Many people forget that losing weight is a complex process. For one, it involves drastically altering the body’s chemistry, but many forget that achieving a more well-balanced body can’t happen overnight. Here are other common mistakes people usually commit when losing weight:
Lack of Expert Advice
People who are a little past the overweight range have an easier homework of getting back to normal weight than those bordering or are in an obese stage. Regardless of your BMI, an exercise routine and diet that you prescribed yourself can only do so much if you haven’t gotten yourself checked for any underlying medical condition that might have caused your weight gain in the first place. If you’ve been overweight or obese for several years now, ensure that embarking on weight loss is as safe as it could be by knowing if there are health complications you need to be wary of.
Some illnesses attributed to weight gain include hormonal imbalances and chronic organ diseases, which you should immediately seek medical attention for. That way, you can undergo necessary procedures and be prescribed regular medication.
Keeping an unhealthy weight for a significant period may also cause mobility issues. Unless you get your body checked by an orthopedic specialist, especially the parts that constantly hurt, you will only run the risk of injuring yourself when exercising. One common weight-related issue is back pain, and a common remedy is wearing a prescribed back brace.
Not Mentally Preparing Yourself
If you’ve tried and failed several times in the past, you should know by now that the motivation with which you started your weight loss will wane over time. You may become bogged down comparing your achievement to that of others or feel frustrated that you’re losing weight too slowly. That is the case if you do not know how and where to recover your mental strength.
So you have to at least have a role model to look up to, one who promotes healthy weight loss methods and not someone who upholds unrealistic standards. Also, practice being your own cheerleader instead of beating yourself up for weight or any other vital statistic you didn’t achieve on time as targeted. Trust that the process will eventually lead you to success.
Focusing Too Much on the Numbers
Either you are too engrossed with your weight that you get on the scale at least once a day or you obsess over the number of calories of every food you eat. Obsessively checking your weight, if anything, would cause unnecessary stress along the way. Realistically speaking, your weight fluctuates a lot in a matter of a day due to several reasons, including water weight, your internal organs respiring, the food you just ate, and because you tend to be heavier later in the day.
In the initial part of your weight loss journey, you lose a lot of fat. Fat occupies a huge space in your body, but it’s not as heavy as muscle. That said, you may feel your body become leaner and your clothes a bit looser in the first weeks of your weight training, but this big change wouldn’t make a big impact on the scale. To feel better about your progress, you can measure the diameter of your arms, thighs, calves, and waist instead.
Another unhealthy obsession many people have is focusing only on the number of calories every food item they incorporate into their meal has. While the calorie count is essential in achieving a balanced diet, it is not solely the end-all indicator.
Sure, you could indulge in that protein bar after a workout session, given it has the muscle enhancers you need for only 230 calories. But, do note that most commercially sold protein bars are packed with additives like processed sugar and oils, which could be detrimental to your metabolism, therefore, hindering you from achieving toned muscles and a leaner physique. At the end of the day, eating food for its nutritional value will benefit your health.
Losing Weight for the Sake of It
When you decide to lose weight, you should do so for the higher purpose of achieving good health and not simply look good. When you get into exercising and a healthy diet, a healthy lifestyle can be more easily sustained. But, if you exercise and commit to healthy eating only until you have reached your desired weight, not only are you likely to gain back those excess pounds, it will also ricochet you back to your unhealthy lifestyle.
Unhealthy Diet
Never rely on fad diets that limit your nutrient intake to only certain types of food if you want sustainable weight loss. You will eventually tap out because of how constricted your food choices are and likely compensate for your deprived palate of various flavored food that may not necessarily be healthy.
This is also the tendency when you attempt to hasten your weight loss through crash diets. A person can only endure so much of the yo-yo effect until he is exhausted from starting weight training over. What you would instead subscribe to is a realistic diet.
Cutting off junk food and processed food may be tough in the beginning, so you would rather reduce your intake gradually. Likewise, gradually incorporate more real food like leafy greens, fruits, lean meat, fish, whole grains, and dairy and get more used to lightly seasoning your food. Over time, you will get to appreciate the energy and stamina boost this healthier diet gives you.
Losing weight is a long and hard task. That said, you should load up on both mental and physical strength.
