Some Beliefs About Weight Loss

Abstract

Objectives: to analyze some popular beliefs concerning the individual measures to prevent obesity and to promote weight loss and to compare they with the recent relevant scientific publications.

Study design and Methods: The related experimental papers and reviews were searched for in MedLine/PubMed, Web of Science, and SCOPUS databases from 2000 to 2021. In cases of repeated or conflicting information or references, more recent sources have been preferred. Words used to search were “obesity” or “weight loss”, “healthy lifestyle”, “nutrition” or their combinations.

Results: Benefits of no fat consumption, skipping the breakfast, reduction the number of meals, fasting, healthy lifestyle, physical activity and smoking are critically evaluated. These beliefs are only partially supported or not supported by the existing scientific knowledge at all.

Conclusions: Measures for weight loss should be based less on common beliefs and more to scientific data. This conclusion stresses the importance the public education and wide propagation of heathy life style by specialists.