{"id":621808,"date":"2026-08-05T13:22:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T13:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/621808\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T13:22:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T13:22:22","slug":"skipping-dinner-avoiding-rice-and-relying-on-cardio-weight-management-expert-busts-weight-loss-myths-indians-believe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/621808\/","title":{"rendered":"Skipping dinner, avoiding rice and relying on cardio? Weight management expert busts weight loss myths Indians believe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Weight loss advice often gets passed down as common knowledge, but many popular beliefs may not actually support sustainable fat loss.<\/a> From skipping dinner and cutting out rice to relying only on cardio, several widely followed practices can do more harm than good.<\/p>\n

In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Saloni Paliwal, Co-founder of Voy India, a digital obesity and weight management platform connecting patients nationwide with board-certified endocrinologists and clinicians, explained why some common weight loss habits fail and what people should focus on instead. (Also read: <\/strong>Trying to lose belly fat? Fitness coach Devin Physique recommends these 6 foods for better fat loss <\/strong><\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Does skipping dinner help with weight loss<\/p>\n

Skipping dinner is one of the most common weight loss tips, but Paliwal said it may not lead to the results people expect. \u201cAsk a hundred people in India how to lose weight<\/a>, and dinner comes up before exercise does. Skip it, the advice goes, and the kilos follow. They rarely do. Hunger simply moves to the next meal, and a skipped dinner is usually repaid at breakfast or lunch the following day, often with interest,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She explained that long gaps between meals can affect hunger levels and eating patterns. \u201cThe body does not treat missed meals kindly. Long gaps without food push it toward conserving energy rather than spending it, since it has no way of knowing when the next meal will arrive,\u201d Paliwal added.<\/p>\n

Instead of completely avoiding dinner, she recommended focusing on balanced meals. \u201cReplacing dinner with just a bowl of salad often does little better, since it leaves the body underfed and reaching for something heavier soon after. A protein-rich meal, even a modest one, keeps hunger in check for longer and does far less damage than skipping the meal altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is dal enough protein for vegetarians<\/p>\n

Many vegetarian households assume that regular servings of dal automatically meet their protein requirements. However, Paliwal said this is a common misconception<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cProtein is where a lot of vegetarian households assume the job is already done. Dal is treated as reason enough to stop thinking about protein at all, when a single serving usually falls well short of what an adult needs in a day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She added that a vegetarian diet needs variety to meet daily protein needs. \u201cMeeting daily protein needs on a vegetarian plate usually takes deliberate effort, more paneer, curd, sprouts or legumes, not the quiet assumption that dal has already taken care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Are rice and roti responsible for weight gain<\/p>\n

Rice and roti are often blamed during weight loss journeys, but Paliwal said carbohydrates are not the enemy. \u201cRice and roti have been quietly recast as obstacles rather than staples, replaced by pricier low-carb substitutes that promise faster results and rarely deliver them,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is not carbohydrates. Portion size is. So is the oil something is cooked in, and everything else sitting on the same plate. Eliminating an entire food group is also hard to sustain past a few weeks,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Does sweating mean you are burning fat<\/p>\n

A common belief is that more sweat means more fat loss, but Paliwal said the two are not the same. \u201cSweat gets credited for far more than it deserves. It is water lost as the body cools itself down, and it returns as soon as those fluids are replaced. A soaked gym towel says nothing about fat loss,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She also highlighted why strength training should be part of a weight loss routine. \u201cCardio alone tends to get too much of that credit. Strength training <\/a>matters just as much, arguably more, since building muscle raises how much the body burns even at rest, and more muscle generally means a steadier path to losing fat over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why the weighing scale doesn\u2019t tell the full story<\/p>\n

According to Paliwal, body weight alone does not provide a complete picture of health. \u201cTwo people can weigh exactly the same number and carry very different amounts of fat around their internal organs, and that difference has more bearing on long-term health than total weight ever will,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She added that understanding metabolic health is important for long-term weight management. Paliwal said sustainable weight loss<\/a> is less about following quick fixes and more about understanding how the body works. \u201cNone of this argues against effort. It argues for aiming it correctly. A large share of what passes for weight loss wisdom in India today was never tested against how the body actually behaves, only repeated often enough to sound true,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cReplacing inherited habits around meals, protein and exercise with an accurate picture of how the body works is likely to do more for most people than any myth still making the rounds,\u201d Paliwal concluded.<\/p>\n

Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Weight loss advice often gets passed down as common knowledge, but many popular beliefs may not actually support…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[278],"tags":[18,525,135,19,17,171975,262682,103652,564,40301],"class_list":["post-621808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-eire","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-protein-needs","tag-skipping-dinner","tag-sustainable-fat-loss","tag-weight-loss","tag-weight-loss-habits"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117043117665031760","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}