If you’ve ever tried to lose weight and failed, the solution may be here. Just see what nutritionists have revealed are the biggest mistakes people make when losing weight and how to correct them to get to your goal in the best way.
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Eliminating Your Favorite Foods
Leaving out your favorite foods altogether, like chips, ice cream, wine or chocolate, can make the weight loss diet bleak.
Therefore, including these foods in your diet in small amounts can help you to prevent the urge to overeat later on. Nutritionists Stephanie and Willow encourage their clients to have a “favorite food bank” of around 150 to 200 calories a day, or if not, find healthier ways to fill up.
Too Much Or Too Little Protein
While various high-protein, carb-free diets are all the rage and deliver results, nutritionist Willow says, “It’s not sustainable or healthy in the long run, as you’ll be missing out on vital nutrients.”
Fruits, nuts, vegetables, seeds, beans and whole grains. This variety of healthy foods “help keep your gut bacteria happy, regulate your digestive system and keep you full.”
Nutritionist Mitzi Dulan insists that not overeating protein can also cause weight gain. She says, “Since protein helps you feel full, it’s important to make sure you’re getting it with every meal.”
Have The Famous “Garbage Day”
You’re on the line all week, and for that, you deserve a reward, right? Not quite. “One day of sloppiness can take all the work you did during the week to lose weight,” cautioned Willow.
If you devote an entire day to eating foods that put you in the opposite direction of your goal, you’re only deceiving yourself, and that’s not good for you in the short or long term. Instead, give yourself a little “gift” every day, so you don’t need a whole day to mess up your entire diet.
Plan Your Food
When hunger hits you, and you’re not prepared, you’re vulnerable to not making healthy decisions, so nutritionist Stephanie Clarke recommends you plan your food as much as possible.
Suppose you can sit down and plan all your meals and snacks for two weeks or the entire week. Then go to the supermarket with a list of everything you need, fruits, vegetables and veggies. This means you’ll have all the food you need when you want to eat it, which is key to maintaining a healthy diet.
You Are Not Monitoring Your Diet
“Tracking your daily caloric intake is critical when you want to lose weight,” Mitzi said, and one of the best and most accurate ways to do that is with a food diary. You can use the old pen and paper duo or turn to websites and apps, but make sure you keep track of each bite. “Research has shown that this is an important key to success for people who want to lose weight and keep it off,” explained Mitze.
Make Up For What You Ate With Exercise
If you think that running gives you the right to eat four slices of pizza or that you go to the gym and then eat whatever you want, nutritionist Stephanie warns that not only are you promoting an unhealthy relationship with food, you might as well fatten.
A 30-minute run burns about 250 calories, so if you consume a 300-calorie dessert, it’s no wonder you’re exercising and still not losing weight – and may even gain it.
Use exercise to complement your healthy diet, not to compensate for unhealthy eating habits.
Eat Diet Foods
Low-fat peanut butter may have fewer calories than regular peanut butter, but you’ll find more unhealthy ingredients like added salt and sugar to offset the flavor.
Willow points to a recent study that showed that people don’t tend to be very satisfied with these low-everything foods and that they can make people eat more in the long run.
All the nutritionists interviewed agree that it is better to opt for traditional foods rather than “diets”.
Saving It For You
If you’ve ever felt that people close to you are unconsciously sabotaging your efforts to maintain healthy eating, nutritionist Willow Jarosh says, “Consider sharing your goals with them.”
Tell your friends, family or co-workers that you’re trying to lose weight, so instead of them inviting you out for ice cream, they might invite you to the gym. Having the support of everyone around you will make it easier to stay in line.
Swapping Dinner For Happy Hours
This is detrimental to weight loss for numerous reasons. Willow reminds people that “drinking on an empty stomach can quickly lead to intoxication.” So, even if you only plan to drink a few drinks, you will lose the ability to make healthy choices and order tons of foods from the bar menu, which are probably not fit.
Even if the calories you consume at the bar level up with those from the dinner you skipped, you will have lost valuable nutrients, causing your blood sugar levels to drop.
