You’ve taken the first steps toward weight loss: vowing to eat well, starting now. Many people are so determined to finally lose that weight that the pounds will indeed start to whittle away. The problem, though, is that within a month or so, they’ve returned to their poor eating habits.
Here are 14 of the most common dieting mistakes.
14 Common Dieting Mistakes
1. Setting unrealistic goals
This should be a no-brainer. If you start by setting unrealistic goals, you are setting yourself up for failure. In other words, putting too much pressure on yourself to lose weight too quickly will backfire. Healthy weight loss is one to two pounds per week. Remember this: The winner in weight loss is not the person who loses the quickest but the person who keeps it off the longest.
Also, success shouldn’t be measured only by the number on a scale. With increases in exercise and improvement in diet, you may be losing fat tissue and gaining muscle mass. This change in body composition is not reflected on the scale. Also, increasing fiber or reducing sugar are goals that can be measured just as well as weight changes.
[READ: Factors That Contribute to Weight Loss and Weight Gain]
2. Thinking about ‘diet,’ not lifestyle
A diet is something you go on and then eventually stop. But if you lose the diet mentality and approach this as a lifestyle change, there is no end date. Hopefully, with this mindset, you will create positive habits that last a lifetime. Also, with this approach, diet should not be your only concern; you should incorporate better sleep habits, improve daily activity and find ways to reduce stress.
3. Trying the next fad diet
If you hear about a diet that promises quick weight loss, run. If you hear about a diet that eliminates food groups, run faster. And if you think trying yet another diet instead of attempting to make lifestyle changes is the answer, think again.
4. Not eating enough protein with breakfast
A person decides to eat healthily and chooses a bowl of cereal with non-fat milk and a banana; one hour later, they start complaining of hunger. People who make this mistake are moving in the right direction, but if they are truly watching their serving sizes, the 8 grams of protein from the milk will most likely not keep them full until lunchtime.
Consequently, they wind up over-snacking or eating a lunch that’s too big. Adding a healthy fat to the cereal mix, like slivered almonds, or having a little extra protein — like a hard-boiled egg — can make a big difference in their satiety level.
[Read: 8 Strategies for Maintaining a Healthy Relationship With Food.]
5. Having a snack
This is a tricky one. Most nutritionists recommend a mid-morning snack if it will be more than four hours between breakfast and lunch. But often, people misjudge their snack size and create another meal. A 1-ounce serving of almonds is not the same as a 2-ounce serving. Remember, a snack is a mini-meal and should be less than 200 calories.
A good snack for weight loss should contain protein, healthy fat or both, or you will most likely be hungry one hour later. In other words, don’t just grab a piece of fruit. And guess what? If you aren’t really hungry, there’s probably no need for a snack at all.
6. Not counting the calories from alcohol
You would think this would be a no-brainer, but too many people sabotage their weight-loss efforts by their cocktail consumption. Cocktails don’t need to be flat-out avoided, but you can’t drink like a fish on the weekends and reach your weight-loss goals — no matter how well you eat during the week. And watch the size of your weekday pour — a 6-ounce glass of wine doesn’t have the same calories as a 12-ounce glass.
7. Eating a salad for lunch
Dieters often boast they’re eating salads for lunch as if they think they’re following the No. 1 weight-loss guideline. Here’s the thing: Some salads are healthy, and some are not so healthy. If you’re piling your salad with everything but the kitchen sink, it’s closer to the latter.
Croutons, bacon bits, lots of cheese, and a creamy dressing can be just the tip of a diet disaster. Too much chicken, avocado and olive oil can push it over the edge. So, just because you’re eating all those healthy greens, you need to make sure all the other ingredients follow suit.
8. Banning carbs
This is a really popular mistake. It’s true that eating too many foods high in refined carbohydrates — such as white bread, white noodles, white rice and bagels and cereals made with white flour — can contribute to weight gain. Other refined carbs to limit include sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate and glucose.
However, you can lose weight and enjoy your healthy carbs. Complex carbohydrates, such as beans, vegetables and whole grains, provide many important nutrients and fiber to keep you feeling full longer.
Too many people think more protein on the plate is far better than adding a carb. When you do the math, however, it doesn’t usually work out in the protein’s favor. For example, a plain 8-ounce chicken breast is around 375 calories, but if you were to eat a 4-ounce serving and add a half cup of brown rice, you would save about 78 calories. A small baked potato (topped with salsa) can save you 105 calories, if you stick with a 4-ounce serving of broiled salmon versus an 8-ounce. And besides saving calories, you’ll be getting fiber, which overall may help with weight loss.
If you hear about a popular diet that requires you to eliminate an entire food group — carbs, for example — that’s a good sign that it’s too restrictive.
9. Avoiding your “bad” foods
This is probably the No. 1 diet mistake.
Ask yourself: What do you love to eat? And don’t list what you think you should be eating. It’s important to continue to eat those foods you really love — though you likely think you should avoid them. Sound crazy? When people completely avoid the foods they love, they inevitably feel deprived and give up on healthy eating.
The key is to find a way to keep the favorites in the mix without sabotaging weight-loss goals. For example:
— Occasionally having a slice of pizza for lunch with a side salad, so you don’t wind up wanting to sit down for an entire pie
— Enjoying french fries with your burger, but losing the bun
— Sharing dessert at a restaurant when dining out, while consciously passing on the bread basket
— Indulging in your favorite dessert at your loved one’s birthday, but having a full day of well-rounded meals before and after the party
You do not need to eliminate your favorite foods in order to lose weight. Instead, try making lifestyle changes and keep them consistent.
[READ: Orthorexia: The Unhealthy Obsession with Healthy Eating and How to Break Free]
10. Consuming healthy fats in excess
Hopefully, we all know by now that monounsaturated fats are a healthy addition to our diet. However, more is not always better. Nuts, seeds, avocado and olive oil are packed with nutritional benefits but are also high in calories. These high-fat foods can and should be part of a well-balanced meal; however, serving size matters.
Try and stick to ¼ of an avocado, 1 TBSP of olive oil and 1 ounce of nuts if looking to lose weight.
11. Getting all your advice from TikTok and other social media
Where we get our nutrition advice matters. Just because somebody has thousands or millions of followers on a social media platform does not make them an expert. TikTok is filled with unsolicited advice from individuals with no nutrition background. They often use themselves as an example of something that has worked wonders, but it has only worked for them with no research to support it.
Social media can be used in a helpful way, but only if you make sure the advice you follow is from a credentialed individual who uses science as a reference point. Beware of blogs, testimonials and videos that purport to have found the “latest and greatest” nutrition tips that you can’t find anywhere else or are trying to sell you a product. Consulting with a registered dietitian is a good option too. Registered dietitians not only have extensive training regarding nutrition, they keep up with the latest peer-reviewed research on food and how it affects your health.
12. Focusing on what you shouldn’t eat
When it comes to dieting to lose weight, lots of people think strictly in terms of foods they need to subtract entirely from their eating regimen. It’s important to keep in mind that even if you’re trying to lose weight, healthy eating isn’t strictly about restriction, but about aiming to have a variety of foods.
13. Making poor eating choices after exercising
Who hasn’t at one point reached for a cupcake, cookies or another high-calorie treat, thinking, “I earned it at the gym” after a workout?
That may sound good in theory, but people sometimes overestimate how much they’ve exercised and how many calories they’ve burned. A fitness tracker can help, but they’re not foolproof.
14. Giving up on your diet too soon
Don’t give up on your diet just because you’re not seeing changes right away. When people make big lifestyle changes and the scale doesn’t move after one to three weeks, they get very frustrated.
Give your new regimen at least four to six weeks to work. The first few weeks are often trial and error with a lot of room for improvement. If you think you’re doing everything perfectly, then take a fine toothcomb through your new regimen — write down all the food you consume in a journal for at least two weeks, track sleep, track steps and activity minutes and record your alcohol consumption. If you’re consistent during the week but not the weekend, then work on balanced nutrition for the weekend. Consistency is the key.
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Common Diet Mistakes Sabotaging Your Weight Loss originally appeared on usnews.com