The 10 Most Common Diet Mistakes That Even Healthy People Make
If you are on a diet or trying to lose weight but aren’t seeing results, including with weight loss pills that work, it may be difficult to determine just where you’re going wrong. We often perceive our eating habits in a better light than how we are actually carrying them out. Here are the top 10 diet mistakes people make that prevent them eating healthy and losing weight:
1.Eating too much of your healthy food
Just because the food you’re eating is healthy, doesn’t mean you can completely disregard portion and calories. The most common diet mistake people make is not being conscious of the amount of food their ingesting. Eating too many healthy foods can quickly derail your diet.
2.Liquid calories
Its estimated that about 20% of the calories we consume each day come from what we drink. Many often skip counting the calories in beverages, but sugary juices, sodas, coffee drinks, smoothies and sweet teas can contain an exorbitant amount of extra calories. Choose low or no calorie drinks when you’re trying to lose weight.
3. Skipping breakfast
Skipping any meal is bad, but skipping breakfast may be a key factor in your weight loss goals. A balanced breakfast kick-starts your metabolism, and provides your body with the energy it needs to make it through the day. If you are on a diet, always include breakfast.
4. Distracted snacking
Multitasking while eating can cause you to consume way more food than you realize. Make sure you are only eating a certain times, doing away with a bite here, a nibble there, and a handful of something while you’re driving to work. You will ingest hundreds of extra calories if you don’t give eating your full attention.
5. Rewarding exercise with food
Rewarding yourself for a workout with food is incredibly counter productive. Just because you got in some exercise doesn’t mean you can have that brownie. To lose weight, you must consume less calories than your body burns throughout the day. Think of something else you can reward a good workout with besides food.
6. Being a social over-eater
Eating in groups makes it especially hard to make healthy food choices. You will probably feel less guilty about ordering a side of french fries if everyone else is doing it too, but the only way to lose weight and stick to a healthy diet is to be completely conscious of every food choice you make.
7. Skipping carbs
Your body needs carbohydrates to function properly, and although you may drop pounds at first by cutting them out completely from your diet, its unrealistic to continue on this way and you’ll quickly gain the weight back once you eat them again. Include whole grain based foods to maintain your carb-quotient.
8. Thinking a salad is always a healthy option
Just because it includes some veggies doesn’t mean its healthy. There are many health traps included in salads that can be hazardous to your diet. Croutons, cheese, creamy dressings and breaded chicken can add hundreds of calories to this “healthy” meal option.
9. Not eating before/after a workout
People often think that they will lose more weight, but in reality your body needs food to fuel a workout, and it also needs it to recover. If you skip a meal before exercise, you will lack the energy to put in your full effort. If you skip a meal post-workout, you will not replenish your body with the nutrients it needs to stay healthy.
10. Taking weekends off
Your diet is a 24/7 commitment, and just because you did well the entire week, doesn’t give you leeway on the weekends. Include your favorite foods throughout your eating plan in a healthy way. Losing weight and sticking to a healthy diet is a lifestyle change, so don’t undo all of your hard work by consuming too many calories on the weekends.
