better
to Eat 5 Meals A Day Than 3
It depends. Are you hungry five times a day? If so, eat five times, but if you are only hungry 3 or 4 or 2, why eat 5?
Many studies and meta-analyses have proven that it is unnecessary to eat every 2-3 hours to avoid slowing down the metabolism, as we had always been told. So, if you are not hungry, don't eat.
✱ Be careful: there are not five equal meals. What you eat throughout the day can be distributed in as many meals as you need, but the total amount of what you eat daily does not have to increase by eating five meals instead of 3.
Organize your week's meals with our weekly menus: easy, healthy, and tasty!
6. Always Eat at
The Same Time
Yes and no. The body loves routine. Eating at the same time every day helps maintain weight by controlling hunger and avoiding snacking.
But it has to be at the time when your body is starving, when your stomach feels empty, not at set times for work, etc.
When you are clear about when you are hungry, do not change your schedule, and on weekends do not vary more than one hour.
✱ If you eat lunch and dinner too late... You may need to rearrange them. Chronobiology has shown that eating after 3 p.m. and dining later than 9 p.m. is fattening.
Besides, these late hours do not usually respond to the hunger we feel but to the (bad) habit of leaving late from work, from the gym, etc.
7. You Should
Have First, Second, And Dessert
False. You can have a single dish or many small portions. It is not so important how many dishes you put on the table but what the dishes contain and what quantity.
✱ How do you guide yourself? The ideal is to follow the Harvard plate. One-half corresponds to vegetables, one quarter to carbohydrates (legumes, rice, potato...), and another quarter to protein (fish, meat, legume, egg...).
Then you can divide it into one plate or in seven, as long as you respect these proportions.
8. You Can Eat
Everything If You Control the Quantity
False. It ends up being "a lot." It's the small "snacks" that unbalance our diet, displacing more nutritious foods (fruit, vegetables...).
Moreover, when added together, they can even jeopardize our health. Sweets, snacks, and ultra-processed foods, in general, should only form part of your meals very occasionally.
9. You Should
Not Eat Carbohydrates for Dinner
False. You can. It was indeed believed that the metabolism was slower at night and that if you ate carbohydrates at dinner, they were stored in your body in the form of fat.
But it has been shown that this is not true and that the metabolism does not slow down at night.
✱ What about glucose tolerance? This is another theory that has become outdated because it is true that carbohydrates release glucose into the blood and that, after dinner, there is a certain tolerance to glucose.
But it has been shown that it is the same as after the meal. Tolerance is only better after breakfast and is due to the hours of overnight fasting.
✱ But wasn't the evening meal supposed to be light? Yes, chronobiology recommends that most calories be consumed between breakfast and lunch, but a light dinner can incorporate carbohydrates.
✱ So, how or not? It depends. Suppose you have had a lot of carbohydrates in the last meals; better not. Again, the important thing is your overall diet.
10. To Lose
Weight You Have to Eliminate Condiments
False. It depends on which ones. Olive oil, mustard, aromatic herbs, or spices can brighten up many dishes, especially vegetable or fish dishes for those who are not very fond of eating these healthy foods and need something to help them find them more delicious.
✱ The important thing is quality and quantity. Olive oil, especially extra virgin olive oil, has many health benefits. But even so, you can't squirt it because it is very caloric (you shouldn't exceed 3-4 tablespoons a day).
But what you should avoid because of its poor nutritional quality are ultra-processed sauces with refined oils, salt, additives, and sugars (such as many industrial sauces for salads, meats...).
11. To Lose
Weight, You Cannot Have A Social Life
False. It would help if you led a normal life. You can lose weight and go out to eat with friends, family, etc...
Even in restaurants, you can make healthy choices. And if someone else cooks, all you have to do is enjoy and moderate your portions. You will make up for it at other meals.
Ideas to Lose
Weight Without Dieting
Listen to yourself: Take your time to recognize when you're starving (you may need the calm of a weekend to do this). And organize your meal times accordingly.
Get organized: Plan your week with the Harvard plate in mind when thinking about your menus and shop according to this list.
Having everything you need so you don't improvise, it more accessible to eat well without throwing in cold cuts, cheese, pizzas, and precooked foods.
The treats, out of the house: If you have a hard time not snacking, the best thing to do is avoid "temptations" at home. It is better to go out for a snack or to go to a bakery from time to time than to have it in the pantry from where it can shout "eat me" at any moment.
Are you starving? Start your meal with a big glass of low-salt vegetable broth sipped. Follow with a medium bowl of garden salad. Whatever comes next, however, the light will leave you satiated.
Fruit, not always for dessert: It has nothing to do with whether it is digested or not. It is a matter of hunger. If you feel full of what you have already eaten, you can leave the piece of fruit for dessert for a snack.
Know your weaknesses: What are you missing? A strawberry shortcake? We're not saying you shouldn't eat it very occasionally, but if you crave it often, ideally, you should eat, for example, strawberries with Greek yogurt whipped with cinnamon. Indeed, your need for tart tartlet goes way down.
How to Organize
A Healthy Menu?
Don't force yourself, but make an effort: Following the Harvard plate directions we saw earlier, the base of your menus is vegetables, and you may be one of those who "don't like" them.
If you don't like a vegetable, don't eat it, but there is a wide variety to choose from. You will want something... So will fruit.
Experiment with new recipes: Often, the problem with vegetables is the preparation. Boiled chard can be discouraging, but sautéed with garlic and chili is something else...
And if the typical salad of lettuce, tomato, onion, and olives doesn't appeal to you, try other combinations that appeal to you more. How about sprouts, pomegranate, and walnuts?
Ration and prominence: It is true that, depending on the Harvard dish, legumes or cereals have a secondary role, and the percentage is a garnish. But twice a week, each of them can be the protagonist and increase the ratio.
In this case, the "sacrificed" part is the protein. That is, a stew should be of legumes and vegetables, for example.
Smart snacks: Nuts with fruit or yogurt are always a good option and foods that we do not usually consider, such as olives, pickles, and a tin of cockles. Of course, in a tapas portion.
Suppose you are a sweet tooth: If you are more into sweet snacks, combine nuts with dried fruit (still a handful).
Have a toast of mashed banana with cinnamon; whip up some Greek yogurt with fruit and date, etc.
And to drink... Water, tea, coffee, or infusions are the usual drinks the
consumption of alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, etc., the more sporadic, the
better.