The Worst Dieting Mistakes For Weight Loss
You’ve finally decided to kick the bad habits and focus on getting yourself in shape with a more structured diet and training program as you head into the new year. You have everything figured out, you’re feeling confident, and have a desirable outlook on what the future is going to hold based on these new goals you’ve set for yourself and how you plan to achieve them.
If you’re experienced with dieting then you should know that we all make mistakes, and that especially goes hand-in-hand with nutrition. Whether it’s following fad diets you found online or thinking those lean cuisine meals will help shape and tone your body – there are many ways where you can mess things up.
After all, we’re all human and not everything is going to go as perfectly as expected. Dieting very much crosses into that upper echelon of being a trial-and-error process until you find what works best for you and how your body reacts. Neglecting proper nutrition for such a long time and then jumping straight into a diet is not going to be an easy task at all.
There’s going to be a plethora of forums and threads telling you what you should and shouldn’t do. How you wish to look at this information and integrate it into your regime is all part of the process of growing your knowledge as you begin to try new things out. You might have read somewhere that it’s important to have a cheat ‘day’ rather than a cheat ‘meal’, so you decide to splurge one day and then all of a sudden that day turns into days and so on…
So, what are the most common mistakes people make when trying to diet?
In this article, we take a look at some of the glaring spots where people tend to let their minds slip up and go on a path of self-sabotaging their bodies without even realizing it. Let’s dig in.
You're Eating Too Little
The masterclass of losing weight is to always be in a caloric deficit and train hard to achieve the best results. But what if I told you that restricting yourself too much can be more negative than it is positive? Just because you want to see the scale drop down does not mean you need to neglect proper nutrition by skipping meals and/or eating far below what you should be.
Calculating your BMR and incorporating exercise will allow you to come up with a proper caloric intake goal per day to lose weight but still put on muscle at the same time. By not eating or depriving your body of nutrients, you’re committing a cardinal sin as you need food to not only repair muscle tissue that is broken down when you workout but also to give your body the energy it needs to fulfill your workouts.
Stop skipping meals and restricting your calories to unhealthy levels, allow yourself to continue into a caloric deficit while still hitting your macronutrient goals daily so you can achieve healthy weight loss but also be able to get more defined at the same time with muscular development.
Cortisol and hormonal balance play a crucial role in weight loss and weight gain, by pushing your body into a catabolic state – you’re causing your cortisol levels to fluctuate, and your stress can severely hinder any progression you’re trying to make. Be smart, feed your body but also fuel it with the proper nutrients.
Not Every Calorie is The Same
More than likely, you’ve probably stumbled upon the ‘calories in, calories out’ methodology and think that by staying in a caloric deficit or hitting a certain number of calories means you can eat whatever you want until you land on that magical stop number.
Wrong.
Eating 2500 calories of McDonald’s Big Macs is not the same as eating 2500 calories of balanced non-processed foods. I’m sorry but whatever broscience hacks are out there teaching you otherwise, you’re going to learn the hard way. The key thing you need to understand is that every bit of food you put in your body has a certain amount of protein, carbs, and fats. Aside from protein – carbs and fats have their evil side and also a good side to them.
A greasy burger loaded with condiments might get you to 800-1000 calories but at what cost? Most of that comes from unhealthy saturated fats and immediately turns cholesterol into overdrive as you start layering on the cheese and condiments. By then, a medium-sized burger that doesn’t fill you up just took up most of your daily caloric allowance and now you have to fight off hunger while your body is desperately trying to signal to your brain that this was not a good decision.
Your workouts will begin to suffer if you’re eating complete garbage all the time. It doesn’t matter about the calories by then because you’re going to notice it both physically and mentally. Not concentrating on protein or vital nutrients can reduce the positive impact of muscle growth as you lack the essentials needed to refuel and recover.
Stop listening to other people who can accomplish this and do what works best for you. Not everything is going to work the same as it does for other people and you will figure that out very quickly as you continue to go deeper into this journey.
You Over-Do Cheat Days
Listen, a cheat meal once a week is always a golden rule to help yourself mentally and physically so you can separate yourself from a more tailored diet and have some food you love and enjoy. There’s nothing wrong with incorporating cheat meals… As long as you don’t take advantage of them and completely overdo it.
That hearty breakfast infused with cocktails can easily turn into a mid-afternoon pizza session and then get carried away into ice cream a few hours later. Eventually, you’re going to get too deep into a binge where it’s hard to stop fulfilling all of your food desires and your stomach is going to pay for it. There’s no positive outcome for allowing yourself to do this because those guilty pleasures can turn into unhealthy eating habits in no time.
I can also be claimed as a victim of this. That food binge can quickly flip your cravings into an everyday thing if you can’t control them well enough. Before you know it, you’ll be having 3-4 cheat days a week and wondering why the scale keeps going up and by then you’ll be shocked to look in the mirror to see how bloated your face has gotten after it slowly develops into a consistent habit.
The simple way to combat this? Have fun but also make the right choices and stay mentally strong to resist the unhealthy urges to splurge on food that will fill your happiness meter only temporarily before it turns into guilt.
Have a cheat meal but keep it to just that, a meal.
Thinking Carbs Are the Devil
What is typically the first thing that comes to mind when trying to lose weight with dieting? It’s always to cut the carbs out, right? Far too often I see this happening where people immediately think that carbs are the main contribution to weight gain.
Well, that’s about 25% correct. You see, there are many factors to why you are gaining weight, but carbs are just a small portion of that. Your stress levels, sleep patterns, workouts, nutrition, and more are all major factors in gaining weight versus losing weight.
As we outlined earlier, not all carbs are bad. Your body utilizes carbs as an energy source and by limiting your intake of carbohydrates, you’re not allowing a way for your body to find resources for energy, and in turn, your body will begin to eat away at any muscle there is to give it the energy it needs. This is why it’s so crucial to find a diet that’s going to work for your body…
Some people respond better to high fat, low carb diets and vice versa – it’s just the ultimate standard of us human beings. Not everyone is created the same, therefore not everything is going to work the same. We all have different body types and some of this can be connected to good genetics and bad genetics.
Going straight into eliminating all carbs from your diet will not help you achieve weight loss effectively. If you’re going to shoot for a low-carb diet, you need to look at increasing your healthy fats so that you’re able to provide your body with an essential energy source as it turns to utilize those fats for a purpose. However, if your body responds to a high-carb, low-fat diet – then refine your carbohydrate sources.
And I mean, REFINE them. It’s as simple as that – get rid of simple carbs that are in the everyday American diet like sugary sodas or candy and opt for better complex carb sources like brown rice, oats, and other grains. These easy substitutions can make a significant impact on your overall health and diet as your body takes longer to digest these carbs compared to fast-acting ones that only leave you desiring more without the proper nutritional scope.
To capitalize on those higher-carb meals and improve proper nutrient shuttling, try using a glucose disposal agent to help turn those carbs from being stored as fat to a fast-acting energy partition to continue building muscle. NuEthix Formulations has perfected that formulation with the brand-new addition of Slin-Trol which is geared toward those who are looking for a great GDA without the extra ingredients.
The Takeaway
The most obvious conclusion we can come to is that we’re going to make mistakes with our diets. It’s inevitable but the more we continue to fail and experiment, there’s more to gain knowledge from and improve on and that’s the most important aspect here.
Dieting is never going to be easy but if you follow these few key steps then you’re already on a much better path to success than you were before you read this article. Never restrict yourself to learning more about diet and nutrition – the more you begin to soak up and try, the better off you’ll be in the long run when it comes to achieving the goals you’ve set for yourself.
Be smart but also don’t be afraid to ask for help. If you’re struggling to make a difference with your dieting journey, lean on the experience of others to help gain more insight on certain things.
