Losing weight and toning up seems like a simple enough formula: just eat less and exercise more, right? Well, according to the experts, things aren’t that simple. Most people make a bunch of fundamental mistakes while dieting that actually hamper their exercise goals.
Take a look at these common mistakes, and what to do about them, according to the experts.
Mistake #1: Not Counting ALL Calories
Fitness and nutrition coach Chris Mosier says that he always asks his clients to keep a daily exercise and eating journal. They’re to record absolutely everything they eat, including the odd mid-afternoon snack as well as anything they eat off somebody else’s plate.
What he typically finds is that people aren’t counting all the calories that they eat. Instead, they count the calories they eat at meal times and then ignore everything that they eat during other parts of the day. The problem is that often the amount that is being eaten between meals can contain more calories than are in some meals themselves.
Many diets just give general instructions about how much to eat. But some diets, like The 3 Week Diet by Brian Flatt, remove this guess work by setting out an exact meal plan. The idea is to create a schedule designed for the individual’s body type that will help them lose weight sustainable and not accidentally overeat.
Mistake #2: Having A Cheat Day, And Going Crazy
Sticking to a brutal fitness diet can take its toll. While you’re chowing down on brown rice, broccoli and tuna, you’re dreaming of your cheat day when you’ll get to eat ice cream and pizza. Having a cheat day once a month is okay, so long as you take it easy. But having one once a week that lasts the whole day is a recipe for disaster. It’s possible, according to Joey Thurman, a celebrity trainer, for cheat days to devolve into a food eating contest, where the aim of the game is to guzzle as many calories as possible. Eating too much can leave you sick and bloated for days afterward, taking away your desire to hit the gym and improve your fitness.
Mistake #3: Restricting Yourself Too Much
For some reason, fitness coaches decided that healthy food had to be the most boring, uninspiring food in the world. This isn’t surprising since most of the people who pioneered fitness eating weren’t culinary experts. But the problem with most of the diets that they advocate is that they run counter to the human spirit.
People want food that delights their senses and is pleasurable: they don’t want to feel as if they are a horse on the farm, eating nothing but fodder and grass.
Mike Chang of YouTube fitness fame says that people often restrict themselves too much when they start a fitness regime. They give up all the flavor that food has to offer in exchange for a regimented eating pattern. Eating plain porridge oats and brown rice at every meal is a disaster waiting to happen. So add some spices and some herbs to your meals and make them more exciting.
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