There are so many dodgy weight loss tips circulating the inter-web, but here are the 6 worst weight loss tips that you have to stop listening to.
Please start ignoring all of these immediately.
1. Schedule regular cleanses
You don’t need regular detoxes. In fact, you don’t actually need to detox. Ever. Detoxes screw with your relationship with food, make you feel deprived and don’t work in the long term. Any weight you lose tends to be water weight and you’ll regain it in a jiffy…
SWAP IT: Ideally, you should stop putting that many ‘toxins’ in your body in the first place.
How? Make a lifestyle change. Turning to sweets and lollies for an afternoon pick me up? Start taking yummy, exotic fruit with you to work like mangos or pineapple (please – no boring fruit!) Got boozed over the weekend? Next weekend, why not meet friends at the movies rather than the pub?
2. Cut out carbs
Carbs aren’t fattening. In fact, they are essential.
This is definitely among the worst weight loss tips on the internet. Sometimes people notice that cutting back on carbs works… for a short while. But do you really want to avoid bread for the rest of you life?! Because to maintain weight loss you get from cutting carbs will require a permanent commitment. When you reintroduce carbs, what do you think will happen? I don’t know about you, but a life without bread and pasta is not a life you want to lead.
SWAP IT: You don’t need to cut out anything from your diet. Why not pick healthier, high-fibre carbs?
I love to add chickpeas, lentils, black rice or freekeh to my salad, oats is a great slow-burning carb for brekkie and my dinners often feature corn and sweet potato. It’s quality over quantity – always.
3. Give up gluten
Giving up gluten to lose weight is a terrible idea.
Gluten is only inflammatory if you’re sensitive or allergic to it. Most people aren’t.
Going gluten-free is not healthier for you.
For starters, gluten-free products like bread and cereal are NOT healthier. In fact, many tend to have less fibre and protein whilst also giving you more sugar and fat. What’s more…. Most don’t taste as good as the original.
SWAP IT: Don’t cut anything out of your diet if you don’t have to.
If you’re eating bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner – try to add in more variety. Balance your intake by adding in some slow-burning, high-fibre carbs. See above for tips…
4. Make egg-white omelettes
Why on earth did this tip ever become a popular? There is nothing more depressing than eating ‘diet food’ of an egg-white omelette. In my opinion, an egg-white omlette, is not only sad to look at and boring to eat, but you miss out on 100% of the carotenoids, essential fatty acids, vitamins A, E, D, and K. The egg yolk contains the healthy fats which help to keep you feeling full and make you feel satisfied.
SWAP IT: Don’t waste the precious egg yolk. It’s a waste of money and food. Use the full egg (unless baking requires otherwise) and enjoy feeling satisfied with food.
Via my Instagram – @nude_nutritionist
5. Too much fruit is fattening
Taking fruit off limits and making it ‘bad’ for you is a recipe for disaster. Why?
Because it makes you fear a perfectly healthy food. So when you get sweet cravings, you’re less likely to turn to a piece of fruit (which is ideal) but rather, keep snooping around for something else that is ‘healthier’ (like a bliss ball – which is certainly not healthier than a piece of fruit).
Fruit is not fattening. Do not cut it from your diet.
SWAP IT: Stick to nature’s candy. When 50% of Aussie’s aren’t meeting the very basic recommendation to eat 1-2 pieces of fruit each day, our problem is not that we eat too much fruit – it’s that we don’t eat enough!
Via @nude_nutritionist on Instagram
6. Chew sugar-free gum to take away cravings
During my disordered eating, always dieting years, I would easily go through a pack of sugar-free gum a day!
What I didn’t realise is that it doesn’t work. Researchers from University of Buffalo found the taste of mint can actually reduce the palatability of healthy food. Not only that, but recent studies seem to suggest artificial sweeteners make increase sweet cravings and make you gain weight. Hmm, not such a great tip.
