Many people start diets with good intentions. They want to lose weight, look, and feel better. Unfortunately, they often make diet mistakes that doom the weight loss from the start. Identifying those mistakes can help you avoid them and be more successful at weight loss. One reason diets fail is that they’re diets. Instead of learning to eat healthier, people set severe restrictions. They may have a diet that limits food intake to cabbage soup or grapefruit juice. That type of diet isn’t sustainable or healthy.
People think they have to eat three squares a day or eat more frequently to lose weight.
Intermittent fasting is one way of losing weight that limits the time you eat to a narrower window. If it’s an eight-hour window, you might start with a snack at 10:00 a.m. and finish your last meal at 6 p.m. Some people believe that skipping breakfast will make you fat. Studies don’t show that’s true. It doesn’t mean you should skip it; it just means you don’t have to eat breakfast to lose weight. People also believe that eating more frequently can boost your metabolism and help you lose weight. That’s false. It’s all about the number of calories you consume.
People often fail to include exercise.
Exercising helps burn extra calories and builds muscle tissue. The more muscle tissue you have, the higher your metabolism will be. You need nutritional building blocks to create the muscles and to eat enough to ensure you aren’t burning muscle tissue, so don’t cut calories too low especially if you’re exercising. Cut the number of calories you consume for maintenance by approximately 500 calories. Make sure you have adequate protein.
It’s all about eating healthier.
If you eat healthy meals, you’ll never have to diet. When you fill your plate with greens and whole foods, it’s hard to eat too many calories. Eliminate food made with refined flour, added sugar, and highly processed food and replace it with fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and a healthy protein source. Avoid special diet foods. They’re often overpriced and not nearly as healthy as you think.
- People often think cutting fat from their diet helps them lose weight. Cut fried food fat but include healthy fat. Healthy fat is necessary to burn fat. It also keeps you full longer, so you don’t eat as much.
- Being too strict with your eating pattern can make you feel like a failure if you eat an occasional treat. That can cause you to quit trying. It’s okay to do it occasionally, keeping portion control in mind. Just don’t do it all the time.
- Do all exercise types, strength building, cardio, flexibility, and balance. If you only do cardio, your body burns fat and muscle tissue for energy. You end up with less muscle tissue and burn fewer calories.
- People often fail to include fiber in their diet. Fiber fills you up and keeps you feeling full longer. It helps prevent blood sugar spikes that leave you ravenous as your blood sugar drops just as quickly.
For more information, contact us today at Habitat Health & Fitness