Continued from July 29 blog… 

4) Diet sodas help you lose weight   Diet soda has no nutrients whatsoever.  They are really wasted calories.  Water, dye and chemical sweetener.  Research now shows us that even though they don’t contain sugar, diet sodas can lead to overeating and binging by raising blood sugar and making us hungrier.  We always knew that regular soda was full of empty calories but now we know that diet soda is no better.  Consume it in reasonable quantities.

5) Nighttime eating makes you fat   There has been a lot of discussion about whether eating after dinner makes us gain weight.  But the verdict is still out on this issue.  There is very little substantial research that says nighttime eating will make you gain weight.  So basically it is still what you eat not when you eat it.  Although eating a large meal late at night and going right to bed may not be the best thing for you stomach.  But Europeans are known to eat late night dinners and they are half the size of most Americans.

6) Don’t weigh yourself   Years ago we were told not to weigh ourselves while on a diet because of psychological reasons.  The thinking was that slow downward movement of the scale would demoralize somebody trying to lose weight.  I totally disagree with this, as without getting weighed once a week there is nothing to gauge how well you are doing.  But I do agree that jumping on the scale all the time can be defeating.  Also don’t forget that the scale does not differentiate between fat, bone, water and muscle.  Another way to see results is to get measured every 4-6 weeks.

More diet myths to follow….