You can sidetrack weight loss with deprivation, lifestyle choices, and your sleep habits. We asked nutrition experts to identify the most common obstacles to weight-loss success. Their advice can help you get back on track.
1. Over-emphasizing health food
Start with the fact that there are plenty of unhealthy foods that masquerade as healthy. Although choosing healthy foods are the correct path, they can’t be consumed without keeping portions in check.
My patients often report eating low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets full of healthful foods like quinoa, green leafy vegetables and berries, but they are eating too much of these foods.
What makes foods healthy is their nutrient content. This does not mean we can eat them in limitless quantities. For example, a half cup of quinoa has 111 calories.
Most people are eating two or three cups of quinoa in a sitting which can come in at 400-600 calories. That doesn’t include, the nuts cheese and olive oil they are adding.
2. Failing to understand cravings
They’re not easy to deal with. When it comes to eating, the brain’s directives are all-powerful.
Unfortunately, she says, the brain is telling most of us to eat sweets, fried foods, and starchy pastas and breads. Instead she advises not to skip meals and to make better choices to ward off bad choices.
Increase your protein at each meal and include some red meat along with poultry and fish. This kind of dense protein, eaten regularly, is the most effective food for turning off cravings for sweet and starchy ‘treats.
3. Treating weight loss as punishment
Finding the willpower to shed pounds is tough enough. If you consider your weight-loss efforts as punishment, you’ll start to resent your diet—especially in social situations.
You’re staring down the bread basket or considering dessert. Your thought process may be that everyone else is getting to eat those things, and you can’t. Try not to think of it as deprivation.
Food, in general, is certainly a necessity. But a brownie? So the next time this thought whispers across your brain, take a step back and ask yourself two questions:
- Am I really depriving myself of a necessity?
- If I don’t change my eating habits, what am I really depriving myself of?
The answer: A healthier, happier life. Keep that in mind and you’ll happily pass up the junk.
4. Not watching liquid calories
Even healthy drinks like fruit juice or smoothies have a ton of calories and sugar. When you’re trying to lose weight these drinks can seem like a sensible tactic, but if you have too much it can seriously undermine your success, points out.
5. Not snacking strategically
When people go more than three hours between meals they can become too hungry and then overeat whatever comes their way. Most people need two snacks in the afternoon hours, spaced out and protein-rich, to curb hunger and reduce impulsive eating.
Some good snack choices include Greek yogurt, hard-boiled egg, cottage cheese, fruit, and nuts, she says.
6. Relying on calorie counting
Many weight-loss experts still claim that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie—but that’s flat out wrong. A 100-calorie pack of cookies is not going to provide the same nutritional value as something like a green smoothie.
While the green smoothie may have more calories, it also has way more nutrients that can help your body lose weight, keep it off, and feel mentally and physically healthy.
7. Cutting out fat
Saying fat will make you fat is so 1990s. You need it to keep hunger away for hours, to think clearly, and to make good decisions and function throughout the day.
Plus, most items that claim they are ‘low-fat’ are usually packed with sugar or other chemicals to make up for the flavor loss, and they can actually lead to more weight gain.
She also advises to incorporate healthy choices such as avocados, coconut oil, fish, nuts and seeds.
8. Skipping meals
It’s almost logical to think that if you skip meals or cut your food intake drastically, you’ll cut out more calories over the course of the day, but it rarely works that way. Skipping meals and cutting back invariably leads to uncontrollable hunger and overeating.
Instead, she advises to plan out how you can distribute your daily calories over three meals and one or two snacks. It’s easier to practice portion control when you know you’ll be eating every few hours, and you’ll help to break the ‘starve-then-binge’ habit.
9. Rewarding exercise with food
Many people fool themselves into thinking they’ve burned off a lot more calories during exercise than they actually have, and they use that as an excuse to indulge.
Be aware of how many calories you actually burn when you exercise (you can find lots of resources online), and compare that to the calories you’re tempted to take in afterwards.
Also, keep a log of the type of exercise you do and the amount of time you spend doing it. This journaling can keep track of what you’re taking in and what you’re burning.
10. Negative self-talk
Don’t be so hard on yourself. If you think you should be perfect—that you’ll always exercise every morning or never eat another piece of candy—you’re setting the bar awfully high.
The fix here is to practice positive self-talk. Offer the same support to yourself as you would to a friend. You wouldn’t tell your friend who’s struggling with his weight, “You just don’t have the willpower. I guess you’ll just be fat for the rest of your life.”
So, why do you say that to yourself? Practice talking nicely to yourself.
Offer yourself support. Instead of “This is too hard,” think to yourself, “I can do this.”
One last thing… you should try this 2-minute “after-dinner ritual” that
burns up to 2 pounds of belly fat per day…
“All
this by a 2-minute “after-dinner ritual?” I asked.
I
met an old friend for lunch last month and I was super impressed with how good
she looked.
She
said, “It’s not so much about the “after-dinner ritual”, but more about how it
gives you a regenerative form of deep sleep that is responsible for everything
we need to dramatically increase our fat burning metabolism and improve our
health and appearance.”
Even
though I was skeptical, I’ve been struggling with my weight over the last few
years, so I gave it a shot and watched the same video she did.
Well,
it’s only a couple weeks later and you know what they say about how “you can’t
transform your body overnight”…
They’re
right – it actually took me 16 days to lose 22 pounds.
Now
it’s my girlfriends asking ME what I’M doing differently 💅
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