It’s true, weight loss will take some effort. But avoiding these common beginner weight loss mistakes can make it a lot less hard.
So discover these 5 most common false beliefs about fat loss that are slowing down your weight loss journey. Some may even be the main reason for your weight loss plateau.
Losing weight is one of the best things you will ever do in your life. It’s the easiest way to feel better, look better and have more energy. And it doesn’t have to be as hard as some people make it out to be.
A few small changes and avoiding a few pitfalls is all you have to do.
1. Focusing on only 2 parts of weight loss
When most people think about weight loss they think about people starving themselves and working out each day wearing sweat pants.
Even though too many people like to say it, weight loss is not just calories in calories out. Your body is one huge system with a lot of things influencing your health and how much you weigh.
There are a lot of easy things you can do which result in a lot of weight loss. Things like sleeping better, eating less later in the day, shortening your eating window and so one.
For a good amount of people these things are more important than eating less and exercising more.
2. Not Planning Meals Ahead of Time
Even the most well-intentioned, disciplined person’s weight-loss goals can get derailed by poor planning. When hunger hits and you’re not prepared, it’s a recipe for bad decisions.
Who hasn’t eaten cereal for dinner on a busy work day?
To avoid throwing together unhealthy meals or ordering takeout, which can increase your calorie load per day, you can plan your meals ahead.
Make some time each weekend to look ahead and plan out what you want to eat. Then you can hit the grocery store to stock up on the ingredients, so you’ll have them on hand when you need them.
This won’t just help you avoid making bad decisions, you’ll save yourself the time and headache of figuring out what to eat when you’re tired, rushed and hungry.
3. Not eating enough calories
You might think drastically slashing calories or skipping meals will help you reach your goal weight faster. However, under-eating can actually sabotage your efforts to burn off some extra weight. It’s true that your body needs a calorie deficit in one way or another to lose weight.
But when you don’t eat enough, your metabolism, the amount of calories you burn each day, can slow down. Your body starts thinking it’s in a low calorie environment and it compensates by lowering the amount of calories your body needs.
If you would keep trying to lose weight at this unhealthy rate you would soon need to consume even less. Step by step you come closer to an extremely unhealthy metabolism. And when you stop this unsustainable weight loss diet, chances are you regain the weight and more.
An extreme calorie deficit also leads to an increased release of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol puts your body into a state of storing fat. Not something you want when you’re trying to lose weight.
You need to try to keep your weight loss at a healthy rate.
On top of a calorie deficiency this could also lead to a nutrient deficiency.
Your body needs vitamins, minerals and fiber to be healthy and keep hormones at normal levels.
Try to construct a sustainable food plan with a healthy amount of calories per day that keeps you in a slight calorie deficit.
4) Choosing “low fat” foods
Some people still think that eating fat is the only thing that makes you fatter. It’s a bit more complicated than that.
The fat on your body is not only the result of fat in food you eat. Carbohydrates contain energy too. And if you consume too much energy, even though it’s in the form of carbohydrates, the excess gets stored as body fat.
Dietary fat actually provides many benefits for fat loss like decreasing appetite.
At the end of the day the thing that makes you fatter is absorbing more energy than you spend.
One way to increase the amount of calories your body uses every day is by reducing your insulin levels. In terms of insulin fats are actually the type of foods that cause the least increase in insulin.
So, eating low fat foods doesn’t necessarily helps you on your weight loss journey. Very often they do the opposite thing. They contain a lot of carbohydrates and artificial sweeteners.
You might think artificial sweeteners are good for you because of their low amount of calories. However, they mess up processes in the body and your microbiome. In the end they can actually cause lower fat burning.
When in doubt eat unprocessed foods.
5) Drinking Fruit Juice
Too many people still think drinking fruit juices is good for your health and losing weight. Sadly, this is not the case.
Fruit juices are basically fruit without fiber and with less vitamins. What remains is a high calorie drink with not that many vitamins and minerals. Some juices contain as many calories as soft drinks.
Most of these calories come from sugar so the fruit juices will also cause your insulin to spike.
Say no to the fruit juice if you want to lose weight!
An exception to this rule is lemon water. It’s low in sugar and provides you with a few more micronutrients.
Avoiding these common beginner weight loss mistakes is just the beginning
Losing weight isn’t only about doing more good things. It’s also about doing less bad things so avoiding these 5 common beginner weight loss mistakes is a great start.
However, you will have to do more than this. Losing weight is a bit of a process but it’s completely worth it in the end.
