There are a thousand reasons to lose weight. Sometimes it’s health, sometimes it’s a specific occasion or the simple desire to feel better in your own skin. Whatever the reason, you can lose weight successfully if you avoid the following mistakes.
Whether it’s general dissatisfaction, a planned wedding or the desire to live healthier – there are a thousand reasons for losing weight that are completely individual. No matter what your reasons are, you should avoid typical weight loss mistakes to ensure that your plan is successful. Learn from the experiences of others who have done these things wrong.
1. Weight loss mistakes: Avoiding whole food groups
Once you have made the decision to lose weight, you are flooded with promising diet methods. Especially often you read sentences like:
- Don’t eat after 6 pm!
- 5 kilos less in only 4 weeks!
- Eat only protein-rich foods!
- Do without sugar and carbohydrates completely!
- Eliminate fat from your diet!
Let’s be honest : You should never impose bans on yourself that you won’t stick to. And you usually know that before you even try. The goal of a sensible diet and a subsequent change in nutrition should be a new balance that positively influences your metabolism.
A meal replacement can prevent just that, because you can precisely control the amount of calories and supply your body with important nutrients. This allows you to start a real dietary change and build a new healthy relationship with food without sacrificing important nutrients.
With a sensible dietary change that also supports you in losing weight in the long term, all foods are allowed and bans can be safely dispensed with. It goes without saying that calorie and fat bombs should only be eaten rarely and in small quantities. A change in diet works best if you have a plan.
2. Weight loss mistakes: Setting the wrong goals
If you are unhappy with yourself and your weight, you want to escape from this situation as quickly as possible and solve the “problem”. Sometimes in such moments you have very high expectations of yourself. In principle, it is good to have a goal in mind, but you should remain realistic.
Set yourself intermediate goals that you can achieve in small steps. This way you will regularly have a positive sense of achievement that will encourage you to change something. You will also be more motivated to persevere.
When it comes to weight loss, you should trust scientific results: A 2 kg weight loss per month is realistic. The goal should always be to change your diet permanently. Most diets, however, are not suitable for losing weight in a healthy way and keeping it off permanently.
3. Weight loss mistakes: Not using a memory aid
Especially the transition from a fasting diet back to a normal dietary routine involves many stumbling blocks. Sometimes there are days when you don’t feel like you’ve eaten anything “real” because you’re just snacking. But in the end, these supposedly small things make you eat much more than you thought.
So that you don’t lose track of what you eat throughout the day, it makes sense to keep a food diary. Of course, this can be done in the classic analogue form as a small booklet. But you can also use an app. This makes “keeping records” particularly quick and easy.
Apps with barcode scanners are particularly practical. Then you can easily enter the food you eat. This makes counting calories much easier and you can note down your individual needs even more easily.
4. Mistakes when losing weight: Eat little and starve yourself
If you eat too little, your body doesn’t get all the nutrients it needs. Therefore, your metabolism shuts down and your body goes into a kind of economy mode to consume as little energy as possible.
If you then eat more after a diet, your body stores all the extra energy in the fat cells to prepare for the next hunger phase. This puts you in a vicious circle that often ends with the dreaded yo-yo effect. This unpleasant phenomenon is also called the hunger metabolism.
In order to stay on the ball and lose weight in the long term, the food you eat should first and foremost satisfy your hunger and provide your body with all the important nutrients.
5. Weight loss mistakes: Trying to do everything on your own
Far too often, people shut themselves off from each other and strive as dogged lone warriors for their own personal sense of achievement. This not only often leads to (weight loss) frustration, but also to people not reaching their goals because they give up prematurely.
If you look at it pessimistically, you could say: “A sorrow shared is a sorrow halved”. That’s a pity, because in company many things are simply easier, which is basically a good thing.
Better: Pursue a common goal and motivate each other to persevere. A good portion of honesty and a bit of courage are certainly needed to open up to other people, perhaps even strangers. But if a group of people pursue one and the same goal, it can be incredibly inspiring.
6. Mistakes when losing weight: Lying, sitting, driving
Exercise is not for everyone, and that’s okay. However, doing without exercise is anything but healthy. Exercise has another advantage: It can boost your metabolism.
If you exercise and also build up muscles, you can further support your weight loss ambitions. More muscle increases your basal metabolic rate, which means more fat and glucose are burned. So try to exercise regularly.
If you haven’t yet discovered sport for yourself, then at least set yourself daily exercise goals such as walking 10,000 steps. Or borrow the neighbour’s dog for a walk and avoid the lift and escalator. Even climbing the stairs every day will gradually make you fitter.
7. Weight loss mistakes: Drinking too little
Your body is largely made up of fluids. In order for it to function optimally, you need to supply it with enough fluid. Your body loses between one and one and a half litres of water per day, which is excreted through the kidneys, intestines and, in larger quantities, through the skin.
Drinking too little can have a negative effect on your metabolism and slow it down. Therefore, whether you are trying to lose weight or not, you should always drink enough. Ideally, drink at least 1.5 to 2 litres a day – preferably water and unsweetened herbal teas.
8. Weight loss mistakes: Sleeping too little
It’s not only food that provides you with energy. Your body also needs sleep to function optimally. If you’re tired all the time, your metabolism is also sluggish. Your body craves fuel and you find yourself craving sweet or fatty foods more and more often – in other words, anything that provides a lot of energy.
Give your mind and cells enough time to regenerate. This is especially important if you have a lot of stress in your daily life. Try to get into the habit of following a set sleep pattern so that you get enough sleep. The fixed rhythm will make you feel fitter in the morning.
Are you so stressed that you have trouble getting to sleep? Exercise can help too! For example, make a short walk part of your evening routine or start with some quiet exercise like swimming. Not only will you sleep better and lose weight more easily, but you’ll also go through life with more positive energy !
