Everything You Know About Weight Loss and Diets is Wrong

Four pervasive myths about nutrition, weight and health

Photo by i yunmai on Unsplash

During the lockdown, a lot of social media influencers are talking about weight loss. It annoys me to no end to see the myths and misinformation continue to proliferate. Many fad diets and interventions take advantage of our insecurities.

A lot of people believe weight is intricately tied to calories and health. Unfortunately, there is no simple way to lose weight. Due to the complexity of our body’s metabolism, it compensates for a reduction in calories. It also turns out that nutrition itself is more important than weight.

More than 40% of people considered overweight or obese are metabolically healthy. Around 60–70% of lean people are at a higher risk of cardiometabolic disease. I discuss the fascinating insights from this study later in the article. Weight isn’t a good indicator of health.

Then, I tackle the myth that fat people are lazy or lack willpower. In addition to these biological variables that make it difficult for some people to lose weight, socioeconomic factors play an enormous role.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. When looking at cardiometabolic health, many socioeconomic factors play a larger role. They are also associated, and I…