Are you one of those unfortunate souls who are always on a diet, obsessed with your weight and body image yet you never seem to be seeing any results? Here are some common mistakes people make and reasons why you are not losing weight:
You overcomplicate things.
Losing weight is a simple equation of eating less calories than you consume, eating whole foods and exercising frequently. Start living simply and healthily and the weight will automatically come off. Diet and fitness should enhance your life— not overcomplicate it.
You are not eating enough.
If you are not eating enough, your metabolism will drop and start hoarding fat and calories because it is trying to protect itself by going into starvation mode and as a result of this, you will get stuck in an endless cycle and the pounds will never come off. I see many people who seem to be constantly dieting and eating nothing with little progress and I suspect that one of the reasons is that they are just not eating enough because their body never changes. Don’t see food as an enemy but something that will nourish you— again, eat clean and the weightloss will be a lot easier.
You are depriving yourself.
Successful weightloss requires patience which means slowly cutting out bad foods from your diet and slowly incorporating whole and healthy foods. Doing it all at once will make you feel deprived and that’s when you lose all willpower and binge. Sound familiar?
You are eating more than you think.
Just because a food is labelled healthy doesn’t mean you can eat endless amounts of it. A couple more tablespoons of olive oil, an extra helping of whole wheat pasta, one more protein muffin— calories really add up. To stay on track, (especially for beginners) keeping a food journal will teach you about the foods you are consuming, increase awareness with your diet and how many calories are in food.
You are not lifting weights.
If you want to maintain a high metabolism, you need lean muscle! What is the point of losing all that weight if you can’t keep it off? Lift heavy! I can’t stress that enough.
You are a cardio queen (or king).
Too many hours spent on the treadmill will only end up working against you as your body produces too much cortisol and undo all your training. Plus steady-state cardio is extremely boring and efficient! Keep your workouts short but intense and add some variety to your routine by incorporating high intensity interval training, Tabata, sprints and compound exercises. That is a way more efficient way of burning calories and keeping it short will decrease the chances of you dreading a long and boring workout.
You are not doing it for yourself.
Don’t lose the weight to impress someone or to fit in. You must be be in this for yourself 100% because at the end of the day, if you are still not happy, you will not find any motivation to keep on going.
