10 WEIGHT LOSS MISTAKES TO AVOID

Avoid These Common Weight Loss Mistakes

There are so many things that can keep you from achieving success in your weight loss diet plans. Thus, it’s important to be aware of these things before you even begin so that you can avoid them.

In this short article we’re going to go over 10 common weight loss mistakes. We will discuss exactly how you can avoid them so that they don’t prevent you from reaching your weight loss goals.

1. Lack of Knowledge

There’s a good chance you’ve heard the saying “knowledge is power.” But as the famous motivational speaker Bob Proctor once said “There’s power in ignorance.”

Many people jump into fad diets without looking at the science behind them. They hear good things about them and assume they must work, so they start in on them. However, some of these diets are not based on science with studies and facts to back them up. As such, then you may be putting your health in the hands of something that will not work.

This is why so many people end up gaining weight back.

To avoid the weight loss mistakes, you should take the time to educate yourself about the best diet plan. You need to understand how food works with your body before you can know what you need to eat.

You wouldn’t buy a car without finding out more about it beyond what the owner says about it. Would you? If not, why would you start a diet plan without finding out how it’s going to work with your body?

2. Giving In to Food Cravings

Another one of the weight loss mistakes that can keep you from your goals is the food cravings. This is especially true of sugars.

Sugar triggers your brain’s pleasure center which means it can be addictive. That makes it hard to avoid since your body craves it. However, sugar is also the biggest contributor to weight gain, so you have to resist these cravings.

There are a few ways that you can avoid giving in to food cravings. The best way is to make sure you don’t have any junk food in your house. You can’t easily eat food that you don’t have, even if you wanted to.

You also need to make sure everything you do eat is filling and packed with nutrients so that you feel full and don’t need to eat sugary snacks to satisfy hunger.

3. Focusing on the Scale

Weight loss is about more than just the total number of pounds that you have lost or want to lose. When you focus too much on the number on the scale, then you run the risk of getting disappointed.

A lot of times the results will not show as quickly as you want. In fact, some times your weight may go up even though you’ve been doing everything right. This is the kind of weight loss mistakes that causes some people to give up.

To avoid this weight loss mistake, you should measure more than your overall weight. You may find that you are actually losing fat and gaining muscle, especially if you are also working out to improve your weight loss results.

Have your body fat percentage tested regularly to see how much fat you’re actually losing. Additionally, measure your body parts (arms, waist, legs, etc.) to see how you’re getting smaller. You may learn these individual parts are getting smaller even if the number on the scale isn’t.

It’s also important to realize that the number you see includes everything in your body, like water. If you weigh yourself after drinking a lot of water the number could jump up several pounds. But remember, we’re not suggesting you should avoid these weight loss mistakes by not tracking your weight.

Just watch the overall trend, and not worry about the exact number on that day or week.

4. Eating for the Wrong Reasons

Obesity is one obvious sign to indicate you’ve made one or more weight loss mistakes. Many people who are obese or overweight are like that because they don’t have the right relationship with food. They may use food as a way to comfort themselves when they’re sad, or to keep themselves occupied when they’re bored.

Still, others eat for the enjoyment of it. This is a problem because when you think of food in this way, it’s hard to change what you’re eating.

Read: The Paradox of Food…

If you’re not eating as a way to provide the right type of nourishment to your body, you will get trapped by this roadblock.

It takes some time, work, and sometimes the help of a professional psychologist to reverse weight loss mistakes. But at the least, you need to make sure you’re eating for the right reasons.

Food should be considered a tool that you use for necessary nourishment, not something you turn to for emotional help.

5. Letting Others Influence You

Avoiding weight loss mistakes may mean avoiding some people in your life. Think about the people you spend the most time with. It’s likely that they weigh about the same as you do.

These people go out to eat unhealthy food and encourage you to forget about diet, just for the night. It’s easy to give in and keep giving in until you’ve completely fallen off track of your diet.

Sometimes, you may need to cut people out of your life. Either that, or at least spend less time with them so that you can focus on what you need to do. That way you don’t let their negative influences affect you.

You can also try taking the lead when it comes to planning activities. That includes suggesting get-togethers involve more physical activities or healthy restaurants.

Avoiding weight loss mistakes may mean avoiding some people in your life.

6. Not Planning Ahead

To avoid any of the weight loss mistakes, realize that ‘failure to plan is planning to fail’. If you don’t plan ahead, then you’re likely to get trapped by this roadblock.

When you don’t plan ahead for lunch, for example, you will probably find yourself having to go out to eat lunch. And once there, you will grab the first thing you can find, which may or may not be good for you. Or, when you get hungry between meals.

If you don’t have a healthy snack handy, it’s too easy to hit up the vending machine.

The more you plan ahead, the better you will do with your diet plan.

Meal planning means sitting down once to plan out what you’ll eat for the next week, or month. This will help you know exactly what you need to shop for so you can have the food on hand. That way, you’re not grabbing whatever you can at the last minute.

To avoid any of the weight loss mistakes, realize that ‘failure to plan is planning to fail’.

7. High Cost of Healthy Food

You can fall into weight loss mistakes when you consider the cost of food. Many healthy foods are more expensive than their unhealthy counterparts.

Fresh fruits and vegetables, for example, often cost more than simply buying a canned or dried version. Pre-packaged meals are also often cheaper than buying whole foods to prepare meals yourself.

One way to reduce your grocery bill is to shop the sales. When you do your meal planning for the week, have the sales papers from your favorite grocery stores in front of you and use them as a guide. You’d be surprised at how much you can save by simply taking advantage of sales.

Another way you can get reduced prices of whole foods is by buying directly at local farmer’s markets.

You can read more about inexpensive healthy food here.

8. You Exercise Too Much

Exercising to lose weight will often work against you in a couple of ways. Some people force themselves to get up early to exercise, and miss out on getting enough sleep which is vital for weight loss.

Others think that spending an hour on the treadmill will make up for the two donuts they had that morning that someone brought into work.

To avoid weight loss mistakes, the right diet must be your main focus. You can’t expect exercise to bail you out of a bad dieting choice.

Getting up and moving regularly throughout the day can help improve your overall health. Additionally, some strength training can help boost your weight loss. However, but these should be in addition to a strict diet and should not be the focus of your weight loss plan.

To avoid weight loss mistakes, the right diet must be your main focus.

9. Cutting Too Many Calories

If you cut too many calories at the beginning of your diet, then you’re likely to lose a bunch of weight fast. This sounds like a good thing, but the danger is in not maintaining the pace.

Failure to methodically cut down on calories will almost certainly lead to gaining back your weight. Instead, from the very beginning, you need to keep your caloric intake below your output. If you can do that, then keep it at a level you can maintain for the rest of your life.

Generally, learning more about calories will help you avoid a lot of weight loss mistakes.

10. Your Expectations Are Unrealistic

Many people set up unrealistic expectations which lead to weight loss mistakes.

Failure to manage expectations often leads people to quit when they don’t reach their goals. They often expect to lose too much weight in too short of a time period. Or, they may expect to continue losing the same amount of weight that they were losing at the beginning of their weight loss when they near the end.

Setting up goals is an important part of losing weight. But if they’re unrealistic, then they’re going to work against you. You’ll give up because you’ll get disappointed when you’re not able to reach them.

Your number one task is to understand how much weight you can expect to lose. So make it a part of your research before you begin your new diet and set realistic expectations.

Conclusion

You can achieve your best body by avoiding these common weight loss mistakes. But always remember your long term goal is health and wellness.

Avoiding these weight loss mistakes not only leads to less fat and weight. It solves so many other problems your mind and body needs for a long healthy and happy life. It’s going to take some work, especially at the beginning, but it will all be worth it in the long run

Further reading:

The best food for a strong immune system.

What is balanced diet and how do you get it?

Do you really need to lose weight for a better shape?

Overweight and Obesity