Weight Loss is good when it's healthy. So you must avoid weight loss mistakes that might make you fat instead of helping to achieve your weight loss goals. Let's have a quick look!
Losing weight is a daunting task, which leads to frustration if you do not get results even after putting a lot of efforts. Some people often indulge in weight reduction programs that promise faster weight loss. Well, there are no shortcuts to success and none to losing weight in a short period of time. If you are not getting results while following a regime in shedding those extra pounds from your body, then wait and check if your weight loss regime is updated.
You might be making some mistakes that are not helping you achieve your weight loss goals. Let us have a look at those common mistakes.
1. Depending too much on the weighing scale is not a good idea
You may follow a fitness program that motivates you to lose weight and even after sticking to a proper diet and exercise, you may feel that you are not able to lose weight faster. The weighing scale helps determine your weight, but thinking too much about your weight and checking your weight quite often is not a good idea.
Ideally, there are several factors that contribute to weight control. The gain on the other hand results from fluctuation in fluid levels of our body, the food present in our system, increase in estrogens levels in women, hormonal fluctuations, and more. These changes in women often lead to water retention and the weighing scale reflects it as an increase in weight.
You can opt to work out to gain muscle mass and lose fat. This will help you lose weight and you will start feeling lighter. You will start fitting into your old clothes despite the stable weight shown on your scale weight.
Stress often leads to weight gain, so do not bother about your weight every now and then. Therefore, even if the scale shows a stable weight, it doesn’t mean that you are actually not losing weight.
2. No exercise or too much of exercise
Many people rely on weight loss exercises that certainly help them burn fats and gain muscle mass. This is the ideal way to lose weight. But, if they indulge themselves into vigorous exercising it can result in many health problems. On the other hand, some people find it easy to monitor calorie count rather than opting to exercise. But, restricting yourself to calories alone won’t help if you are not exercising at all. You tend to experience low metabolic rate and reduced muscle mass.
Image Source: Fitness Solutions Plus
So, if you are trying to over exercise or push yourself to burn calories, your body is going to suffer from different health ailments. This way you may end up in frustration and quit weight loss program.
3. Shifting to fat-free diet
When following a fat loss diet, many of us do not bother about the kind of fat we are eliminating from our diet. Yes, you need to be careful which kind of fats you need to include in the list of your weight loss foods as you always need good fats to stay healthy and fit. We are confident when we choose low-fat weight loss foods as part of the diet for weight loss, but we have no idea about the sugar content present in such foods. Make sure you choose products that contain monosaturated fats to promote easy weight loss.
4. Weight loss supplements
It is easy to have just weight loss supplements and wait for a magical way to fast weight loss. However, this is not the case. There are lots of myths and facts associated with weight loss supplements. Weight loss supplements can prove helpful only when you also take care of your diet and do some daily exercise for fitness. This overall activity can help you lose weight in a healthy way. Also, you must consult a health expert or a doctor for the right dosage of weight loss supplements.
5. Skipping meals is strictly a No-No
Image Source: firsteat.in
Some people believe that skipping meals can lead to an instant drop in their calories and speed up the process of losing weight. But, this is not the case as when you starve your body, by skipping a meal, you need to give it back to your body. This means our body needs food to fulfil the required amount of energy to function properly. Now, the interesting part of this formula is when you try to skip say lunch to cut on calories, you might end up snacking in the evening. You tend to increase your cravings and eat more junk foods like pizza, chicken etc.
6. Eating fast
One of the common weight loss mistakes that we often commit is eating faster than required. You may not be aware of the fact that you end up overeating if you try to eat faster. There is a mechanism hidden behind the entire process of eating food. Yes, it is true, when you eat slowly, chewing your food properly and enjoy every food bite, your body sends signals to your brain to stop eating when you are full. Even if you are on a weight loss diet, eat slowly, it will help you feel full faster. That is the reason our elders advise us not to eat while watching TV as you tend to eat more and your brain doesn’t get signals when to stop. It is a simple yet one of the effective weight loss tips that can help you avoid weight loss mistakes.
7. Salt cravings contribute to extra weight
If you love salty snacks or food and like munching them especially during your favourite show on TV or in theatres, remember, you tend to eat more automatically. Well, you can switch to low salt weight loss diet to prevent further weight gain.
8. Proteins are important and aid appetite control
Image Source: nuts.com
If you are following a weight loss exercise to burn calories or eating low-calorie food, it is absolutely fine, but do not stop taking enough proteins as they are an integral part of weight loss diet and if you read on some weight loss tips, you will discover that proteins help in many ways to lose weight.
Must Read – How To Use Protein Shakes For Weight Loss
Proteins regulate appetite and help you feel full; thereby, decreasing the intake of calories. It is important to maintain appropriate muscle mass and improve metabolism and it is one of the important weight loss tips often ignored and counted as one of the major weight loss mistakes that most people tend to make.
Proteins help improve metabolism and maintain muscle mass while you are on a diet for weight loss. Intake of high protein diet helps to reduce your weight the healthier way.
9. Inadequate Fiber intake
Consuming a low-fiber diet for weight loss can affect your goal to lose weight effectively. Research says that regardless of the type, all fibers contribute to weight reduction regime. It basically controls the appetite with the formation of a gel that absorbs water. The gel travels through the digestive system giving you feeling of being full.
10. Be practical and avoid false expectation
One of the weight loss mistakes that can slow down the process of reducing weight is keeping false hopes or expectations rather than having a practical approach towards your goal of losing weight.
Make sure you set your expectation to a level that you can reach easily. This will help you improve and stay positive while following a weight management program. In some cases, obese people dive into reducing weight programs with high expectation to such an extent that they end up quitting the program in a short period of time.
It is better to have realistic approach and expectation to see better results. Of course, many weight loss tips can be found on the internet, but none of them promise false and quick results. It is something that needs patience, dedication and most importantly time, to get good and lasting results. Just have faith and put in hard work to be successful.
Tips to avoid common weight loss mistakes
Image Source: healthydiningfinder.com
Keep changing your diet plan from time to time instead of following the same old boring diet to ensure you stay interested and motvated. Altering your diet for weight loss is important also to help meet your changing calorie needs.
- If you are thinking of quitting alcohol, it’s better to first slow it down instead of quitting altogether in one go. This helps to keep you from bouncing back due to sudden cravings. Therefore, it is best to reduce the portion size first and taper away to a quantity that is good for you.
- If you are cutting on soft drinks, it is a good idea, but replacing it with fruit juice that contains loads of sugar may not be a good idea as it adds to your weight. Replace artificial sugar with natural sugars like honey to get better results. You can go for unsweetened fruit juices to avoid intake of excess sugar.
- It is important to keep a check on labels especially when you buy packaged foods before including them on your list of weight loss foods. This keeps you from consuming unhealthy ingredient and calories.
- Make sure that you are eating when you are hungry rather than eating frequently.
- Do not stress too much about the calories, food intake, and weight during your weight loss exercise. Focus only on your exercise and enjoy it. Stress leads to weight gain by itself. So avoid that cycle to set in.
- Make sure you take ample rest during the day and have a regularized sleep cycle. This helps your body recover from the stress of exercising and aids muscle building.
- Ensure you eat a balanced diet with enough carbs, proteins, and fiber to aid weight management.
