Here are some common mistakes made by people attempting to lose weight. Do you fall into one of these categories?
Starving birds lose their worms
Don’t starve yourself. Replacing your meals with water, gum, and 100 calories snack bars will certainly trim you down. In fact, you’ll lose weight quite rapidly, but when it comes back, it comes back faster than you can run. Losing weight that quickly also means that the weight that is coming off is not just from the fat hanging off of your thighs; it’s also the muscle mass that helps you burn the majority of your calories. Consequently, your metabolism (in this case I’ll define metabolism as your ability to burn calories) slows down because you don’t have the skeletal muscles to burn off the calories.
Obsessively anal
Stop measuring everything. My friend bought an electronic balance along with a full set of calibrated measuring spoons (from teaspoon to full cup) and would level off every ingredient she’d use to make sure that she did not have more than one serving. It’ll make you obsessive about counting every damned calorie until the point where your obsession is soaking up all the calories you’re eating, which is also the point you overeat your daily caloric goal because you’re so hungry. Leave yourself some room. Stop losing your freedom to this control. Stringent diets will eventually crumble at which point you’ll have no control over what you eat.
Burn big butt!!!
Stop trying to burn all the calories you’ve eaten in a single day. You’re depriving your cells that depend on calories to survive. Dead cells do not work to help your metabolism. You will also be fatigued, dull, lackluster, and unable to perform anything without those calories. Thirty minutes of exercise a day is great at boosting your metabolism. Spending hours at the gym to burn off all the foods you’ve eaten each day will certainly out-do your own body. Moreover, those who do work out a lot (including athletes) conserve more water in their body. This means you will appear bloated and fat from all the exercises. You will perceive this as putting on fat and will likely work out for another thirty minutes the next time you go to the gym.
I’m on a healthy diet
Healthy eating does not mean eating healthy foods. Healthy eating means eating healthy foods in moderation. Another one of my friends would binge eat tomatoes, low-fat foods, fruits, edamame, and whole grain foods. Overdoing healthy foods may be just as harmful as overdoing unhealthy foods. This will ensure that you gain weight. In addition, the acidity from the tomatoes and fruits will irritate your digestive system (i.e. flatulence, cramps, and diarrhea). Also, research has shown that foods labeled with healthy labels like “low-fat” promote over-eating.
Skip bingers
You’ve skipped breakfast, you’ve skipped lunch, and you’ve skipped the dessert at your friend’s party. Maybe you’ve been skipping here and there throughout the week to save your appetite for the weekend. Now you can eat all you want to make up for all those calories. Wrong. Skipping meals means your metabolism slows down. Eating a hordes of foods in one sitting will ensure that your body will store the surge in calories as fat. Your body simply cannot do anything with the calories from a sudden 10-course meal. Your daily caloric needs should ideally be delivered to your body in consistent and timely small portioned meals throughout the day. In contrast to the obsessive-measuring-cup dieter, the skip binger has no idea how many calories s/he has just consumed during the rampage. The loss of control is equally as damaging as obsessive control.
Have questions about dieting? Ask away!
