The 6 Biggest Mistakes You Are Making While Trying to Lose Weight
If you’ve been struggling to lose weight without success, you’re not alone. This doesn’t mean you’re incapable of shedding those extra pounds and feeling more confident in your own skin.
There are common weight loss mistakes that may have been hindering your progress. By identifying these mistakes, you can overcome them and get back on track to achieving your weight loss goals.
Why do you want to lose weight?
Many people recognize that being overweight or obese can lead to serious chronic diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Additionally, it can impact one’s physical appearance.
In their efforts to lose excess weight, many individuals try various weight loss methods that often prove ineffective.
This leads them to jump from one weight loss program to another. Yet they continue to see no results. Many popular weight loss fads can ultimately cause individuals to gain even more weight once they stop following the diet.
Even if you are following a credible weight loss program, certain actions may inadvertently hinder your progress. Understanding the most common mistakes you might be making in your weight loss journey can help you correct them.
Let’s examine the seven biggest mistakes that could be sabotaging your weight loss efforts. We will also explore strategies to overcome these challenges.
Mistakes You Could Be Making:
1. Eating Too Much Or Too Little Carbohydrates
It’s well understood that consuming too many calories is the primary cause of excessive weight gain. This is why many weight loss methods emphasize reducing calorie intake.
However, in the effort to eat fewer calories, you might make a significant mistake that hinders your weight loss progress: relying heavily on fruit juices, smoothies, and similar foods that are often perceived as healthy.
Too many calories
For example, one 8-ounce glass of orange juice contains 112 calories (1). When consumed in moderation, this amount won’t lead to weight gain, provided you don’t indulge excessively in other calorie-dense foods or beverages.
However, if you drink 10 glasses of orange juice in a single day, along with other low-calorie foods, you’ll consume 1,120 calories just from the juice. If your main meals add up to 1,000 calories, and your goal is to limit your total intake to 1,500 calories per day, you would exceed your target by 612 calories thanks to the juice you took.
Keep in mind that even natural juices contain significant amounts of sugar (2). For instance, a 12-ounce serving of apple juice contains 36 grams of sugar, which is more than you’d find in the same amount of cola(3).
Too few calories
On the other hand, some weight loss diets may lead you to consume very few calories, which can be insufficient for your body’s needs. When you don’t take in a proper number of calories, you may find it difficult to carry out your normal activities, including exercise.
If this pattern continues for an extended period, your body may interpret it as a sign of starvation. In response, the body enters a preservation mode, where it burns a minimal amount of calories just to stay alive, instead of utilizing glycogen and fat for energy.
This slowdown can affect your heart, breathing, and other essential functions, leaving you feeling weak or lethargic. A very low calorie intake can also result in low blood pressure, heart palpitations, anemia, hair loss, and depression. As a result, your body may not function optimally.
How to overcome this mistake
You need to consume a reasonable amount of calories. Neither too many nor too few. You should also aim to burn this amount, and possibly a bit more, through regular exercise.
If you find it challenging to calculate your calorie needs, consider consulting a nutritionist or dietitian. They can help you create a practical meal plan that keeps your calorie intake within the necessary limits to support weight loss.
2. Too little exercise
If you want to lose weight, you must take the necessary steps to achieve this goal. Many people desire results without putting in the required effort. For example, when it comes to exercise, you might not be doing enough to make a significant impact.
It’s important to understand that you need to burn more calories than you consume. If your daily intake is around 2,000 calories, you must burn more than 2,000 calories to see the desired results. Simply burning 2,000 calories or fewer will not lead to effective weight loss.
How to overcome this mistake
To effectively lose weight, it’s important to adopt a comprehensive approach that includes tracking your calorie intake as well as your exercise routine. Aim to exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, three or more days a week.
Additionally, incorporate a variety of exercises into your routine, combining both aerobic activities and strength training, such as weight lifting.
3. Wrong Exercises
While any exercise is better than no exercise, some workouts are more effective for weight loss than others. You might be someone who spends countless hours each week on the treadmill or has a close relationship with the elliptical.
While these machines can certainly make you sweat, tire you out, and help you sleep better, they might not burn enough calories to significantly affect your weight. In contrast, someone who dedicates a similar amount of time to lifting weights is more likely to lose excess weight and achieve their weight loss goals.
Research shows that resistance training, such as weight lifting two days a week, can increase your metabolic burn. This effect can last for up to 36 hours after exercising, meaning your body continues to burn calories for a day and a half following a weightlifting session (4).
How to overcome this mistake
Incorporate weight lifting into your weight loss program. In addition to promoting calorie burn, lifting weights helps reduce belly fat and improves body composition. It’s important to note that belly fat is a significant reason many people aim to lose weight (5, 6).
Studies also indicate that combining weight lifting with aerobic exercises is the most effective strategy for achieving weight loss (7). To keep your workouts interesting and effective, vary your routine by including exercises you enjoy, along with those, like weight lifting, that have a real impact on your weight loss goals.
4. Low fat diets
Low-fat and diet foods are often marketed as the best options for weight loss. However, these products are usually filled with sugars and carbs. For example, a cup of low-fat yogurt can contain the equivalent of 12 teaspoons of sugar. This means that just one cup can increase your calorie intake by 144 calories.
While this may not seem significant, consuming three cups in a day can add up to 432 calories from just one food item (8). Additionally, low-fat foods tend to leave you feeling hungry shortly after consumption. As a result, you may snack more frequently and end up consuming more calories than is ideal for your weight loss journey.
How to overcome this mistake
Instead of choosing low-fat foods while trying to lose weight, opt for whole foods that have undergone minimal processing. Combine these foods to ensure you get plenty of protein and fiber, along with enough calories to sustain you until your next meal.
Protein takes longer to digest, which helps you feel full for a longer period of time.. Similarly, fiber not only keeps you feeling satisfied but also improves bowel movements.
5. Eating too little protein
One common mistake people make when trying to lose weight is not consuming enough protein. To reduce calorie intake, you might unintentionally cut back on protein as well. This reduction can lead to increased cravings for carbohydrates in the form of snacks, resulting in overeating.
The reason for this is that your body takes longer to digest protein. For example, if you include more protein in your breakfast, it will stay in your stomach for a longer period. When your stomach feels full for longer, you are less likely to feel hungry, which ultimately helps you eat less overall.
How to overcome this mistake
To boost your diet, consciously increase your protein intake while decreasing your carbohydrate consumption. It’s also important to include a sufficient amount of fiber in your diet. Like protein, fiber takes longer to pass through the digestive system.
Additionally, since the human digestive system cannot break down fiber, consuming foods high in fiber, such as green vegetables, can fill your stomach without adding extra calories.
6. Sugar
A teaspoon of sugar in your tea or coffee can hinder weight loss goals. Adding two teaspoons of sugar to your black coffee increases your calorie intake by 24 calories. If you take five cups of coffee, your calorie intake rises by 120 calories.
When this is added to your allowable calorie intake from other foods, you may end up consuming more calories than you burn. An imbalance that can make it very difficult to lose weight.
In addition to the sugar you intentionally add to your beverages or foods, you may also consume a significant amount of sugar unknowingly. To enhance the flavor of processed foods, manufacturers often add a substantial amount of sugar.
The issue is that even when this added sugar is listed on the labels, it often appears under names that are not easily recognizable as sugar. If you frequently consume processed foods, the sugars can accumulate significantly and sabotage your weight loss efforts.
How to overcome this mistake
To take control of your sugar consumption, always read food labels carefully. It’s important to educate yourself on how to identify added sugars, even when they are listed under different names. Be cautious of terms such as cane crystals, corn sweetener, corn syrup, crystalline fructose, maltose, dextrose, malt syrup, maple syrup, and fructose.
These are all names for calorie-rich sweeteners. Another effective way to determine if a product contains high amounts of sugar is to pay attention to its position on the ingredient list. The higher an ingredient is on the list compared to others, the more of it is present in the product.
7. Focusing on the weighing scale reading
If you’re looking to lose weight quickly, you might be paying too much attention to the scale. This can lead to frustration when you notice fluctuations in your weight, which may even result in your weight going up instead of down. Such fluctuations can be discouraging and may lead you to feel like giving up on your weight loss efforts.
How to deal with this mistake
While a weighing scale can provide insight into your progress in losing weight, it’s important not to become overly fixated on it. Weight fluctuations are normal and can occur even within a single day, regardless of whether you are on a weight loss program.
Various factors can cause temporary increases in weight, including hormonal changes, fluctuations in body fluid volume, muscle gain, and occasional increases in food intake.
Instead of continuously checking the readings on your scale daily, consider keeping it out of sight. Focus on maintaining a balanced diet, tracking your calorie intake, and exercising regularly.
It’s more effective to weigh yourself once a week at the same time to monitor your progress accurately. Good luck on your weight loss journey!
References
- https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1971/2
- http://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(14)70013-0/abstract
- http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1822/2
- http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.0954-6820.1967.tb11498.x/abstract
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25293431
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25762810
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24358230
- http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-egg-products/7641/2
