With fad diets out there telling us over and over again that to lose weight we need to deprive ourselves, it’s no wonder that so many people think that starvation is the best diet tool of all. I mean, we’re taught that food is the enemy, so it makes sense that if we cut food out of our lives then we’ll gain diet perfection, right? WRONG!

Starvation Myth 1: Cutting out calories will make us thin.
While this is true to a certain degree, it’s important not to take this message too far. What happens when you deprive yourself of food, is that your body starts to worry that it may not ever get enough food again and it begins to keep whatever calories it does get as storage. So by cutting cals, you may actually put on weight.

Starvation Myth 2: Skipping Meals will help you lose weight.
Want to know how sumo wrestlers gain weight? They skip breakfast and then eat a huge lunch and dinner. Because they’ve starved themselves all morning, they’re bodies go into starvation mode and hold on to all food it gets after not eating for all those hours. Do you want to end up like a sumo wrestler? I think not…

Starvation Myth 3: Juice fasts will detox your body and help you stay thin.
Here’s a tip: Any diet that forces you to go without food isn’t a good idea in the long run. Human being have teeth because they are supposed to eat food. Acts of chewing and digesting will help increase your metabolism—and THAT will ensure proper cleansing of the body. Drinking liquids all day, especially not sugary drinks, is just not enough to keep you going.

Starvation Myth 4: Eliminate fat and you’ll eliminate pounds.
Again, WRONG! While overloading your body with unnecessary fat is a bad idea, ingesting some healthy fat is important to keep your metabolism and digestive track running smoothly. If you deprive your body of fat altogether, then your body may shift into starvation mode once again and hold on for dear life to whatever you do give it.