Written by Dr. Nyshu Abdul Azeez

Medically reviewed by Dr Godmi Tresa

Updated on July 30, 2024

Natural Weight Loss Myths vs. Facts: What Really Works

When it comes to losing weight, we leave no leaf unturned. Weight gain has become a universal war to fight, thanks to the ever-demanding lifestyle that constantly forces you to compromise on self-care. However, the internet and the people around weigh you down with so much information that it fuels your anxiety, inturn failing you from achieving a healthy weight loss.

In this struggle to follow all you hear about losing weight, you usually end up in a nowhere zone, which adds to the stress of losing weight. This blog is penned to give you relief from this cobweb. 

This blog will counter common myths with evidence-based facts, which can give you the clarity to make the right choice to lose weight. Read on to learn more. 

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Debunking Weight Loss Myths

With a load of information, right in your fingertips, its essential to keep myths away from facts before you start your healthy and stable weight loss journey.

Myth: Crash Diets Are the Quickest Way to Lose Weight

Quick fixes are usually unprocessed and designed to provide temporary relief. This applies to weight loss as well. Crash diets can give you a sudden wonderful feeling of being on the path to losing weight. Your weighing machine may even show you a few grams less in a short period. But the moment you stop the crash diet, your chances of bouncing back to your older, heavy self are high. Slow and steady wins the race. 

This is mainly because crash diets focus only on food for weight loss. Ultrafast methods of losing weight may not be able to squeeze in enough activities to address all the causes of weight gain; this is a drawback. 

Clinical studies highlight the severe side effects of crash diets. Very low-calorie diets (usually included in crash diets) do not balance the body's energy levels. From an Ayurvedic perspective, this can cause an imbalance of doshas, affecting the liver and the kidney. As a result, conditions like gallbladder stones and an increase in uric acid concentration in urine can result from crash diets. 

Gradual weight loss is healthy, gives your body ample time to cope with weight changes, and can last. This structured weight loss strategy considers body type, medical conditions, and other lifestyle-related aspects. 

Myth: Carbohydrates Are the Enemy and Should Be Completely Avoided

Are you tired of hearing people exclaim about eating carbs when you open your lunch box containing rice, vegetables, and fruits? Here is the evidence-based fact. 

Carbohydrates are also essential for weight loss. Evidence strongly suggests that plant-based carbohydrates help regulate weight and even minimise the risk of type 2 diabetes. Carbohydrates from vegetables, fruits, cereals, and pulses benefit the body and can support weight loss.

How do plant-based carbohydrates differ from animal-based carbohydrates? Plant-based carbohydrates are rich in fibre compared to animal-based carbohydrates. Hence, along with providing the necessary energy, they support detoxification, which helps in weight loss. 

Here are five things that plant-based carbs do to support weight loss as per clinical studies

  • Maintain energy levels during weight loss 
  • Improve outcome from physical exercise 
  • Prevent nutritional deficiencies during weight loss 
  • Aid proper digestion and improve detoxification 
  • Most importantly, these healthy carbs prevent food cravings 

Myth: Skipping Meals Leads to Weight Loss

Almost every beginner gives up eating to lose weight. It's high time to reprogram this belief system. Food is not the enemy of weight loss, but the wrong food is. Depriving your body of energy slows down all the processes, and you could gain more weight. 

Weight gain due to starvation is mainly due to the accumulation of food that is not entirely digested, as insufficient energy is available to complete digestion.  

Studies have shown that skipping meals, specifically dinner, can cause increased weight gain. Here are the key impacts of skipping meals on body weight: 

  • Mixed hunger and fullness signals to the brain - This is medically called satiety response, which is a nerve coordination between the brain and the stomach. When you skip meals and starve yourself, this gets impaired and you may end up eating more without your knowledge. 
  • Anxiety - Skipping meals can cause stress-induced weight gain. 
  • Increased cravings - This needs to be avoided during weight loss. Skipping food can lead to unbearable cravings, which may cause more weight gain. '
  • Nutritional deficiencies - Improper food patterns are indeed leading to nutritional deficiencies. Studies show that vitamin D and other vitamin deficiencies impact fat and fluid metabolism in the body, leading to weight gain. 

Hence, regular eating is very essential for losing weight. Focus on what you eat instead of sacrificing food. 

Myth: More Exercise, More Weight Loss

The idea is to lose weight and not to look weak. Rapidly focusing on physical activity to shoot out calories has potential side effects. Overtraining due to fear of accumulating weight if you stay still dramatically contributes to weight. 

Here are a few things that can happen due to excessive exercise, which causes weight gain 

  • Fatigue - Your body can yearn for energy, forcing your liver to convert other forms of energy into fat and carbohydrates. 
  • Physical and mental stress - This can cause weight gain in certain body types.
  • Heaviness - Despite spending hours in the gym, you may feel heavy. This may not be due to fat. Imbalanced exercise without proper rest gives the body no time to repair the wear and tear of tissues. This can lead to fluid accumulation oozing between the cells (interstitial fluid). 

Measured exercise patterns based on body type with enough rest, diet and fluid intake is the ideal way to lose weight. 

Myth: Only Gymming Can Help You Lose Weight

This fallacy insists on being physically worn out to lose weight. Not exactly. There are gentler yet more powerful physical activities like yoga and work desk exercises that yield better results than gymming. 

Clinical studies have shown excellent results for weight loss from yoga practice. Besides regulating body weight, yoga tones the body. It has no side effects due to weight loss because combining yoga in a weight loss regimen, by default, incorporates steadiness in losing weight. 

Yoga can bless you with the following in your weight loss journey. 

  • Arrest emotional eating—Since yoga caresses the physical and metaphysical aspects of the human body, emotions and their impact on eating habits are addressed. 
  • Manage metabolism - Yoga releases the factors that prevent proper nutritional reach from blood flow and improves metabolism. 
  • Provide peer support - Yoga practice in a group makes you feel comfortable and assures that you are not alone in this journey. This boosts the hormones in the body that support positivity. 

Importance of Balanced Food Intake During Weight Loss Journey

Prioritising the right kind of food is essential for proper and permanent weight loss. Ayurvedic experts put the complete body analysis first regarding weight loss. This analysis identifies the body's natural tendency towards weight loss or gain. A regimen based on this will counter the side effects specific to one's self. 

Further, you cannot skip any one nutrient to accelerate weight loss. A balanced diet is essential for losing weight. You can replace plant-based carb and fat sources to ensure weight regulation. 

Clinical studies show that a balanced diet improves weight reduction compared to a single-factor diet. This reduces side effects due to drastic weight loss and improves sustained weight maintenance. 

Conclusion

There is no shortcut to losing weight. It is essential to be consistent with your diet and lifestyle and wave goodbye to those extra pounds like they came in. There is no one universal weight loss regimen, and every individual's needs are different. 

A good start to losing weight is understanding yourself and your body, which can help reconcile the facts that suit you. This is what happens first with our Nirva Health weight Loss Programme. Once this is done, your dedicated team of Ayurvedic doctors, yoga experts, and dieticians will curate a regimen tailored to your preferences and lifestyle. 

Informed decision-making is essential to lose weight and prevent irreversible damage. 

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Dr. Nyshu Abdul Azeez

Nyshu Abdul Azeez, an enthusiastic ayurvedic practitioner with good experience and skill who shapes her knowledge and practice for maximising patient wellness. Her thrust areas are women's health, cosmetology, preventive life style and yoga. She has been married for twelve years and leading blissful life balancing work and family