Nowdays, Because of social media a lot of myths about nutrition is spreading. That are totally wrong. So, through this article I will tell you 5 biggest Nutrition myths.
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Myth 1: – Eating 6 meals a day is necessary to lose weight
This concept has been propagated a lot these days by various health professionals & the general public that eating smaller but frequent meals increase metabolic rate and will help you lose weight.
However, this is not true. To put it in simple terms, when you eat food, your body uses energy for digestion & absorption of food which is also called the thermic effect of food. And this energy raises your metabolic rate to some extent.
But it will be the same if you eat 6 meals of 300 calories each or 3 meals of 600 calories each or 2 meals of 900 calories each. The energy used or expended will be the same in all three cases.
It really doesn’t matter how many times you’re eating in a day as long as your caloric consumption is in line with your goal.
Let’s say your daily maintenance calories are 2500 kcal, if you want to lose weight, you’ll need to consume fewer calories than that (eg:- 2000 kcal).
What you have to make sure is to take 2000 kcal through your diet whether it comes from just 2 meals or 6 meals collectively. The body doesn’t care you eat 6 times a day or 2 times a day, it just needs the required calories to function.
Also, studies have shown that rather than eating multiple times, fewer meals a day contributes to great health and body functions.
So, in a nutshell, go for the number of meals you are comfortable having as per your lifestyle and consume calories according to your goals i.e., fat loss or muscle gain to get the desired results.
Click the button given below to count your daily maintenance calories
Myth 2: – You Can’t Build Muscle on A Vegetarian Diet
There is a general perception among the public that one can’t build muscle on a vegetarian diet.
Let’s understand both the aspects of this myth very clearly – building muscle & vegetarian foods.
In order to build muscle, you need to do resistance training first of all.
And in addition to resistance training, you need to consume sufficient protein because protein is the only macronutrient that performs the repair of muscles cells & stimulates muscle growth if consumed in optimal quantities.
For that reason, protein is also called the building block of muscles.
To put this in context, anything upwards of 1.2g per kilogram to 1.7g per kilogram of body weight is optimal for growth.
Now, where does this protein come from in your diet? A number of foods are rich sources of protein – both vegetarian & non-vegetarian such as chicken, fish, egg, dairy products such as milk, curd, paneer, soy products such as chunks, granules, tofu, whole grains, lentils, beans, etc.
So, you don’t need only meat to get Lean or to build muscle.
As mentioned earlier, your body doesn’t care where the calories are coming from, it considers how many calories are coming. Likewise, your body doesn’t care where the protein is coming from, it just considers the protein.
There are plenty of protein sources for vegetarians cited above.
And if one is taking enough protein to match his daily protein requirements you shouldn’t worry about anything.
The only factor you have to consider is that most vegetarian protein sources are incomplete proteins, which means they lack one amino acid or the other. Just make sure to eat a variety of protein sources throughout the day to make that a complete protein.
For example – rice is low in lysine but high in methionine, legumes are high in lysine but low in methionine, so by combining the two (like rajma & rice) it makes an excellent source of complete protein.
And particularly, for vegetarians, dairy & soy are sources of complete protein. Even, touted as the best muscle-building supplement – whey protein is made from Dairy only.
So, enjoy the muscle-building benefits by including as many of these products in your diet.
Myth 3: – Fats make You Fat
A very common misconception in the general public is that eating “Fats will make you Fat”. No, it’ll not.
Eating excess Fats will make you fat, eating excess carbs will make you fat, eating excess protein will make you fat, basically, eating anything in excess of your caloric requirement will make you fat whether it’s a chai, almonds, or roti.
Just to give you some perspective, fat has 9 calories per gram and it is the most energy-dense macronutrient in comparison to the other two macronutrients – Carbohydrates & Protein, both of which give 4 calories per gram.
So, the same amount of fat will give you more than twice the energy of protein & carbohydrates. Hence, it is always blamed for your extra kilos most of the time.
But it is not individual foods or macronutrients in isolation, that make you fat.
If you’re eating anything that contributes to being in a state of caloric surplus, meaning, eating more than your maintenance calories or what your body needs, you’re ultimately going to gain weight no matter where the calories come from.
For example – your daily maintenance calories are 2000 kcal and you are eating 2400 kcal, and the extra 400 calories are coming from carbs and protein, you will still gain weight.
But you have a choice, whether you want your body to use these extra calories as fuel to build muscle or to convert them as fat.
That’s a topic for a different discussion but for now, the bottom line is, Fats don’t make you fat, extra calories do.
A detailed read about this article can be found here.
Myth 4: – Supplements Will Get You the Results
Supplement word means “something that is added to something else” meaning it has no role to perform on its own.
So, to simplify, supplements are added to the diet if the diet lacks something, else there is no need for a supplement as long as you’re able to fulfill its requirement on its own.
So, if your diet lacks calcium, it makes sense to use a calcium supplement, likewise for other nutrients such as protein.
Purely from a fitness perspective, supplements can boost performance if you’re disciplined with your workouts and nutrition plan.
But they can do hardly anything on their own.
If you are thinking that supplements are going to get you ripped or reduce your fat percentage, let me tell you that supplements are used to supplement a good diet not to replace a diet.
Without training your body and eating good nutrition, supplements are going to take you nowhere.
If you’re just lying on your bed taking fat burners to lose fat or taking protein to gain muscle without working out, don’t do it, I repeat, don’t do it you’re just wasting your time and money.
Though most muscle building & fat loss supplements don’t work at all, but that’s a topic for a different article, but for now, please understand that supplements don’t work unless you do.
Myth 5: – Eating Carbs After 6 PM Makes You Gain Weight
This is a popular myth that if you eat rice or roti at dinner, it will make you gain weight.
Well, this isn’t true.
To put it simply, what & how much you eat is far more important for gaining weight than when you eat.
Let’s understand this from 2 perspectives – logical & caloric.
First the logical, I gram of carbohydrate is equivalent to 4 calories. Now, these calories won’t change after 6 PM, 7 PM, or 9 PM. It will remain 4 calories for 1 gram of carbohydrate whether its roti, rice, quinoa, apple, banana, or any other carb source.
More importantly, this logic may have been coming from people who usually eat more calories at night and some studies (1) show that people eating late at night tend to make poorer food choices such as chips, colas, ice cream, etc.
These are calorie-dense foods, that add significantly more calories without much nutritional value and may add to your overall calories leading to a caloric surplus.
But even then if you’re consuming below or similar to your maintenance calories, you will not gain weight, whatsoever.
Let’s say you don’t eat carbs after 6 pm and your daily maintenance calories are 3000 kcal but, you are eating 3500 kcal a day.
Aren’t you going to gain weight? Obviously, you’re.
The main factor to gain weight is the Energy balance, not carbs proteins, or fats as mentioned above.
No matter if you eat carbs after 6 pm or 9 pm, you’re not going to gain weight as long as you’re not in a caloric surplus. It’s that simple.
Conclusion
In conclusion, choosing the right type of carb (complex carbs not simple carbs) will help you stay satiated for longer and remove unnecessary cravings at night if that’s your area of concern.
And, don’t worry about eating your favorite dal roti at night. Just make sure you’re not skipping meals throughout the day, are well-hydrated, and keep a check on how much you’re eating to stay on track.