When I first meet with a personal training client in Chicago, I'm usually battling the misconceptions and lies promoted by the weight loss industry. Here is a list of what I typically hear and why the claims are false (from the article 40 Lies the Weight Loss Industry Tells You)!

ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS WILL SLIM YOU DOWN

We’ve all heard time and time again about people who give up regular soda in exchange for diet drinks and drop 10, 50, or 100 pounds, seemingly overnight. What those stories don’t tell you is just how many unpleasant side effects can come with the switch, like GI issues, bloating, and even weight gain. Research indicates that artificial sweeteners can alter our gut bacteria and fuel food cravings; a study published in Obesity even indicates that artificial sweeteners can cause long-term weight gain.

EATING RIGHT WORKS EVEN WITHOUT EXERCISE

Peanut butter and jelly; bed and breakfast; diet and exercise — some things are simply better together. You may have a cousin’s cousin’s step-sister’s dog walker’s niece who insists that they lost weight and kept it off through diet or exercise alone, but in reality, the two work together to provide long-term weight loss. A study conducted at the Stanford University School of Medicine confirms that, like any great duo, diet and exercise work a whole lot better together.

FASTING WILL HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT

We’ve all heard stories about how fasting can help you achieve mental clarity and drop significant weight at the same time, but in reality, all fasting really does is mess up your metabolism (and cause a nutritional deficit). While we can’t speak to those claims of sudden enlightenment from fasting, it’s pretty clear that it’s no magic bullet for a slimmer you.

EXERCISE AND DIET ARE EQUAL FOR WEIGHT LOSS

When it comes to diet and exercise, I like to think of food as your car and exercise as the tires. Without the car itself, you won’t get anywhere, but you’re unlikely to get to your destination quickly (if at all) with four flat tires. Exercise is an essential part of losing weight and keeping it off in the long term, but changing your diet — and your lifestyle overall — is the number one factor to tackle when you’re trying to slim down.

FRUITS ARE FATTENING

When did we all decide that fruit was the enemy? I feel like every other day, I hear from a friend who has cut fruit out of their diet entirely, telling me that whatever diet plan they’re on says that sugar from fruit is basically the same thing as adding a cheeseburger to every meal. Unsurprisingly, this is far from the truth. Fruit is a healthy way to get plenty of vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber, while satisfying your sweet tooth in a way that artificial sweeteners simply can’t.

FAT-FREE FOOD IS DIET FRIENDLY

Repeat after me: fat doesn’t make you fat. Jot it down. Tattoo it on your hand. Record that phrase and make it your ringtone. While the diet industry has led many people to believe that fat-free or low-fat food is inherently healthy, what they don’t always realize is that the at their food is missing has been replaced with even less healthy substitutes, like preservatives and artificial sweeteners.

SUPPLEMENTS WILL SLIM YOU DOWN

If there’s one thing that I can’t stress enough, it’s that taking diet pills or other weight loss supplements will backfire in the end. The supplement industry is nowhere near as rigorously regulated as prescription medication, with many products escaping FDA approval before hitting the market.

ORGANIC FOOD IS ALWAYS HEALTHY

If you walk down the aisles of any organic supermarket, you’ll find nearly as many junk foods as you will in a traditional store. You’ll find cheese puffs, cookies, cake mix, and fried tortilla chips, all bearing the word “organic” on their labels like a badge of honor. While this designation may mean that they’re less likely to contain potentially obesogenic pesticides, take one look at their nutrition info and you’ll see that the calories, sugar, saturated fat, and salt you’ve come to expect from unhealthy snacks are all there.

HUNGER IS A GOOD SIGN YOU'RE LOSING WEIGHT

Your growling stomach is no surefire sign that weight loss is on its way. Many weight loss plans suggest that you go to bed hungry, or that feeling famished is a normal part of weight loss, but the opposite may be true. Staying satisfied can help keep your cravings to a minimum, meaning you’re less likely to tear into the nearest bag of cookies when that growling in your stomach turns into an angry bark.

PROTEIN BARS ARE GOOD MEAL REPLACEMENTS

Protein bars aren’t meals — there, I said it. While many companies will try to sell you on the idea of replacing meals with compressed nutrition bricks they promise taste just like your favorite dessert, these preservative-packed meal replacements won’t keep you full for long and may even sabotage your weight loss with their artificial sweeteners. Filling meals come from nature, they contain fat and fiber, and, generally speaking, they can’t fit in your back pocket.

EXERCISE CAN TARGET SPECIFIC AREAS

If you’re hoping that cardio boot camp class you’re waking up early for will give you a booty like J. Lo, arms like Michelle Obama, and Kylie Jenner’s legs, prepare to be disappointed. Despite what many workout gurus may tell you, a cardio workout alone won’t target specific sections of your body enough to make a discernible difference — when you lose weight, fat vanishes from everywhere, from your head to your toes. What you can do is add resistance training to your routine to specifically tone certain muscle groups, boost your metabolism, and add definition (and maybe even a bit of extra booty) to your body.

ALL SUGAR IS BAD

Low carb devotees may claim that any sugar in your diet is a recipe for weight gain, but let me be the first to tell you that not all sugar is created equal. Fruit sugars can be a healthy part of your weight loss plan, whether you’re enjoying them in a , making a resveratrol-rich, belly fat-blasting red fruit salad, or just grabbing a healthy snack on the go.

SKIPPING BREAKFAST CAN HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT

Don’t start your day off on the wrong foot by skipping breakfast. Despite what many self-proclaimed fitness gurus may say, breakfast is a healthy — nay, essential — part of your weight loss plan, even if you’re a morning exerciser. A high-protein, high-fiber breakfast not only helps you stay focused and combats cravings, it can also help you lose weight in the long run; research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that eating breakfast can reduce your reliance on unhealthy snacks and lower your intake of fatty food.

ORGANIC AND TRADITIONAL FOOD ARE THE SAME

While an organic cheese puff and a traditional one probably don’t differ much in terms of fat or calories, there are still some pretty major differences between organic foods and non-organic ones. Non-organic foods are far more likely to be contaminated with additives, potentially obesogenic preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, and even hormones.

FAT MAKES YOU FAT

High-fat foods are delicious. High-fat foods are satisfying. What high-fat foods aren’t, however, is inherently fattening. Research has shown time and time again that, if you’re not significantly increasing your caloric intake, adding some avocado or olive oil to your diet doesn’t actually add pounds to your waistline — in fact, it may have the opposite effect.

LOW CARB DIETS ARE THE KEY TO SLIMMING DOWN

If you think that eating piles of bacon and cheeseburgers is going to yield long-lasting weight loss, I’ve got a bridge to sell you. While it’s true that cutting down on refined carbohydrates is a healthy way to influence some weight loss, when you cut out all (or virtually all) carbohydrates from your diet, you’re seriously limiting your intake of vitamins, fiber, and setting yourself up for a cycle of deprivation and binging that can be hard to break.

LOW CALORIES MEANS FASTER WEIGHT LOSS

Just because cutting calories can help you shed pounds doesn’t mean it’s impossible to overdo it — those 800 calorie a day weight loss cleanses simply won’t yield the long-term results you want. Every person has an individual caloric threshold that needs to be met to keep their body functioning optimally, depending on their activity level, personal metabolic rate, and other factors, and falling far beneath it can have seriously harmful effects.

STAYING CAFFEINATED IMPROVES WEIGHT LOSS

Caffeine may give you that boost you need first thing in the morning, but it is possible to have too much of a good thing. While many diet supplements are packed with caffeine, ingesting too much could be the reason you’re not losing weight. Research published in Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior suggests that caffeine can increase the body’s production of cortisol, which can lead to weight gain.

NUTS ARE FATTENING

Virtually every diet book published between the 1970s and 1990s will tell you the same thing: to lose weight, you need to cut fat, and one of the easiest ways to do that is removing nut products, like peanut butter, from your diet. I’m here to tell you the exact opposite may be true — research published in the Journal of Nutrition suggests that both ground and tree nuts can be healthy additions to a well-balanced diet without making you gain weight.

VEGETARIAN DIETS ARE ALWAYS SLIMMING

When many of us think of going vegetarian, we imagine beautiful salads loaded with vegetables, tons of fresh fruits, and healthy stir-fries for dinner every night. Unfortunately, for many busy vegetarians, good intentions fly out the window in favor of convenience foods like French fries, grilled cheese sandwiches, and surprisingly vegan Oreos. Incorporating the right type of healthy, plant-based proteins can help you slim down for good.

LIQUID DIETS HELP YOU SHED POUNDS

If you think that replacing all of your food with liquid is the key to long-term weight loss, you’re buying another weight loss industry lie. Most of the liquid diets and cleanses out there simply replace nutritious food with low-calorie drinks, slimming you down in the short term as you lose water weight. When you start eating regular food again, the pounds come back, but the dollars in your wallet definitely don’t.

FROZEN YOGURT IS BETTER THAN ICE CREAM

We’ve all heard about the connection between the bacteria in yogurt and our gut health, but if you’re hoping the same is true for frozen yogurt, prepare to be disappointed. The freezing process that yogurt undergoes to become an ice cream-like kills off much of the good bacteria. If you’re just hoping yogurt could be a lower-calorie alternative to your favorite frozen treat, you’re out of luck, as well — many types of frozen yogurt have nearly as many calories as their full-fat counterparts and just as much sugar.

What other lies from the weight loss industry have you identified?

Pictures Credit:
MSN.com-Should you skip breakfast to lose weight?

More to Read:
While many foods are still healthy with proper portion control, you may want to avoid the following list: "50 Foods You Should Never Eat" Review.

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Article Credit:

Author: Michael Moody Fitness with excerpt sourced from the article " 40 Lies the Weight Loss Industry Tells You " on MSN.com.

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