subject: Three Common Misconceptions About Dieting And Healthy Living [print this page] Leading a healthy lifestyle and being on a diet are two of those things in life that most people seem to have at least some basic view and opinion on.
And it's because of this fact that everyone has their own preconceived ideas about dieting and healthy living that both aspects can so often be thought of as being negative.
The truth is, healthy living is something that's actually really easy to do and dieting doesn't have to mean that you cut out certain foods from your diet, but just that you're watching what you're eating.
These three points in relation to dieting and healthy living are all - to the surprise of many - common misconceptions.
1. You can't live healthily living in London - for those people living outside of the capital, you might struggle to believe that some people think this, but for residents in London, it's a common belief for the simple fact that you seem to have no time.
And if you've got no time, how can you prepare healthy foods or attend a London gym regularly? You're somewhat forced into heating microwavable meals for dinner and takeaway lunches, right?
Simply put, no and fortunately this is just a particularly large misconception - with at least one major London gym being open from early morning to late at night available and a range of healthy, pre-packaged products sold around the city, if everyone also spent some time learning how to cook, it would soon be realised that healthy meals can be created in less than 20 minutes.
2. Fats and carbs are bad for you - in one sense, this is actually true. For the most part, however, it's completely false.
The reason that it's true is that if you were to eat a diet full of fatty foods and starchy carbohydrates, you'd gain pounds in a particularly short space of time.
However, everyone's diet should consist of every food group, including fats and carbs and therefore whilst you shouldn't eat either in massive quantities on a daily basis, it's important that you have some fats with your meal and enough carbohydrates to ensure energy is slowly released afterwards, helping you perform well throughout the day.
3. Walking is no where near as good of an exercise as running - when you think about it, it would seem obvious that running is the better exercise option to walking, as you break into a sweat easier and seem to working out harder.
The truth is that if you were to first walk a mile at a brisk pace and then run a mile, the difference between the amount of calories burned would be negligible.
However, whilst running and walking do burn roughly the same amount of calories, you can burn more calories in an hour running than if you were walking, for the simple fact that you can travel a greater distance by running (it takes the average person 20 minutes to walk a mile, but most beginner runners will be able to cover a mile in 10 minutes).
