5 Mistakes When Trying to Lose Weight

There are so many people who try to lose weight but never succeed, I’ve formulated a list of very common mistakes that will hopefully help any of you wanting to lose weight and have a healthy body!

Mistake #1

Watching the scales like a hawk.

Many people who want to lose weight solely base their weight loss on how much they literally weigh, although this sounds logical it can be a massive mistake. Unless you are actually very overweight, there is no need to check how much you weigh everyday! If you aren’t technically overweight but feel the need to lose a few pounds, you can do this very simply by eating healthily and doing exercise. The reason why you shouldn’t go by what the scales say is because once you start exercising, you gain muscle. Muscle is heavier than fat so what happens is at first you gain weight. The more muscle you have the more fat you burn and therefore you will tone up and lose fat.

Mistake #2

Starving yourself from carbs/all food.

Potatoes and asparagus are complex carbs – full of fibre and leave you feeling fuller for longer

Just from the title you should know this is a bad idea! When you deprive yourself of food your body goes into starvation mode. This means when you do eat something (even if it’s something light like fruit of veg), your body will automatically put it in it’s fat reserve… making you gain fat rather than lose it. Avoiding all carbohydrates is also a bad idea as this is what gives you energy, what you should be doing is avoiding simple carbohydrates: You digest these quickly, they don’t have much energy and therefore you’ll be feeling hungry after a short period of  time. They can be found in foods such as white bread, white rice, sugar, cake, white flour and fruit juice. Complex carbohydrates are great as they are high in fibre and take longer to digest which makes you feel fuller for longer, a few examples are: brown rice, wholemeal bread and pasta, wholemeal flour, nuts, lentils, kidney beans, potatoes and spinach.

Mistake #3

Going on a diet.

Technically, there should be no such thing as a diet. If you do decide to go on a diet and eat healthily for a month or so you might just lose weight! The thing is, you should carry on eating healthily afterwards. If you think “Yay! I’ve met my weight target”… it doesn’t mean you can go back to eating Mcdonalds every other day. This is called the Yo Yo Effect and is very common, and also very logical as to why it happens. You eat healthy and exercise – you have a healthy body. As soon as you have a healthy body, you fall back into your old habits and therefore gain weight again. The trick is to not think of it as a diet. Your nutrition and exercise regime is a lifestyle that you should be basically doing forever.

Mistake #4

Eating the right food but not exercising

Find a sport you love! Check out my mini workouts to add some exercise into your day

If you want a healthy body you should be exercising as well. A lot of people think it’s enough just to eat healthily, but with exercise you can get a healthier body faster and many health advantages! Cardio increases your metabolism rate (making you lose weight faster), decreases the risk of heart disease and strengthens your legs, bum and tum at the same time. Weight training is also good as it builds muscles, making you look toned and as I said before, the more muscle you have the more energy you need – which burns calories and fat quicker. Find a sport that you particularly like (whether it be running, Pilates, weight lifting, spinning etc) and once you’re having fun you won’t think of doing sport as a chore.

Mistake #5

Eating fat free products.

This is a mean trick made by the food market industry. It says “fat free” or “light” on the packet and you think you’re deciding on the healthier option, but the real truth is that there’s a lot of hidden sugar in these products. Just think, if they take all the fat out of a yoghurt for example – they’re going to need to put a lot of artificial stuff in to make it taste as good as it was before! It is also very often that they put gelatine in the product to thicken it – a little tip for any vegetarians out there. The next time you buy a fat free product have a look at the ingredients. If you see any of the following: sucrose, fructose, lactose and maltose then they are all sugar. You might be thinking, “okay.. but sugar isn’t fat, so it’s not that bad is it?” but as I mentioned before sugar is a simple carbohydrate,  meaning it leaves you feeling hungry quickly. Also these are artificial sugars, they are high in calories and can lead to weight gain rather than weight loss. Ditch the fat free yoghurt and light coke and instead eat healthy fats such as avocado, eggs, nuts or fish.

So there are my five mistakes to trying to lose weight! The main point is to think of losing weight not as a weightloss diet plan, but a new, healthier lifestyle for yourself – that isn’t a short term plan but a permanent change. Can anyone relate to these problems or has another problem they would like to add?

Larissaingermany x