We’ve heard it all. The don’t eat after 6 pm diet, the eat a grapefruit in the morning and you’ll be Nicole kidman tomorrow diet. Your mum’s workmate says that mixing protein and carbs can cause massive gain in the waist to hip ratio region. Sure you’ve probably heard something rather similar or along the lines of these tips for years. In reality though, is there truth to any of them? After some long and hard research some truth was revealed on which methods we should forget and which may actually live up to the hype.
Q. Does coffee really speed up the metabolism or is this just Muffin Breaks advertising scheme?
A. It’s true: It can stoke your calorie-burning furnace—provided you drink it black. A study in the journal Metabolism found that the caffeine in two cups of coffee may cause a 66 kg woman to expend up to 50 extra calories over the hours following consumptions. “Caffeine stimulates one’s nervous system, signaling the body to release a small amount of energy from its fat stores,” says lead researcher Paul Arciero, Ph.D., an associate professor of exercise science at Skidmore College. Note: Stirring sugar or cream can cause insulin levels to rise diminishing that metabolic effect.
Remember: Too much caffeine can cause anxiety, nausea, and headaches. Don’t abuse a good thing!
Q. Will chewing low-cal foods like gum and celery help me burn calories?
A. It might, but hardly enough to trigger weight loss. Gum and certain veggies are often called “negative-calorie” foods because they supposedly take more energy for our body to chew or digest than they contain.
The negative-calorie myth was put to the test. After calculating the energy expended (about 11 calories per hour). It was concluded that a person who chewed/bit/nibbled on a piece every waking hour of the day for a month would lose less than a pound.
What about Celery? All that crunching does burn energy, but it amounts to less than the 6-calorie stalk contains.
Common sense says: If you really want to shed serious weight: Give your jaw a rest and start moving your body.
Q. Will eating after 8 p.m. make me gain weight?
A. The main thing one should consider is their total calories consumed per day. From experience I have learnt that skipping on meals during the day sets one up to overeat at night, which can hinder one’s health goal. A recent study in the Journal of Nutrition found that the less food people ate for breakfast and lunch, the more they ate after sundown-and the higher their total calorie intake for the day.
“Our brain’s satiation mechanism—its way of telling us we’re ready—tends to become weaker as the day progresses,” says John de Castro, Ph.D., lead study author and a professor of psychology. That means one must have to eat more in the evening in order to feel full.
Common sense says: Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper”. Eat according to the needs of your day.
Q. Would eating carbs, fat, and protein separately help me lose weight?
A. No. There are no proven benefits. The theory is that different food types (proteins, fats, starches, sugars, and acidic foods) require their own digestive enzymes in order to be metabolised properly. Some claim that mixing these groups or eating them at the wrong times could cause digestive issues or weight gain. For advocates of this eating style, having orange juice and a turkey sandwich is forbidden.
Q. Will blotting my pizza cut down on calories?
A. It won’t soak up all of the fat and calories in your lunch, but it’s still a step in the right direction. “If you’re eating a medium slice of cheese pizza, a napkin can remove up to 45 calories and 5 grams of fat,
A report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C., found that stuffed-crust and meat-lovers varieties, which can clock in at 800 calories per slice, contain more than a day’s worth of fat and sodium! It was found that skipping the meat toppings and ordering your pizza with extra veggies—like mushrooms, spinach, or broccoli—and half the cheese (which saves about 80 calories and 6 grams of fat per slice). Switching to thin-crust can also save you up to 200 calories and 6 grams of fat.
Q. Does exercising on an empty stomach burn more fat?
A. Yes, but you might not be able to work out as hard as you would if you’d eaten first. Researchers at the University of Ottawa in Canada asked two groups of people to run on the treadmill in the morning until they’d burned 400 calories. The joggers who skipped breakfast burned 58 percent more fat than those who had eaten a meal before their run. Note: Pre-workout fasting won’t necessarily translate into weight loss. “People incorrectly assume that if you’re using fat for fuel, it equates to losing body fat,” says Nancy Clark, R.D., a sports nutritionist. “But what affects weight loss most is how many calories you’ve depleted during your workout and if you’ve sustained a deficit by the day’s end.”
A study found that women who had a little-meal before their workout were able to exercise up to 16 percent longer than those who drank only water beforehand.
Note: Eating a banana before training can give one the energy to crank up the intensity.
Q. Can foods like cabbage soup and grapefruit help me detox fat?
A. “There’s no science proving that any particular food can rid fat from the body. If a woman loses weight on a grapefruit or cabbage soup plan, it’s likely because she has cut calories by restricting her intake to a handful of foods.” Hensrud’s colleagues at the Mayo Clinic (which is often incorrectly credited with creating both the cabbage soup and grapefruit diets) estimated that people who follow either plan faithfully eat 1,000 to 1,200 calories a day. “You’d almost certainly lose weight eating 1,000 calories of anything, whether it’s bananas or potato chips,” he says. “But it will be pretty tough to keep the weight from creeping back into the normal diet.
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