When it comes to weight loss, there are many good rules to follow and many bad mistakes you can make. I would say there are just as many bad tips out there than there are good tips for weight loss. Dieting isn’t easy and it makes it harder when you have some much conflicting information out there. Today we will look at a few simple mistakes that people make while trying to lose weight. Some of these are common diet mistakes, workout mistakes, and a few other mistakes that people make that can hinder their weight loss goals. Make sure to avoid these mistakes at all cost.
Starving Yourself
One of the worst diet mistakes you can make is starving yourself in the hopes of losing weight. Most people don’t seem to realize that starving yourself is actually the easiest way to force your body to gain weight. When you starve yourself your body goes into defensive mode. It starts to think that you are in trouble so it decides that whatever food you feed it next will be stored as fat, just to make sure that you can maintain a healthy body weight. This is one of the biggest diet mistakes that people make and they are surprised when it can have this reverse effect. So don’t ever follow any type of diet that says you need to starve yourself. It’s bad for you and you will end up worse off than you started.
No Variety
So this is both a diet mistake and a fitness mistake. We’ll start with the fitness mistake. Have you ever started a fitness routine that was going great a few weeks in? You did everything the workout routine told you and you’re starting to see your results in the mirror. All the sudden you hit the wall. No more progress and you can’t figure out what’s wrong. The common fitness mistake that a lot of people make is forgetting to switch up their fitness routine. You should never go more than 2 months with the same exercise routine. After the two months, switch everything up. This will shock your body into burning more fat and calories than ever. If you stick to the same workout routines, your body will eventually adjust and it won’t be challenging anymore. Switching up your routine is what wakes your body up and tells it to build more muscle and burn more fat.
Check out the new Healthy Diet Solution ebook! 15 years of weight loss experience rolled into one and the last diet book you will ever have to read.The second part is the diet mistake of forgetting to mix in new foods into your diet. Just like with your workout routines, your body will eventually adapt to the same food you are eating and it will cause your metabolism to slow. You need to be introducing new foods into your body to ensure that it stays primed and ready to crank up that metabolism and reach all your health and fitness goals. Although, don’t get this tip confused. This does not mean you can go out and eat whatever you want just to shock your body. You still need to pick healthy food choices that are within your healthy diet guidelines.
You Don’t Sweat Enough
Now, this is one of those workout mistakes that we are all guilty of. Hitting the gym a few times a week is a great start toward reaching your health and fitness goals but if your goal is to lose weight, you really need to focus on cardio. If you’re not putting in hours of time sweating, the truth is, you’re not going to lose any significant weight. This is one of those workout mistakes that are too easy to make after a long day. Sometimes it’s just so hard to convince yourself that you need to go out there and sweat for a minimum of 30 minutes a day, 3 to 4 days a week. If it’ll help, you should plan out every day this week and write in all the times of each day that you are going to do your 30 minutes of cardio. These type of workout mistakes can cost you pounds of fat so don’t fall victim to cardio laziness.
Too Much Cardio
As important as it is to do your cardio 3 to 4 days a week, just like anything else, it can become counterproductive to do an extreme amount of cardio. A good rule of thumb is to aim for a cardio session of 30 minutes to an hour. That is the perfect amount of time to burn fat. Anything after that and you risk burning off the muscle you’ve worked so hard for. Excess cardio is one of those workout mistakes that can really cost you in the future. Excess cardio is the cause of fatigue, brittle bones, lack of appetite, and many other negative symptoms. Studies have shown that prolonged bouts of cardio (2 to 4 hours) can have detrimental effects on your internal organs as well. So do yourself a favor and avoid these type of workout mistakes at all costs.
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This diet mistake is along the same lines as starving yourself. Although it’s not to that extreme, waiting too long between meals can have the same effect as starving your body. You will scare your body into defensive mode and it will decide that the next meal it gets will be stored as fat in an attempt to right the ship after missing all those needed nutrients throughout the day. Dieting isn’t all that hard, you just need to make sure you are eating your small meals every day without going more than 3 hours between them.
You Don’t Rest Enough
This is one of the workout mistakes for the very active people out there. I know I have personally fallen for this workout mistake in the past. If you are not resting enough, you will never reach your health and fitness goals. It’s really that simple. Once you have decades of experience in the fitness industry, you realize that you really need to let your body rest and recover after a hard workout. Not resting enough can have dramatic effects on your athletic performance. You need to listen to your body and when it tells you that your back is sore from yesterdays workout, you need to listen and take today off from the gym. It’s a hard concept to grasp, but rest is even more important than working out. I know that sounds strange, but if you are a beginner to the gym, heed these words. Don’t make the common mistake of pushing your body past the limit and not getting an ample amount of rest to recover.
More to Come
These are just a few of the common mistakes people make in the quest for weight loss and overall health and fitness. The good news is, now you know that these workout mistakes and diet mistakes can lead you astray and you can do everything you need to do to avoid them. I’m sure by the time of this reading there will have been 100 more diet myths and common mistakes that are being told to the public by some self-proclaimed fitness guru. Oh well, we’ll just have to debunk those too when the time comes. Stay tuned for more common diet and fitness mistakes in my next post and as always, thanks for stopping by!
