10 Weight Loss Mistakes Nearly Everyone Makes

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Have you had one too many failed weight loss attempts? You may just be making one (or more) of these 10 common weight loss mistakes…

Weight loss mistakes

So, you’ve been eating healthy and working your butt out at the gym for the past few weeks – just to realized you didn’t lose one bit of weight… Sounds familiar? I know I can say from my own personal experience – been there, done that.

After failing, weight loss began to seem like mission impossible to me too. But now I know that is not true! In fact, it may been even easier than you think.

If you keep on failing at weight loss no matter what you do, I bet you are making these weight loss mistakes.

10 Weight Loss Mistakes Nearly Everyone Makes:

1. Setting Impossible Goals

We know that you’re committed. And you definitely can do this. But don’t doom yourself from the beginning with an impossible goal. You’ll lose morale, and you might spiral into a distressed feeding frenzy.

It doesn’t matter how much you try, you won’t be able to lose 20 pounds a week.

What you can do, however, is lose a pound.

Easily.

So, start with something easy and slowly make your goals harder with time, that way, you’ll be more likely to succeed.

Take a look at the footnotes at the end of the article to see how you should set your own goals!

2. Focusing Only On Exercise

You’ve probably heard the phrase: “Weight loss is 80% about your diet and 20% about exercise.”

It’s simply about burning more calories than the amount you take in. So, if you want to shed a pound (since one pound is roughly 3,500 calories), you need a deficit of 3,500 calories.

So, according to the 80:20 ratio, you’d need to burn 700 calories through exercise and 2800 through your diet.


Focus on the juice that goes to those legs.

This doesn’t mean that you have to eat more. It means that you have to be nutritionally correct while eating. And there are several cool recipes that you can try to achieve this.

3. Starving

So you’ve abandoned food for the rest of the month. You’ll just drink water, and you’ll be good… Right?

Wrong!

Starving yourself is not the right way to lose weight. You’ll shed weight, yes, but you’ll end up looking and feeling worse than before. Losing weight has more to do with eating right rather than not eating at all.

Not to mention, starving almost always leads to binge eating in the end and gaining back everything you lost…

4. Drinking Sugary Drinks

You’ve worked so hard to get this far. And you’re pushing your work down the drain with sugar-filled drinks.

Did you know that regular sodas have 8 teaspoons of sugar – about 130 calories and no nutrition. And the American Heart Association has indicated that you shouldn’t consume more than 6 teaspoons of sugar every day if you’re a woman (9 for men).

If you know you consume more than that, click here to learn how to do a sugar detox.

5. Underestimating Your Food Intake

Are you sure that you counted all your calories? Even those tiny ‘25-calorie’ nibbles accumulate.

You might occasionally have a light snack, maybe a spoonful of your partner’s dinner and some ‘quick tastes’ here and there while cooking. Your occasional bowl of popcorn. After all, popcorn is so light, it shouldn’t even count.

You might also munch on small nuts. But do these things really add up?

Yes!

And if you don’t consider these, your daily calorie count might be much more than you think.

6. Drinking Alcohol

Did you know that alcoholic drinks are often called “empty” calories?

This is because they provide calories, but contain little to no nutrients.

A can of beer has almost 155 calories, and a 5-ounce glass of red wine has 125 calories. And since the recommended afternoon snack should be in between 150-200 calories, a few drinks with your friends can mean several extra hundred calories.

Not to mention the drinks that have mixers like soda or fruit juice have even more calories.

7. Always Doing The Same Workout Routine

If you do the same work out every single day, your body will recognize it as a daily task and adapt to it.

If you want your body to burn down calories, so you’re going to have to challenge it with different exercises. So every now and then, switch up your exercise routine to make your body work for it.

8. Sitting All Day

You don’t always need to exercise to burn fat. You can just be more active. Start by sitting less.

Did you know that you already burn calories with non-exercise movement every day? You burn calories when you get up, or when you walk up the stairs and when you push your desk to face the wall – basically anything physical.

Try to incorporate movement into your daily tasks instead of just sitting around. For example, when you’re watching Youtube, try folding your laundry at the same time. Park your car further in your parking lot on purpose. Walk your dog. In fact, you’d be surprised how much going for a walk could do!

9. Ignoring Nutrition Facts

The label says it’s a sports drink. The advertisement on Youtube shows the drink being used by athletes, but did you bother to read the back of the drink?

For all you know, the so-called sports drink is full of sugar and has no nutritional value. More extra calories and zero power.

For example, here are 5 foods to never eat when losing weight.

10. Being Unprepared

Don’t go on a workout frenzy because someone called you fat. Because that motivation – will not last.

Instead, make a plan for yourself. Set reasonable goals, plan your meals and have a work out routine. If you’re going to do it – do it right.

A Few Things To Keep In Mind Before Losing Weight:

1. Your budget

See if you have the money to invest in a plan. Because there is evidence that suggests that commercial weight loss plans have a higher success rate than the ones you do on your own.

We highly recommend checking out The 2 Week Diet. It has helped thousands of people and can help you too! 

2. Possible health issues

If you have a particular condition, your nutritional needs or capabilities could be different. People who have arthritis may wish to make a plan which does not involve exercises related to weight lifting. Always consult with a doctor!

3. Do you have time to prepare your own food?

Many people can’t fit preparing food into their daily routine. If you’re having trouble too, try taking a look at sources that provide prepared food to you. Eating out is a definite no-no!

4. Do you have a history of failed weight loss attempts? Why did you fail last time?

Did you prepare your own food? Did you have a plan? Did you really stick to the plan? Analyze what you did wrong the previous time, and make sure not to make the same weight loss mistakes again.

We wish you a journey filled with many pounds lost!