Common Diet Mistakes
Why is it that so many people fail when they go on a diet to lose weight? Here is a number of the most common and most significant diet mistakes that you need to know about before you start your weight loss program.
Eating Foods with Hidden Calories
One common diet mistake is to eat a food that you consider to be healthy, good for you and low calorie, but in reality, the food is loaded with hidden calories. Many foods fall into this category.
For example, many people believe that yoghurt is a good, low calorie choice. It can be, if it is plain yoghurt, but beware of the specialty flavoured yoghurts available. Some are so rich with fat and sugar that they are almost on a par with ice cream.
How about a cup of coffee? Black coffee has almost no calories, but what about the sugar and cream you add? Worse, have you checked the calorie content of the lattes and cappuccinos and other specialty coffees at your favourite coffee house? Some of these contain as high as 700 or 800 calories -- similar to a double cheeseburger with bacon.
If a food item contains a lot of milk or dairy products, if it is sweetened, or if it just tastes too good to be true, then be very careful. Chances are that it is loaded with hidden calories. If possible, check the calorie content before you indulge.
Eating Only "Diet" Foods
Many people try to lose weight using a "crash diet" approach. They eat only micro-calorie foods such as lettuce, celery, radishes, cabbage soup, etc.
While these foods are good choices nutritionally, they are not good choices by themselves. Few people can maintain a diet of lettuce and celery for more than a few days without going on an eating binge. Secondly, such an unbalanced diet is an unhealthy choice.
A much better choice is to eat a balanced diet with foods from every food group, but limit the portion sizes so you are eating fewer calories than your body burns. Avoid the extreme measures inherent in crash dieting; such weight loss projects are certain to fail.
Knowingly Eating Too Much
When you want to lose weight, you need to eat approximately five hundred or one thousand fewer calories per day than your body requires. At this rate, you will experience a healthy weight loss of one or two pounds per week. For most women, a daily calorie intake of about 1,200 calories will lead to a weight loss. Men can eat slightly higher amounts and still lose weight, due to their higher metabolisms.
Nutritionists advise us to split our food into six small meals throughout the day. That is, they would recommend eating three meals and three snacks. By eating several small meals, you avoid low blood sugar followed by a corresponding rise in hunger and cravings. However, the bottom line is how much you eat in total.
Eating more than your daily allotment will certainly prevent you from losing weight and could even contribute to a weight gain.
Rewarding Yourself for Exercise
Many people on diets wisely use exercise to speed up their weight loss. Exercise helps us lose weight quickly while contributing to overall good health.
However, there are exercise pitfalls avoid. For starters, if you work out at the gym and then stop for a muffin and cappuccino on the way home as a reward, you have accomplished little. Or perhaps you overestimate the number of calories you can eat after exercising. A thirty minute walk, even at a brisk pace, will certainly not burn enough calories to justify a big steak and potato dinner afterwards.
Exercise is only effective as a weight loss strategy if you restrict your caloric intake. Exercising and "pigging out" will not help you lose weight. (The exercise does have health benefits of its own, though!)
Regarding exercise as an unpleasant thing that you force yourself to do is setting yourself up for failure. The key is to find some form of exercise that you enjoy. Then, you will come to feel that exercise is a reward and not a punishment. If you have not been in the habit of exercising, this may require some experimentation until you find activities that you enjoy.
Avoid these common diet mistakes and you will be on firmer ground as you begin to lose weight.
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