It's hard to distinguish the good nutrition advice from the bad, especially when there are so many conflicting arguments online and sometimes, even experts have different opinions. But if you're looking to change your diet to eat better, live healthier and feel happier, you want to make sure you're taking the right steps toward achieving your goals.

A common dieting mistake is eating too much of a good thing.

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This can be a challenge, as there are some diet myths out there that people are still buying into, thinking that they're proven formulas to expedite weight loss and promote clean eating. But these approaches can backfire in fact, restrictive tendencies and bad eating patterns can lead to self-sabotage and stagnation.

To help you comb through all the clutter, we chatted with a few experts to figure out which pieces of nutrition advice should be rejected and what you should do instead. Here are the dieting mistakes you should avoid.

Fiber is super good for you, as it keeps you regular and helps you feel full, so you want to get enough of it in your diet through fiber-rich foods, like beans and legumes, leafy greens, whole grains and fresh fruit with the skin on. However, it's a myth that you should eat as much fiber as you can each day, as too much can backfire.

"'Eat more fiber' is common dietary advice because major studies show that the majority of people don't eat enough of this nutrient. And fiber is essential for gut, metabolic and cardiovascular health," says Sofia Norton, RD. However, too much of a good thing can lead to some side effects, which can make you super uncomfortable.

Learn how to fill your plate with healthy, nutrient-dense foods by logging your meals on the MyPlate app. Download now to fine-tune your diet today!

"Too much fiber causes bloating, gas, diarrhea, constipation and even bowel obstruction. Keep your intake to a maximum of 70 grams per day to avoid this," Norton says.

For the record, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend women aim for 25 to 28 grams of fiber per day, and men try to get 28 to 33, depending on age.

Healthy fats from foods like salmon and avocado are an important part of any weight-loss diet.

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Fat is no longer the enemy. And while you might not need to hop on the keto diet (where fat makes up about 80 percent of your plate), it is beneficial to eat enough healthy fats, from unsaturated sources and omega 3s especially, as well as moderate amounts of saturated fat to actually lose weight and maintain healthy bodily function.

"For people on the standard American diet, reducing fat intake can help keep their calories in check, their cholesterol levels normal and their metabolic health top-notch," Norton says. "But going to extremes with low-fat eating can lead to overindulging on carbs and nutrient deficiencies according to some research." So, eat enough to feel satiated in the day and to keep your health in check.

Again, keto or low-carb dieting might be great for some people, but it's not a one-diet-fits-all sort of thing. That's why some experts want the "carbs are evil" myth to go out the window, as some carbs, when enjoyed in moderation, are packed with good nutrients to fuel you.

It comes down to what types of carbs you're eating and how much.

"You might want to think twice before giving all carbs a bad rap," says Bonnie Balk, RD, a dietitian for Maple Holistics. "Simple carbs (cookies, pastries, sodas, candy, etc.) are digested quickly and spike our blood sugar fast, making them a good group to avoid. But complex carbs (whole grains, starchy veggies, beans and peas) are loaded with fiber and nutrients and can aid in weight loss," she says. The bottom line: You can still live well by eating carbs!

If you're hungry late at night, you should eat. Just make sure you're choosing healthy options.

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You don't need to stop eating at 6 p.m. to lose weight or live healthfully. It comes down to total calories; and while you might have less opportunity to burn calories at night and when sleeping than earlier in the day, you can surely have a snack before bed without it leading to weight gain.

"It is a myth that all food turns to fat after a certain hour of the day. If you're (truly) hungry, you should eat," says Dana Angelo White, RD, a dietitian and nutrition consultant. "Now, it can't be a high-calorie, junk food free-for-all, but a sensible snack can help more than hurt," she says.

Healthy options include yogurt, cottage cheese, nut butter on toast or some avocado and whole-grain crackers.

Hitting the weight room or taking strength-training classes helps build muscle and keep fat off, but you can't let your diet slide, as exercise alone can't make you healthy. And you don't necessarily even need to workout to lose weight or feel better, as long as your diet improves, too.

What you eat can protect your heart and help with weight management, or it can add excess calories and sugar to derail all your fitness gains.

"Diet quality always matters!" White says. "While you can certainly partake in the occasional splurge, you need to fuel your workouts with healthy foods. Stick to lean proteins, healthy fats and whole grains, and keep added sugars low."

Limit added sugars, even when they come from "natural" sources like honey or agave.

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For some reason, these more natural sources of sugar get a better reputation than refined table sugar, as many bloggers use them for "healthy" makeovers of baked goods. We hate to break it you, but sugar is sugar. Your body does not care if it comes from honey or soda.

"To be fair, you may pick up a few extra vitamins or minerals from unrefined sugar sources, but calorie for calorie, your waistline views them all the same way," says Lauren Harris-Pincus, RDN, author of The Protein-Packed Breakfast Club. "Instead, focus on minimizing all added sugars."

The American Heart Association recommends keeping the total to 24 grams per day for women (6 teaspoons) and 36 grams per day (9 teaspoons) for men.

If you don't like artificial sweeteners, there are naturally derived options like stevia, erythritol, allulose and monk fruit, Harris-Pincus says, which don't spike blood sugar and are healthier for weight loss.

Some people hear about 16:8 intermittent fasting for weight loss where you fast for 16 hours each day and eat your meals within the other eight-hour window and think, "That basically just means skipping breakfast." But nixing the first meal of the day is not a magic formula for weight loss.

"While there is emerging evidence that time-restricted eating during an eight- to 12-hour window can have some health benefits, intermittent fasting does not seem to result in any more weight loss than a traditional calorie-restricted diet," says Harris-Pincus. "The studies that show the most benefit have the eating window shifted earlier in the day, so if you like this approach, make sure to include breakfast within about two hours of waking up and aim for an eating window from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or at the latest 10 a.m.to 6 p.m.," she says.

The body doesn't process and metabolize food as well in the evening as it does in the morning, since it slows down to prepare for sleep, so avoiding extra calories at night might be better than skipping them early in the morning if you are following a fasting plan.

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7 Common Dieting Mistakes to Avoid, According to Nutritionists - LIVESTRONG.COM

A New Year often brings about a new diet and some a lot of people are turning to a method of eating called intermittent fasting.

Intermittent fasting involves only eating your food during a certain time frame.

One celebrity who has become well known for her love of intermittent fasting is Jennifer Aniston.

The actress recently admitted that she is a big fan of the 16:8 method of intermittent fasting and doesnt eat a morning meal.

While the most popular method involves eating within a certain window of time, a la Jen Aniston, nutritionist Niamh Forster told Extra.ie that there are many different methods of fasting.

Theres a lot of types of intermittent fasting, Niamh explained.

Fasting is just not eating anything all day. Theres modified fasting This would be something like the 5:2 diet where you eat a restricted amount of calories for five days and then however many calories you want for two days.

Time-restricted feeding, or intermittent fasting, involves eating within a certain window. It could involve starting eating at 8am and finishing at 3pm.

This may sound like just skipping breakfast or dinner, but you can still eat as many or as few meals as you like during this time.

While intermittent fasting isnt a new trend, it has drastically grown in popularity over the last number of years.

New data, provided to Extra.ie by dietitian Antonia Richards at the health and fitness brand Shoe Hero, revealed that the term intermittent fasting has received a 161.2% rise in worldwide Google searches within the last year alone.

The same term has seen a huge 1250% uplift in the last 5 years, Antonia revealed.

Such search increases showcase how great public interest is with regards to intermittent fasting and the desire to learn more about its concept.

Its said that intermittent fasting can help with weight loss but is this intermittent fasting just another passing craze?

Rebecca Jennings, a nutritionist at the Priory Group eating disorder facility Arthur House, told Extra.ie that she has experienced people who have developed eating disorders due to this way of eating.

For this reason, she said it is extremely important to do your research if you want to try it.

There is some evidence to suggest that exclusively eating food within a 10-12 hour period can be beneficial for lowering cholesterol, improving insulin sensitivity, and reducing risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, she explained.

Fasting has also been known to result in weight loss due to its effect on metabolic rate.

However, more research is needed as, in previous studies, similar weight loss has occurred as a result of a calorie deficit as opposed to a time restriction on when food is consumed. The weight loss could simply be due to the calorie deficit and not the act of fasting itself.

A calorie deficit means that youre eating fewer calories than youre expelling. By finding out how many calories you expel in a day, you can find out how many calories you should eat in order to lose weight.

Joey Harper has tried intermittent fasting a number of times and has credited his one-and-a-half stone weight loss to this way of dieting.

I cant remember how I came across it, but I started it to lose weight, he explained to Extra.ie.

I did the daily fast where I would eat only between 12pm and 8pm, and, in that time, Id have three meals.

I felt great when I was doing it and had lots of energy. Once you get used to not being able to eat any time you like, it gets really easy.

I also found that I stopped snacking because I got used to feeling hungry and learned the difference between hungry/peckish, and wanting to eat out of boredom.

While Joey has credited his weight loss to intermittent fasting, nutritionist Niamh Forster explained that the weight loss is due to the fact that youre unintentionally restricting calories because you have less time to eat.

However, Antonia Richards of Shoe Hero said that intermittent fasting can be beneficial as it gives your body and, in particular, your gut a break.

Intermittent fasting can be great for gut health, she explained to Extra.ie.

The gut contains trillions of bacteria that play an instrumental role in breaking down our food intake, boosting our immune system and even building essential vitamins. The health of our gut offers a great insight into our lifestyle choices and our general health.

Our gut rarely gets a break and we can treat it quite poorly with a regular intake of alcohol and fatty foods. Fasting presents the gut with the opportunity to have a break from intensive tasks such as digesting foods and absorbing nutrients.

However, Priory group nutritionist Rebecca Jennings said that intermittent fasting involves creating rules around certain foods and this isnt something that she would recommend for a healthy relationship with food.

Intermittent fasting involves creating rules around food and when you can and cant eat, she explained.

The regimented fasting can leave you feeling hungry, dehydrated, tired and irritable.

Putting these kinds of restrictions in place can set you up to feel guilty or ashamed if (and when), you break a rule.

The energy deficit that a person experiences during the fast can lead to episodes of binging or over-eating too.

It is also a commitment that can have a big impact on your lifestyle due to the strict rules that have to be adhered to.

So is intermittent fasting good for you? The verdict is still out on this one.

While studies have been carried out in the area, both Rebecca Jennings and Niamh Forster were keen to point out that most of these have on animals and there has been a lack of human-based studies.

However, Antonia Richards highlighted that it can have its benefits and multiple people shared their stories about how it helped them lose weight.

All of the nutritionists that spoke to Extra.ie advised that if you are trying out intermittent fasting, it should be done in moderation and you should listen to your body.

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Nutritionists reveal everything you need to know before you try intermittent fasting - Extra.ie

We understand. You were ready to change things in 2020. You wanted to torch fat, build muscle and get fit for the new year. But three weeks in, you haven't lost two stones and now you've started losing motivation. But fear not: we have a few tricks up our sleeves that can get you fit even if you are feeling a bit lazy.

You might think that the only way to get fit is to hit the treadmill or exercise bike an hour a day, every day, or to start doing heavy resistance training and full body workouts. And although all these activities would help you lose fat and build lean muscle mass especially if your diet is correct they also take considerable amount of will power to start.

Many people fall into the trap of changing their lifestyle too quickly, setting themselves up for failure. Swapping eating pizza every night and doing no exercising to having leaf salad and loads of exercising will send your body into panic mode and you are more likely to abandon your new, healthier lifestyle.

Small, incremental changes might not melt fat off you in one week but they will help ease you into a healthier lifestyle. And, of course, they will help you get fitter and slimmer, too.

We collected five strategies to help you on the journey to get fit(ter), even if you are feeling lazy.

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The below tips are just the tip of the iceberg but they should still make you more fit and mobile, boost your metabolism and your cardiovascular system as well. By introducing these changes and strategies into your life you can make the first steps towards getting leaner and healthier.

Put things out of the way

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Want to get your body ready for rigorous exercising? The best way to start is to get more mobile. Our modern lifestyle makes us stationary, we tend to sit and stand a lot, arms hanging next to our bodies, head tilted forward as we stare at computer and phone screens.

You can feel fitter by applying a few mobility changes to your everyday life. Change things up at home and at work. We place items we use more often in the most convenient places in cupboards and wardrobes, and as much as it is convenient, it makes our bodies more rigid, too.

Try moving things out of the way. Make yourself reach higher up or deeper down for everyday items. Place all the snacks in the most obscure place in the kitchen. Put the shoes in the top compartment in the hallway cabinet. Move the side desk farther away from the sofa.

These small changes will help you mobilise your joints and even get you to do exercises in the process. Frying pan on the lowest shelf in the bottom cabinet? Better do a squat to get it.

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Even if you aren't planning on moving more, drinking more can help boost your metabolism. And when we say drinking more, we don't mean teas or coffees, or even juices, but water.

Green tea and coffee is healthy to consume (not in industrial quantities, though) but they are also slightly diuretic so they will make you pee more. Water, on the other hand, will aid your guts to process food quicker and also help rid toxins from your body.

As for juices, they aren't completely unhealthy but you shouldn't drink more than a glass a day. Juices are high in sugar and regardless of the source of this sugar, since there are no fibres in them not even orange juice with bits is as fibery as an actual fruit they will spike blood insulin levels.

Water has also no calories and you can drink of it as much as you want. By drinking more water, you will also feel less hungry since your stomach will be more stretched.

In case you still feel hungry, you can try swapping your unhealthy snacks for some healthy protein bars and snacks. Protein takes longer to digest and many of the protein bars available on the market today are high in fibre and low on sugar, too, making them an ideal snacking option.

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You don't even have to do stunts like this to get fitter using an exercise ball

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Exercise balls are amazing. They are a versatile piece of equipment, like resistance bands, and can be used for exercising as well as everyday activities. For example, sitting on an exercise ball when you watch TV or work on the computer requires you to use your core muscles, maybe not to the extent as when you use an ab roller but it is definitely a good start.

Sitting on an exercise ball will also naturally make you move around more. Not only do you roll forward and backwards a bit as you sit, making you use your ankle and knee joints more, but since you can't lean back, you are most likely to get up more often which in turn will help your metabolism and cardio system, too.

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High intensity cardio exercises like running or jumping on a rowing machine burn a lot of calories. But they also require considerable amount of effort and are not ideal for people who are overweight.

This is especially true for running. Carrying extra weight will put more pressure on your joints and although running can make your bones stronger, it takes time to build up the base stamina to be able to run more efficiently.

At the beginning, you're better off with brisk walking. Brisk walking is the next best thing to running as it requires less effort but also burns calories and helps metabolism and cardio health, too.

You don't need any special gear either, although good pair of walking shoes or running shoes can make walking significantly more comfortable. To track your steps, get a fitness tracker or a running watch, these devices can also measure heart rate and calories burned.

Also, research showed that people who listen to music with higher rpm will walk faster, so you might as well get a pair of sweat-proof running headphones too. This will also make the walking sessions more enjoyable.

Try to swap some of your car journeys to walking sessions instead and also add a bigger walking session to your weekend plans. Once you get used to brisk walking, start adding some jogging intervals to your walks.

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HIIT (high intensity interval training) is the perfect workout for the time poor (although maybe it would be a push to call it lazy). HIIT workouts use short bursts of high intensity exercises to bring the heart rate up, followed by short intervals of low intensity intervals.

HIIT can effectively burn fat, not only during the workout but up to 24 hours after the HIIT session. It can also be done using a variety of equipment: there are indoor exercise bike HIIT classes as well as kettlebell HIIT workouts, or you can just use a jump rope if you want.

HIIT is also good because it is easier for many people to maintain high intensity exercising for shorter periods than it is to maintain a moderate tempo for longer (a.k.a. running). A HIIT workout can be over and done with in 20-30 minutes, just take your protein powder mix plus a banana and you're sorted for the day.

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How to get fit: 5 easy strategies that mean even lazy people can be fitter and healthier - T3

Professor Roy Taylor, Britains leading diabetes expert, has discovered how to reverse type 2. But there are dietary lessons for us all

The Times,January 18 2020, 12:01am

Could you still fit into the trousers you wore when you were 20? At 67, Professor Roy Taylor certainly can (he may even require a belt). My old pair are canary-yellow corduroy flares that somehow never got thrown out, he says.

Its not a random boast. The revolutionary diabetes expert believes that we should all be fitting into our old kecks. And we should take his challenge very seriously because Taylor, professor of medicine and metabolism at Newcastle University, is working to liberate countless people from lifelong illness by demolishing a medical monolith the belief that type 2 diabetes is an incurable condition.

Taylor has proved that diabetes is reversible and patients can free themselves of dependency on medications such as insulin. He says

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How to lose weight and live longer, by Britain's top diabetes expert - The Times

Sat, Jan 18, 2020 - 5:50 AM

THE Christmas festivities are barely over and Chinese New Year is already rolling round. We have just recovered from the wine and dine of the Yuletide season and are trying to shed the extra kilogrammes. The gym instructors will tell you that there is a surge in the beginning of the year in gym attendance as people grapple with added body weight and the weight of their New Year resolutions!

There has been a lot of interest in intermittent fasting and low carbohydrate diets. Intermittent fasting is practised in various ways. One is to fast on alternate days or to fast two to three days in a week, while an alternative way is to reduce the number of hours in a day for eating. Hence you have regimens such as 5:2, where you fast for two days in a week, or fasting for 14 hours daily for five days in a week and gradually increasing it over months to 16 to 18 hours daily.

The whole idea about intermittent fasting is to switch the body to use ketones as a fuel as opposed to glucose. The brain needs to use glucose to power itself and in fasting states, it uses ketones. The ketones comes from fat breakdown.

Caveman situation

The idea of intermittent fasting is to recreate the caveman situation where they did not cultivate crops and had to survive from hunt to hunt. The fasting state induces ketone production or ketosis and it takes only eight to 10 hours of fasting before ketones start to rise in the bloodstream.

The rise is marked when the fasting period hits 24 hours. The ketones are not just a fuel; they are also powerful triggers of certain pathways that the body needs to overcome the challenge of fasting. These pathways allow the cells to mount antioxidant response, repair damaged DNA, increase number of mitochondria that are the powerhouses of the cell, remove damage structures inside the cell and reduce inflammation.

In short, the body conserves by shutting down growth and reproduction, enhancing response to stress, favouring repair mechanisms and ensuring cell survival.

When the fast is broken and the patient starts to eat, the glucose levels rise, the ketones fall, the body starts to increase protein production resulting in growth and repair. Hence the intermittent fasting regimen together with exercise results in long-term adaptations that are useful.

Is intermittent fasting the panacea to our growing obesity rates globally? There is a lot of research ongoing in different areas such as intermittent fasting in cancer, degenerating illnesses of the brain, asthma, autoimmune disease, diabetes, obesity and cardiac diseases.

A lot of data is in animal studies and we are still missing long-term, mega- sized trials. Other issues include gorging during the feeding states as you still have to restrict your calories when you break the fast; there is also irritability, hunger and "brain fog" when your brain starts using ketones as a fuel. Thankfully, these side effects resolve within a month of starting your regimen.

The other popular strategy is the use of low carbohydrate diets. A healthy diet comprises of 45 to 65 per cent of carbohydrates. A moderate carbohydrate diet comprises 26 to 44 per cent, a "low" carbohydrate diet is 10 to 25 per cent and a "very low" carbohydrate diet is 10 per cent or less. The remaining is either protein or fat.

The diets that trigger ketosis are usually low or very low in carbohydrate and high in fat. High protein intake in a low carbohydrate diet can negate ketosis.

Does a low carbohydrate diet work? The data shows that such diets do work, and they can result in increased metabolism. We are not sure how this is achieved but it could be due to changes in stress and thyroid hormones. There is also remarkable initial weight loss due to loss of body water as ketones are diuretic in nature. The loss of water is also due to lower insulin levels and the depletion of the glycogen stores in your liver.

The weight loss in the short term is much better than your normal low fat diet. In the longer term, that is, six months or more, the gains between low carbohydrate and low fat diet evens out. It is also very difficult to sustain a very low carbohydrate diet.

The other thing to note is that your muscle mass may also deteriorate with low carbohydrate diets and so it is important to make sure you eat enough protein and not just fat.

I am often asked if cholesterols will be affected by a low carbohydrate diet. The response of cholesterols levels may be quite varied. If the patients eats a lot of saturated fat, the LDL or bad cholesterol will rise. Hence we usually tell patients on such diets to monitor their cholesterol profiles.

The triglycerides are heavily influenced by glucose and hence such diets do lower triglycerides. In diabetic patients, the triglycerides and blood glucose levels are reduced by such diets.

Not all diets are equal

Among the low carbohydrate diets, not all are equal. For example, they found the diets that were more Mediterranean and Paleolithic in nature were useful in diabetics. Those with higher protein and lower fat were also useful.

Is there a down side to such low carbohydrate diets? Well, they found that it was not helpful in blood pressure patients, it may produce changes in the gut bacteria and it is not helpful with inflammation. We believe that the arteries are inflamed, therefore triggering blockages.

Is there increase in longevity if we partake in such diets? The data shows that if we substitute the carbohydrates that we forego in such diets with animal fat or protein, longevity is reduced. However, if we use plant-based fat or protein, longevity is enhanced.

In the final analysis, we have found that patients do lose weight with low carbohydrate diets and intermittent fasting. We have to be aware that such diets are not fads or trick diets. One can lose weight by cutting off a leg; "trick diets" try to get you to reduce your calorie intake by making you consume too much of one item, be it pineapples or apples or whatever.

Ultimately, as we leave one festive season and move into the next, be mindful of what you eat, try to eat in moderation, control your portion sizes, maintain your exercise and enjoy the goodwill and fellowship of kin, friends and colleagues.

This series is produced on alternate Saturdays in collaboration with Singapore Medical Specialists Centre

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Feasting or fasting in the festive season? - The Business Times

When I went off to college, Huy Tran says, I became an eating machine. Up until then, hed been an average kid, fairly active. He played sports and biked all over down. Yet when he went to college he hoovered up whatever food was available, in huge amounts. Reflecting on it now, the 33-year-old lab scientist and photographer says, I believe that I had developed a binge eating disorder and was addicted to food.

He gained 70 pounds in about a year and a half, and he carried that weight with him. At his heaviest he was 264 pounds and felt awful, with tight hamstrings and persistent back pain. Hed sweat if he had to walk too far. He couldnt fit into his suit jacket for a friends wedding; he had trouble getting down the stairs for a night-time drink of water. I was 31 years old and my body was falling apart, he says. Enough was enough.

He started by taking pictures of himself. Then he downloaded MyFitnessPal, setting a calorie goal that would drop one pound a week. He ditched the fast food and starting prepping meals of salads, roasted veggies, and lean protein. Sugary drinks went out the window, and he began using a food scale.

As a motivator, he signed up for a 5K race he vowed to complete in the spring, then enrolled in a couch-to-5K program. The first few weeks were hell, he says. I could barely jog for 60 seconds at a time and my legs were constantly sore. He fought through that, and when he could run a 5K he got a gym membership and started lifting, beginning with full-body and then going into a PPL (Push-Pull-Legs) split. He didnt have a trainer, but his friends kept him motivated and accountable.

After a year, hed lost 35 pounds; now, two years later, hes down 46 pounds but has also gained a lot of muscle. I don't think that I have ever been this fit in my entire life, he says. He can lift nearly twice his bodyweight in most lifts, and his 5K time is under 27 minutes. He feels more confident in himself, and in control of his body. Hes much more disciplined; his mental toughness has increased. I get comments from people nearly every week saying something about how different and good I look or how they are so proud of me, he says. He thinks he might lose another 15-20 pounds. I want to keep going and be the best version of myself that I can be.

Losing weight and becoming healthy has to become a lifestyle and not a fad if you want to be successful and have it stick, he says. Fad and crash diets can feel like punishment, and are hard to stick to. Instead, he says, find exercise you enjoy and a sensible diet. Eat healthier and move more, he says. It goes a long way.

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A Couch to 5K Program Helped This Guy Drop 50 Pounds and Get Healthy - menshealth.com