Research paper finds obesity myths are still accepted at face value

What have you been told about combating obesity and weight gain? Does the following sound familiar?

• Slow weight loss is better than quick loss.

• Be realistic in setting weight loss goals. Ambitious goals have less likelihood of success.

• Nothing helps weight loss like sex. Sexual intercourse burns a whopping 300 calories.

Well, they're all myths, littered throughout scientific and general literature, propped up as standard dogma, and widely echoed, even by experts. It turns out that what we know is far from what we learned.

In a study titled "Myths, Presumptions, and Facts about Obesity" published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, the authors scoured popular media and scientific literature for obesity-related myths and presumptions and weighed them against scientifically proven facts. They found the following myths were especially prevalent:

Small, sustained changes in energy intake or expenditure produce large, long-term weight changes.
Unlike the piggy bank, little changes in caloric intake or burning do not build-up indefinitely. Our body mass is organic and simply cancels out the changes over time.

Setting realistic goals for weight loss is important, otherwise patients will become frustrated and lose less weight.
More challenging goals have been shown to be more effective.

Large, rapid weight loss is associated with poorer long-term weight-loss outcomes, as compared with slow, gradual weight loss.
People who lose weight quickly are actually more likely to weigh less after many years.

People can only lose weight when they are "ready" to do, so it is important to measure each patient's stage of diet readiness.
Unlike addiction treatment, mental readiness does not predict weight-loss results.

Physical-education classes, in their current form, play an important role in reducing or preventing childhood obesity.
Physical education classes, for all their benefits, do not include counteracting obesity.