Avoid the annual flood of questionable weight-loss guides and get to grips with the hard facts behind shedding those pounds. Fiona Tyrrellspeaks to four weight-loss experts to debunk some commonly held myths about losing weight
Skipping meals, fasting, crash diets can help you lose weight quickly: Crash dieting is not the way to lose weight, warns Cathy Breen, dietitian at St Columcille's weight management clinic in Loughlinstown, Dublin.
Long-term weight-loss is "not about following a diet sheet" but about making lasting changes to your lifestyle, she says.
She advises people to look at what they eat and pick one or two areas where they can make changes, maybe giving up a cooked breakfast rather than the evening bar of chocolate. It is recommended that men should eat on average 2,000 calories a day and women 1,800.
She says that eating 500 fewer calories a day is what is required to lose 1-2lbs a week - the recommended goal for a sensible long-term weight-loss programme.
Denying your body food and, as a result, vital nutrients will "only result in listlessness and ill health", plus you also run the risk of feeling deprived, which can eventually lead to binge eating, according to Margaret Burke from Weight Watchers.
While people on a crash diet will lose a lot of weight in a short time, this weight-loss is "unsustainable" and is often associated with dehydration and muscle loss, according to James Dwyer, physiotherapist at St Columcille's Hospital and researcher at Trinity College Dublin's physiotherapy department.
"Crash diets will deplete muscle store over time and some people with a history of yo-yo dieting can have reduced functioning in their daily life, especially in their leg muscles - the most important muscles to get around. This can lead to complete inability to get out of a chair or walk up the stairs."
And to compound the problem, when such dieters start eating again, it is usually craving food they go for, which are high in fat and carbohydrates, making them more likely to put on fat, he adds.
"Low-fat" foods help you lose weight:Shop shelves are crammed with products that claim to be "low fat" or "fat free", but while they can play a role in helping to lose weight sometimes the message gets confused.
Just because a product is low in fat does not mean that it is low in calories, warns Margaret Burke. "In fact, these kinds of food usually have added sugar, flour or starch thickeners, which may make for a better taste but also increases the calories. So it is important to check the calorie and nutritional content of foods, especially cakes, sweets and ready-meals for a true picture of what you're buying."
When looking at a label, the calorie count is the most important thing for dieters to look at, according to Cathy Breen. Calorie control should be the number one concern for people looking to lose weight, according to Breen. Low fat is defined as a food having no more than 3g of fat per 100g and low sugar is a food with no more than 5g of sugar, she explains.
I am only slightly overweight; it's no big deal:Self-deception can be a major barrier to tackling a weight problem. The reality is that obesity is one of the fastest growing health problems in Ireland. Obesity accounts for at least 2,500 deaths in Ireland each year, according to the Health Promotion Unit. One in eight Irish people is obese and every second person is overweight.
Being overweight affects all aspects of your life, according to Dr Eva Orsmond, who runs the Orsmond Weight Management Clinic in Shankill in Co Dublin.
"It affects every single move you make, your mental health, your self- esteem, your energy levels, your health and life expectancy," she says.
People need to recognise obesity as a disease and take it seriously, she says.
Eating late at night causes weight gain:Not true. It doesn't matter what time you eat, it is the overall amount of what you consume during the day that really counts.
Any excess calories that we eat will be stored as fat no matter what time you eat. However, it is healthier for your digestion to avoid eating heavily before bedtime, explains Margaret Burke.
For some people, however, the type of eating that happens in the evening involves comfort foods, explains Cathy Breen.
All fat is bad and should be avoided:This is not true. There are two main categories of fat, saturated (usually derived from animal fat) and unsaturated (vegetable and plant fat).
Saturated fat is usually solid at room temperature and includes butter and lard. They tend to push up cholesterol levels and increase the risk of heart problems. Unsaturated fats are usually liquid at room temperature and include olive oil, sunflower oil and sesame oil. They can help to reduce cholesterol levels.
Both types of fat, however, have the same calorie count, according to Cathy Breen.
A tablespoon of fat, whether it's olive oil or beef tallow, has 150 calories. So while all types of fat are high in calories, some types (unsaturated) are worse for your overall health.
Just a teaspoon a day is enough to meet your body's needs, according to Margaret Burke.
Some people just can't lose weight:The idea that some people are genetically pre-disposed to being fat is a highly contentious area, according to James Dwyer.
One of the world's experts on this hot topic is Claude Bouchard who has done much research in the genetic component of obesity and has found that some people's bodies simply don't respond to exercise.
Dwyer believes, however, that the number of people who fit into this category is very small.
People with Prader-Willi syndrome are also genetically pre-disposed to obesity, according to Dwyer.
Characteristics of the syndrome include developmental delay, poor muscle tone, short stature and insatiable appetite. It affects one in 10,000-25,000 births.
For the rest of the population, believing that you can achieve a healthy weight-loss is the most important step on the road to success, according to Margaret Burke.
Losing weight is not easy and there are many people out there who have tried, tried again and still failed.
For many, their emotional and psychological relationship with food needs to be addressed first, explains Dr Eva Orsmond.
"I believe that everyone can lose weight if they are given the right motivation and support.
"My advice to people having problems is to go out and get professional help," Orsmond says.
Fruit is high in sugar and should be avoided during a diet:This is a regular myth that Cathy Breen comes across in her weight clinics in St Columcille's.
"People come in to me and say 'I couldn't eat a banana. It's full of sugar'. Yes, all fruits have sugar but they are still much lower in calories than most other snack foods."
In addition they have lots of nutrients - vitamins, minerals and fibre.
I need to go to the gym three times a week in order to lose weight:This is not true. In the past there has been too much focus on gyms and there are far too many people out there with memberships who have yet to darken the door of their gym, according to James Dwyer.
For the most sedentary people, the idea of a gym is a big turn off. Yes, they may manage to go to the gym a few times a week for six to eight weeks, but they will not continue past that.
Dwyer recommends that people focus on the activities they already have in they lives and increase those.
The only guaranteed way to speed up your metabolism is to increase your activity levels.
However, doing something as simple as locking the downstairs bathroom to increase the number of times you use your stairs at home can make a difference, he says.
"The idea is to increase the frequency of the activity you already have in your life."