Myth 3- Have you ever seen those articles about losing 20 pounds in three weeks? Well my friends that just isn’t ever going to happen. The only way that you are going to properly lose weight and keep it off, is to lose it s-l-o-w-l-y and by that I mean over a several month period. Anything quicker and your body will only react to the sudden changes of fat, tissue, and muscle loss and gain more weight instead of loses. At the end of these crash diet plans the only substance in your body that you will have lost by any significance is lean muscle and healthy organ tissue. This will unfortunately only leave you farther behind then when you first started the diet, because remember; lean muscle burns fat. The less lean muscle you have, the less fat your body will be able to burn over any one given days worth of activities. It took you awhile to put on that extra weight, and it is going to take the same amount of time to take it off; there just is no short cut.

Myth 4- Last but certainly not least, is the classic myth that you can blow your entire diet with one moments notice indulgence, such as eating a super-sized Hershey’s chocolate almond bar. Well, this is just not the case. The very worst a person could do to themselves if they gorged non-stop all day, is gain one pound. The body can only handle so much food, so if you over stuff it with rich fatty foods all day; not only will you be incredibly sick for several hours, but your body will flush most of it out. It takes an amazing 3500 calories over your body’s required daily amount, to gain one pound. With that in mind, go ahead and splurge a little once a week; it certainly will not hurt you and it will keep you honest. Telling yourself that you never splurge and then sneaking bits and pieces of high calorie goodies all day long is the absolute worst thing you can do. It will not only bring about guilt and dissatisfaction with your overall diet plan, but will lead to failure. You need to be honest with yourself about what you eat. You are the one in control, and the one who can either bring about the success or failure of your diet program.

*Photos curtesy of ppreacher and kmular at stock.xchng