Two Weight Loss Myths
Posted on 29. Sep, 2009 by in Dr. Joel Fuhrman
Myth 1: People who are fat just need to stop eating so much.
People do not get fat because they eat more than people who are thin. If one person has 2 slices of cheese pizza and a coke for lunch and another personal eats an entire head of romaine lettuce, 2 large tomatoes, 2 cartons of blueberries, a carton of strawberries and some pineapple, it would be safe to say that the latter person technically ate more. Yet if the person who had the pizza and coke generally eats those same types of processed foods, high in fat and void of nutrients, he or she is certain to gain weight. Meanwhile the person eating plant-based foods will not. Therefore, it’s not how much you eat it’s what you eat that makes all the difference.
Myth 2: People just need to burn off more calories than they take in.
This is a favorite saying of a doctor friend of mine. And while I love and respect him, he is totally wrong. The average Chinese man takes in 2,641 calories a day. The average American man takes in 1,989 calories a day. Yet it goes without saying that Americans as a whole are more obese than the Chinese. I was in China last fall and didn’t see one obese Chinese person. I traveled through Beijing, Yangshuo, Guilin, Xian … not one overweight person to be found. This is because there is more to the equation than how many calories taken in and expended. For instance, the Chinese eat an average of 33 grams of fiber per day while Americans eat an average of 12 grams. The percentage of calories from fat in the Chinese diet is 14.5% while the American diet has 34-38% of its calories coming from fat. It’s not all about calories because all calories are not created equal. (Example: 100% of the calories in butter are from fat, while the percentage of calories from fat in carrots is just 4%.) The number of calories you take in during any given day don’t matter as much as the type of calories you’re consuming.
