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8 weight-loss myths
DIR By: agate
Date: May 18, 2015, 12:30 am
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From Nutrition Action, May 17, 2015:
--- Quote ---
> 8 Big, Fat, Weight Loss Myths
>
> Posted By Bonnie Liebman
>
> It’s no secret that losing weight—and keeping it off—is tough.
That’s all the more reason to avoid moving up a pant size in the
first place. Here we correct 8 common weight loss myths to help
you play defense in the battle of the bulge.
>
> MYTH #1: “I can lose weight later.”
>
> Let’s say you’ve been on vacation. Or it’s the holidays. You
know you’ve put on a few pounds, but so what? You’ll just cut
back when things get back to normal, and your waist will shrink
back to its pre-vacation or pre-holiday size in a few weeks,
right?
>
> Not so fast.
>
> “A student of mine was interested in how long it would take
for somebody to lose the weight they had gained from holiday
overeating if all they did was go back to their regular
pre-Thanksgiving diet,” says Kevin Hall, senior investigator in
the Laboratory of Biological Modeling at the National Institute
of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
>
> “The funny thing was that they wouldn’t have lost all the new
weight by the time the next holiday period came around.”
>
> So just several weeks’ worth of indulgence can have lasting
consequences.
>
>
> “If you never quite lose the weight that you gained the
previous year, you’re just ratcheting your weight up year after
year after year,” explains Hall.
>
> Why does it take so long to lose those extra pounds that you
put on so quickly? The old rule of thumb—that you can expect to
lose a pound for every 3,500 calories you cut—is wrong for
several reasons.
>
> For example:
>
> You’ve lost muscle.
>
> The 3,500- calorie rule assumes that you’ve lost only fat. In
fact, about 25 percent of the weight that dieters lose is lean
tissue.
>
> “Most of the lean body mass is skeletal muscle,” says Hall.
“And even at rest, it burns more calories than fat tissue.”
>
> Your organs are smaller.
>
> “As you lose weight, your liver, kidneys, and other organs
shrink,” says Hall. “So the number of calories that are required
to keep those organs operating goes down.”
>
> Roughly 60 to 70 percent of your calories are used just to
keep your heart beating, your kidneys filtering blood, etc., 24
hours a day.
>
> “The liver and kidneys are much smaller than the sum total of
your skeletal muscles,” explains Hall. “But per unit weight,
they are 10 to 20 times more active than skeletal muscle at
rest. So even small changes in these organs can make relatively
substantial changes in metabolic rate.”
>
> Metabolic slowdown.
>
> Lost at least 10 percent of your weight? To keep it off, you
may have to eat 10 to 15 percent fewer calories than you did
before you gained it.
>
>
> Exercise burns fewer calories.
>
> As your body becomes smaller, moving it around becomes easier.
Going for a walk or climbing the stairs burns fewer calories
than it used to.
>
> Your metabolism is slower.
>
> “Your metabolism slows down when you cut calories,” says Hall.
It’s as though your body is hunkering down to face scarcity, so
it burns fewer calories per minute.
> ...
>
>
> Bottom line: A slower metabolism and less lean mass make it
hard to lose all the extra pounds you gain.
>
> MYTH #2: Once I lose weight, it’ll stay off.
>
> You go on a diet for six months. Gone are those extra 10 or 20
pounds. But slowly, they start to reappear. That’s what happens
in most large studies. What’s up?
>
> “We’ve looked at body weight changes to figure out what people
have done to their food intake, and what we found was pretty
surprising,” says Hall.
>
> “Initially, most people go like gangbusters. They’re pretty
good about sticking to their weight-loss program for a while.”
>
> But they gradually start to eat more, and they don’t notice
because they keep losing weight. That’s because they’re still
eating less than when they started dieting.
>
>
> ...
>
> “By the time they reach their maximum success, after six to
eight months, they’re about 80 percent of the way back to what
they were eating at the beginning of the weight-loss program,”
says Hall.
>
> “They’re eating, say, 100 calories less per day, whereas they
started out probably cutting about 700 calories out of their
diet. So 80 percent of that initial diet has been lost.”
>
> And their weight creeps back up.
>
> ...
>
> Bottom line: Many dieters regain lost weight because they
gradually start eating more.
>
> MYTH #3: Fat is fat, no matter where it is.
>
> When you overeat, your body needs to stash the excess calories
somewhere. But your odds of losing those extra pounds—and their
impact on your health—depend on where the fat ends up. And much
of that is beyond your control (see No. 5).
>
> “We know that if people gain leg fat, they actually gain new
fat cells, so they’re sort of stuck with new fat cells,” says
Michael Jensen, director of the Obesity Treatment Research
Program at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
>
> That’s not true for belly fat.
>
> “At least with modest weight gain, almost all the weight gain
in upper body fat is an increase in fat cell size,” says Jensen.
“Each fat cell just agrees to store a little bit more. That
makes upper body fat easier to lose.”
>
> ...
>
>
>
> “Your fat cells can only get so big,” explains Jensen. “From
the smallest fat cell to the biggest fat cell is only about a
four-fold increase. And we all know people who have gained more
than four times as much fat as they had when they were skinny.
So eventually, you have to start recruiting new fat cells.”
>
> Apparently, we all have pre-adipocytes (pre-fat cells) that
are just waiting to be pressed into service whenever we need
them.
>
> The irony: storing more fat in your legs is actually
healthier.
>
> “People who gain predominantly leg fat tend to have a much
better metabolic profile than people who put on a lot of
abdominal fat,” notes Jensen. “They’re less likely to get
diabetes, less likely to get high cholesterol and high
triglycerides, and less likely to get hypertension and sleep
apnea.
>
> “My biggest worry is when a patient comes in with a big gut
and skinny legs,” he adds. “I know they’re probably in trouble.”
>
> It’s not clear why upper body fat—especially the deep-belly
visceral fat—is worse. One possibility: visceral fat cells may
send more fat to the liver. Or a generous layer of visceral fat
may be a sign that your subcutaneous fat is faulty.
>
> “One speculation is that people gain visceral fat because the
subcutaneous fat in their abdomen and thighs is not doing its
job,” says Jensen. “Its job is to sequester fat from the excess
calories you ate so that it can’t harm your lean tissue.
>
> “And if the subcutaneous fat can’t do its job, the fallback
job goes to the visceral fat. And if the visceral fat can’t do
its job, the fat starts building up in your liver and muscles
and other places where you really, really don’t want it.”
>
> Why?
>
> “Those organs can’t package fat in the safe triglyceride form
very well,” explains Jensen. “So the fatty acids—the individual
components of triglycerides—can interfere with cell function.”
>
> You might end up with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, for
example.
>
> “It’s as though you kept putting gas in the gas tank when it’s
full and now it’s running all over the side of your car,” says
Jensen. “It’s a bad situation.”
>
> Bottom line: Extra calories can lead to leg fat that’s tough
to lose or deep-belly fat that’s a risk to your health.
>
> MYTH #4: You have to go out of your way to overeat.
>
> You needn’t sit at home all day and stuff your mouth with
potato chips, candy bars, and ice cream to end up with a spare
tire. You just have to eat—like most of us do— in restaurants,
shopping malls, movie theaters, ballparks, airports, drug
stores, gas stations, and at virtually every other public place.
>
> “Food is now available everywhere,” says Kevin Hall, of the
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney
Diseases. “It’s even socially acceptable to eat during meetings.
In fact, food is now provided at meetings.”
>
> Where isn’t food available? And the size of meals has grown.
>
> “The restaurant is a toxic environment,” says Susan Roberts,
director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory at the Jean Mayer
USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts
University. “The portion sizes are enormous, and the calories
are excessive.”
>
> In a 2013 study, she and colleagues analyzed the calories in
the 42 most frequently eaten meals from independent and small
chain sit-down restaurants in the Boston area. They included
popular cuisines like Mexican, American, Chinese, Italian,
Japanese, Thai, Indian, Greek, and Vietnamese.
>
> “These establishments make up half of all restaurants but
offer no calories or other Nutrition Facts on their menus,”
notes Roberts.
>
> The average meal had roughly 1,300 calories—about two-thirds
of the calories an average person needs in a day.
>
> “And people have no idea how many calories they’re eating,”
adds Roberts.
>
> Bottom line: What’s typically served in restaurants can make
you gain weight.
>
> MYTH #5: All extra calories are equal.
>
> Can you change where your extra calories end up?
>
> “There’s certainly some genetic component to it,” says Mayo’s
Michael Jensen.
>
> “Women, because of female hormones, are going to be more able
to store leg fat than men.” (That is, until menopause, when they
may wonder where that waist went.)
>
> “It turns out that smokers are probably not as good at making
new leg fat cells,” he adds. “And people who drink a lot of
alcohol tend to store more fat in the abdominal area.”
>
> Saturated fat may also make a beeline to your belly. Swedish
scientists added enough 250-calorie muffins—typically three a
day—to the diets of 39 young lean adults to make them gain about
3½ pounds over seven weeks. But those who got muffins made with
saturated fat (palm oil) gained more visceral and liver fat than
those who got muffins made with a polyunsaturated fat (sunflower
oil).
>
> And it’s not just palm oil. The same researchers found more
liver fat when they fed obese people butter instead of sunflower
oil. (That study didn’t measure visceral fat.)
>
> The extra calories from added sugars like sucrose and
high-fructose corn syrup may also prefer to settle in deep-belly
fat.
>
> When researchers gave 32 overweight or obese middle-aged men
and women a high dose of fructose or glucose for 10 weeks, both
groups gained about three pounds.
>
> “But fructose significantly increased visceral fat, while
glucose did not,” explains Kimber Stanhope, associate researcher
at the University of California, Davis.
>
> (Since we get glucose from nearly all carbs but fructose only
from sugars, the only way to limit fructose is to limit added
sugars—from soft drinks, frappuccinos, cookies, cakes, ice
cream, muffins, doughnuts, scones, candy, and other sweets.)
>
> “A Danish study that gave overweight people a much smaller
dose of fructose—a liter of sucrose-sweetened cola per day for
six months— also found an increase in visceral fat,” notes
Stanhope. “More studies are needed, but this direct
experimental evidence suggests that sugars may increase visceral
fat.”
>
> Bottom line: Excess calories from foods high in sugars or
saturated fats may be more likely to settle in deep-belly fat.
>
> MYTH #6: You can boost your metabolism.
>
> “Metabolism boost,” boasts the label of Organic Matcha green
tea powder, which also claims to be a “calorie burner.”
“Supports energy and metabolism,” claims Herbalife Herbal Tea
Concentrate.
>
> CALORIES IN RESTAURANT DISHES
> Most typical restaurant dishes have at least 1,000 calories.
It’s easy to gain weight if you eat what restaurants serve.
>
> Food and Calories:
>
> Uno Chicago Classic Deep Dish Pizza 2,300
>
> Famous Dave’s Baby Back Ribs (full rack) w/baked beans, fries,
corn bread 2,110
>
> Outback Steakhouse 16 oz. Herb Prime Rib w/Caesar salad,
garlic mashed potatoes 2,000
>
> Buffalo Wild Wings Traditional Wings w/blue cheese (small
order, around 10 wings) 1,940
>
> Five Guys Bacon Cheeseburger w/regular fries 1,870
>
> IHOP Hearty Ham & Cheese Omelette w/3 buttermilk pancakes
w/syrup 1,730
>
> Chili’s Smoked Chicken Quesadillas 1,720
>
> Joe’s Crab Shack Seaside Platter (fish, chips, jumbo shrimp,
breaded scallops, coleslaw) 1,650
>
> Olive Garden Chicken Alfredo 1,540
>
> On The Border Mesquite-Grilled Steak Fajita w/3 flour
tortillas, sour cream, guacamole, cheese, pico de gallo, rice,
black beans 1,460
>
> Outback Steakhouse 14 oz. New York Strip Steak w/Caesar salad,
dressed baked potato 1,410
>
> P.F. Chang’s Kung Pao Chicken w/rice 1,370
>
> Chili’s Cajun Pasta with Grilled Chicken 1,270
>
> Denny’s All-American Slam (3 eggs, cheese, 2 bacon strips, 2
sausage links, hash browns, 2 slices toast) 1,220
> P.F. Chang’s Combo Fried Rice 1,210
>
> Chili’s Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie 1,200
>
> Chili’s Molten Chocolate Cake 1,160
>
> Maggiano’s Shrimp Scampi 1,130
>
> Olive Garden Spaghetti with Meatballs 1,120
>
> Romano’s Macaroni Grill Lasagna Bolognese 1,110
>
> Olive Garden Fettuccine Alfredo 1,090
>
> Häagen-Dazs Banana Split Dazzler Sundae 1,080
>
> California Pizza Kitchen Original BBQ Chicken or California
Veggie Pizza 1,070
>
> P.F. Chang’s Shrimp Pad Thai 1,070
>
> Olive Garden Eggplant Parmigiana w/spaghetti 1,050
>
> California Pizza Kitchen California Cobb Salad w/bleu cheese
dressing 1,030
>
> Pei Wei Chicken Lo Mein (Original size) 1,030
>
> Chipotle Chicken Burrito (rice, black beans, salsa, sour
cream, cheese) 1,020
>
> Uno Pepperoni Flatbread Pizza 990
>
> Häagen-Dazs Classic Hot Fudge Sundae (reg. size) 980
>
> Panera Mac & Cheese (full size) 980
>
> IHOP Original Buttermilk Pancakes (5) w/syrup 970
>
> IHOP Original French Toast w/syrup 940
>
> Romano’s Macaroni Grill Mushroom Ravioli 930
>
> Cinnabon Classic Roll 880
>
> Panera Fontina Grilled Cheese Sandwich 850
>
> The Cheesecake Factory Original Cheesecake 820
>
> Starbucks Java Chip Frappuccino (venti, 24 fl. oz.) 600
>
> Source: restaurant chains. Chart compiled by Paige Einstein.
>
> The catch: companies need virtually no evidence to make those
claims. “This boosting of metabolism is pretty overblown,” says
Tufts’ Susan Roberts.
>
> “Magazines and supplements love to talk about ways to boost
your metabolism. But you can eat a brownie with 700 calories in
about 10 seconds, and there is nothing that you can remotely do
to change your metabolism by anywhere near that much, except to
give up your job and spend all your day in the gym.”
>
> Take green tea. Some small studies report that it leads to a
bump in metabolic rate, but long-term studies find that it makes
little or no difference in weight.
>
> The largest study: With funding from Coca-Cola, researchers
randomly assigned 572 people to a weight-loss program with or
without three daily cans of diet cola, each fortified with green
tea extract (83 mg of EGCG) and caffeine (100 mg). After three
months, the diet-cola drinkers had lost no more weight than the
others.
>
> Does anything help you burn more calories per minute?
>
> “Exercise is going to help a bit because muscle is more
metabolically active than fat,” says Roberts. “So if you have
five more pounds of muscle and five pounds less fat, it will
make a bit of difference, but not a huge difference.
>
> “Weight control is dominated by how many calories you eat.
That’s the honest truth.”
>
> Bottom line: Don’t expect to lose much weight from “metabolism
boosters.”
>
> MYTH #7: There’s a magic bullet diet.
>
> The Paleo Diet. The Sugar Impact Diet. The New Atkins Diet.
All promise to make the pounds peel away fast.
>
> Most experts wouldn’t agree. In 2013, the Obesity Society,
American Heart Association, and American College of Cardiology
issued a report on overweight and obesity. Its advice: cut
calories or try a diet that’s low in fat or carbs or whatever.
>
> “We started off with different, almost religious, beliefs as
to what diet would be better,” says the Mayo Clinic’s Michael
Jensen. “And we wound up being agnostic.
>
> “We looked for studies that had results for at least a year,
and preferably two years, because for most of us who treat
patients with obesity, it’s not what they did in six months that
matters, it’s what they did in two years that really drives our
decision making.”
>
> And those longer trials didn’t reveal any magic bullets. “We
found that in the end, on average, the diets produced about the
same amount of weight loss,” says Jensen.
>
> The key for weight loss is the long game.
>
> “For any given person, it’s really more a matter of what can
they stick with,” notes Jensen, “rather than whether there’s a
specific diet that we know is best for them ”.
>
> Bottom line: Don’t pin your hopes on the latest “miracle”
diet.
>
> MYTH #8: I can work off the extra calories.
>
> So what if you had General Tso’s chicken or steak fajitas for
dinner? So what if you shared a large bucket of popcorn at the
movies? You can always work it off, right?
>
> “People totally overestimate how many calories they’ll burn
when they exercise,” says Roberts.
>
> “We recently asked people, ‘What do you need to do to lose
weight?’ About three-quarters of them said, ‘My trouble is that
I stopped going to the gym’ or ‘I’ve been lazy. I need to go to
the gym.’ They were beating themselves up because they weren’t
doing enough exercise.”
>
> In fact, most studies find that people who are told to cut
calories lose more weight than those who are told to exercise
more, though a mix of diet plus exercise is best in many
studies.
>
>
> “Exercise for weight loss is often unhelpful,” says Roberts.
“Several years ago, a study looked at the individual response to
an exercise program. It was terrifying because they found a huge
variability.”
>
> UK researchers had 35 overweight or obese men and women
exercise (on a stationary bike, treadmill, or stepping or rowing
machine) long and hard enough to burn 500 calories per session,
five times a week.
>
> After 12 weeks, the average weight loss was 8 pounds, but some
people lost 32 pounds, while others gained 4 pounds. Those who
lost the least weight also reported more hunger and ate more on
a given day near the end of the study than did those who lost
the most weight.
>
> “For some people it was clearly working, but for others it was
counterproductive,” says Roberts.
>
> It’s not just individual differences. Other factors, like
temperature, might also matter. In a recent study, researchers
assigned 16 overweight people to walk for 45 minutes on a
treadmill when the room temperature was either 46º or 68º
Fahrenheit. They ate more calories (1,300) at an all-you-can-eat
buffet after walking in the cold temperature than after walking
in the typical indoor temperature (1,170 calories).
>
> “You need to keep doing exercise for your health, for
preventing disabilities and problems in old age,” says Roberts.
“But for most people, exercise is not the solution for losing
weight.”
>
> Bottom line: Exercise when you can, but don’t count on it
alone to lose—or keep off—extra pounds.
>
>
--- End Quote ---
[References and some charts omitted.]
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