Intermittent fasting has become immensely popular over the past few years. Unfortunately, just as is the case with other diet trends, there are some myths that have grown up around this one. Here are five of them.
1. Skipping breakfast will make you fat.
A lot of people have bought into the idea that skipping breakfast will lead to hunger which leads to overeating and weight gain. The truth is that there is nothing special about breakfast. There are some studies that show some people do benefit by eating breakfast, but overall, there is nothing magical about breakfast or any other meal of the day that will cause you to become overweight.
2. Eating frequently boosts your metabolism.
It is true that eating food tends to cause a small increase in metabolism, but in the end what matters is how many calories you consume, not how frequently you eat. This increase in metabolism, called the thermic effect of food (TEF) accounts for only about 10 percent of total calories taken in. Again, it has nothing to do with the number of meals taken in. Calorie counts is the only thing that counts.
3. Eating more frequently helps to reduce hunger.
For some people, eating snacks throughout the day does help them stave off hunger pangs. On the other hand, this depends on the individual, not on how often they eat.
4. Smaller meals, eaten more often will help you to lose weight.
Eating meals does not boost your metabolism, nor does it reduce hunger. Taken together, this means that neither affects the weight equation. Some people find eating throughout the day to be enormously inconvenient. At the same time, some people find that it helps them fight off hunger. In the end, the only thing that matters is how it affects you.
5. Eating often keeps the body healthy.
Quite simply, eating often is not natural to the human body. It’s been said many times over the years that humans still have the same body that their ancestors have had since the beginning, and those ancestors did not have a constant stream of food available to them. They simply ate when they good, which was few and far between. It is also worth noting that fasting between meals helps the body repair itself, a process called autophagy, which is known to help protect the body against aging and diseases like Alzheimers disease, and might even contribute to the risk of cancer.
