You know the saying “You are what you eat”. Well, if you wish to get flat abs, you’d better heed this saying because there’s no place in which it has more bearing.
What you eat and how you eat it have a direct influence over your body fat percentage and the way your stomach looks.
But maintaining a healthy nutrition routine isn’t all that easy or simple. Sometimes, even if you do your best to follow what you believe are sound nutritional guidelines, you’re actually working against your body and not with it.
The truth is that there are a lot of nutrition myths which have taken hold in the mainstream public opinion. Some of them actually preach the opposite of what is good and healthy. On this page I want to dispel those myths so that you’ll know how to eat to burn tummy fat as fast as possible.
Nutrition Myth #1 – Eat Less to Lose Weight
To lose weight you do need to create a calorie deficit, meaning that you need to burn more calories than those you put in. However, that doesn’t mean that the less you eat the more you lose weight. In fact, this is far from true.
If you cut down your calories drastically you may create a metabolic slowdown which will make it virtually impossible for you to continue losing weight. This “eat less lose more” mentality is one of the major causes of diet failure which plagues a vast majority of diet users.
To lose weight you do need to cut down on the calories and fat that you consume, but you need to do it sensibly, according to a reliable eating plan and in conjunction with a solid exercise program.
Nutrition Myth #2 – 3 Squares a Day keep the fat away
As a kid, I was always told to make sure to eat 3 square meals a day. This is something which was the common way in which parents fed their children and themselves. You ate 3 rather heavy meals and it was deemed wise to avoid eating between meals to not gain fat.
Well, the 3 squares a day myth has been widely disproved and the rule of thumb which modern research has provided us with is that it’s far better to eat more small meals each day than to bunch all of your calories into 3 large meals.
Our metabolism fluctuates during the day and it is directly affected by the way we feed our body. If we let our body go for long stretches unfed, we may experience a metabolic dip. Furthermore, there’s a limit to the amount of food our body can handle at any one time. If you overburden your body by eating too much, you may experience digestion difficulties and may force your body to convert more than the fair share of what you ate to fat. This happens simply because your body may be unable to use all the nutrients you put into it in the optimal way.
Nuritional Myth #3 – Fat is the Ultimate enemy
This is a tricky myth to dispel since it makes so much sense. We want to reduce body fat, so the most logical thing to do is to cut our all, or nearly all the fat from our diet.
The truth is that fat is a crucial nutrient which our body must have. A substantial part of our daily calorie intake must comes from fat. If you eliminate all fat, you will harm your health.
Not all fats are bad. There are bad fats and good fats. Bad fats usually fall into the trans-fat categories and are often found in industrialized and processed foods. Good fats, which you need to eat, are found in olive oil, avocados, coconut oil, nuts, fish, and so on.
The main thing is to stop viewing fat as the enemy. It’s not.
Nutritional Myth #4 – Carbs are the enemy
Low carb diets are still very popular. Carbs are considered to be the enemy of those who wish to lose fat because they’re usually high in calories.
Well, there’s nothing wrong with calories. You need them in order to function. Calories are the energy which drives you during the day. If you cut too much carbs you will likely feel a lack of energy, tiredness, sleepiness, and won’t be able to workout in the optimal way.
Carbs are a major nutrient which your body craves and needs to function as it should. Don’t think that carbs are the enemy. Eat the right kind of carbs and they will be your friends.
Complex carbs can be found in whole grain bread, flax seeds and nuts, whole pasta, wild rice, and more. Some of the Top 10 Super Foods I’ve listed have a high amount of compelx carbs.
If you want to stop eating according to outdated information I highly recommend getting the Diet Solution Program, a comprehensive nutrition manual. You can read more about it here: Best Nutrition book
