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These are the two biggest myths about how to lose weight, according to a Harvard nutrition expert
If you haven't tried one of these debunked weight-loss tips, then you've definitely heard of them.
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Dr. David Ludwig, a Harvard Medical School nutrition and obesity expert, talked to Tech Insider about the science behind eating healthy.
His book, "Always Hungry?" outlines an evidence-based eating plan that focuses on what you eat, not just how much.
Ludwig says these are the two biggest myths about eating healthy:
Metabolism is a biological function. There's only so much you can will your body to do before its natural processes win out.
When we cut calories, Ludwig said, the body "fights back."
"You get hungrier," he said. "Hunger isn’t just a passing feeling. It’s a primal biological signal that your body needs calories."
This is why many calorie-restricted diets can help you lose weight quickly, but you often end up gaining it back later.
What's Ludwig's advice instead?
"Forget calories, focus on the quality of the food, and let your body do the rest."
Quite frankly, humans need fat to survive.
Eating the wrong kinds of fat — trans fats especially — can be unhealthy.
But just because you eat fat doesn't mean you will get fat, Ludwig said.
The plan he outlines in his book, "Always Hungry?" is a diet high in healthy fats, like the kinds found in avocados and olive oil. By the last phase of the plan, it's similar to a Mediterranean diet.
Ludwig bases his advice on decades of research, including some of his own, that has found that low-fat diets don't lead to long-term weight loss.
Instead of fixating on fat content, Ludwig recommends focusing on eating whole foods.
At the grocery store, he said to stick to the "periphery that has whole foods — vegetables, eggs, dairy, nuts — and stay out of the center where highly packaged, processed foods are that are high in sugars and low quality oils."
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