The best thing about the technological society in which we live is easy access to nutritional information that can help us lose weight. The worst thing about it is the plethora of misinformation out there confusing you and leading to weight gain.

{Just because you worked out, doesn’t mean this is how you should eat!}

These diet myths often have the opposite intended effect, leading you to think you know absolutely nothing about weight loss. Keep going to find which of these 6 diet myths are killing your weight loss efforts.

Diet Myth #1: Eat As Much Fruit & Vegetables As You Want

While fruits and vegetables are an essential component of a well-balanced diet designed for weight loss, this does not mean you can eat an unlimited amount of them. Whether its pineapple, watermelon or apples, the calories in fruits and vegetables can still lead to weight gain if you eat more calories than you burn.

Eating as much fruit & vegetables as you like will load your body up with vitamins and nutrients, but if not consumed in moderation it can lead to weight gain. This is a diet myth that hurts weight loss efforts because diets like Weight Watchers assign fruits and vegetables 0 points, leading dieters to believe they don’t count for weight gain.

Don’t take my word for it; go here to see how quickly those calories can add up if you eat a few avocados each day.

Exercise Transforms Fat to Muscle

Life would be awesome if exercise simply turned muscle into fat, but nothing could be further from the truth.

The fact is that muscle and fat are made up of different cells that will never somehow ‘transform’ into each other. No more than muscle turns to fat, can fat turn to muscle but it’s a nice theory.

What you can do however is burn fat through exercise and diet, while also using lean proteins and exercise to build muscle.

Never Eat Before You Workout

When it comes to diet myths that hurt weight loss efforts, none is more hurtful than the myth that you shouldn’t eat before a workout.

What’s so strange about this myth is that we know that food is fuel and you need that fuel (i.e. energy) to help your muscles work efficiently during each workout. So imagine what happens when you don’t give your body enough fuel to make it through a workout; you have a sluggish workout that doesn’t burn nearly as many calories as you planned.

Julie Bender, a dietician for Baylor University Medical Center (Dallas) suggests eating a small snack at least 1 hour but as much as 3 hours before you exercise.

Avoid Fat to Lose Fat

Although it makes sense that this diet myth persists because eating fat should make you fat…if you know nothing about how weight gain works.

This diet myth is hurting your weight loss efforts because one thing makes you fat; eating more calories than you need. If you do eat more calories than you need, burning them through exercise is a great way to stave off weight gain.

However avoiding fat to lose weight is not the route you need to take because there is such a thing as good fats. Foods like nuts, fish and oil contain good fats our bodies need. Other foods like cookies and cakes contain saturated and trans fats that your body can certainly do without.

So this diet myth is somewhat true. Some fats should be avoided to lose fat.

Cravings Occur Due to Nutrient Deficiencies

This is the most laughable of all diet myths that hurt weight loss efforts, mostly because how often do you crave carrots or sweet potatoes because you aren’t getting enough beta carotene?

Probably never.

This myth is detrimental to weight loss efforts for several reasons. First cravings are usually emotional or hormonal, not physical, therefore they cannot be caused by a nutrient deficiency. Next, most of the foods we ‘crave’ have little to no nutritional value, so debunking this myth was easy.

It is more likely that your food cravings have to do with your (now healthy) diet that you feel is boring or restrictive. In fact according to researcher Marcia Pechat, Ph.D., from the Monell Chemical Senses Center, food cravings often occur because you know you can not or should not eat the food which you crave.

Do your weight loss a favor and enjoy some of the things you love occasionally, so you don’t go overboard after months without brownies!

Cutting Calories Is Best Path to Weight Loss

This can be the most confusing diet myth that hurts weight loss efforts because on its face, it is technically true. Cutting calories is part of the best path to weight loss, but the best path is a combination of cutting calories and increased physical activity.

This myth can hurt weight loss because many dieters cut calories to dangerously low levels (below 1,200 calories per day) under the mistaken belief that this is the best way to lose weight. And quite honestly this method will lead to weight loss, but you’ll be thin with lose of loose sagging skin. Adding exercise along with a calorie restriction will:

• Make it easier to create a calorie deficit by cutting calories and burning calories.
• Tone & tighten your body so you look smaller.
• Help you burn fat while you’re sitting down watching TV.

These diet myths hurt weight loss efforts by supplying you with false information. Sometimes weight loss is difficult because of a food addiction you don’t even know about. Read our review of Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat to see how intermittent fasting can help with that addiction.