Losing weight is not easy; however, sometimes, it can even feel impossible. You may be eating healthy foods most of the time, you may be exercising regularly, and taking all your supplements and vitamins, yet you can’t seem to achieve your weight loss goals.
You may want to blame your genetics and say that that’s just the way your body is, but trust me, there is no way that genetics can make weight loss impossible. It is more likely that you are getting in the form of your weight loss goals without realizing it.
Therefore, to help you avoid this, and achieve a healthier weight, here are seven common ways in which you may be sabotaging your weight loss goals. Keep reading to learn more.
Your diet is not balanced:
Just because the foods that you eat are healthy, it doesn’t mean you can eat as much as you like. No matter what the source of your calories is, at the end of the day, if your intake is higher than the number of calories you burn, you won’t get any further in your weight loss journey.
Now that doesn’t mean that you can start eating junk food as long as the calories are less than what you burn. For optimal weight loss conditions, your diet needs to be balanced, with a healthy amount of all the essential food groups.
How to fix: Ensure that you keep track of your food intake and plan your portion sizes accordingly. The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to consult a qualified nutritionist and devise a reliable and effective diet plan that is suited specifically to your body type and your preferences.
You’re not cleaning out your pantry and refrigerator:
Maintaining a healthy diet and staying away from your favorite delicious but unhealthy snacks can be quite a challenge. Slipping from your diet plan is expected, it happens to the best of us, but the thing that matters is whether you let the same mistake happen twice or not.
Moreover, some people just quit their diet plan if they accidentally slip, which, of course, is not lucrative in any way. Most of the time, you will move from your diet because doing so is convenient. If a bag of potato chips is sitting in front of you, of course, you are going to want a bite.
How to fix: The fix is simple, clean out your refrigerator and pantry of all the unhealthy foods and snacks, so that there isn’t anything to tempt you.
You aren’t getting enough sleep:
Sleep deprivation can lead to a plethora of problems, from increased stress to reduced productivity at work. Various studies have shown that sleep deprivation is linked to unhealthy weight. When your body is tired, you are more likely to drag through your workouts and make bad food choices.
Moreover, insufficient sleep can also affect your metabolism, which can also make it difficult for you to lose those extra pounds.
How to fix: You should maintain a regular sleep cycle. Try to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. You need to get at least 6-8 hours of sleep every day. If you are also having trouble sleeping, try this remedy.
You don’t stay properly hydrated:
Insufficient hydration can be problematic in many ways. Firstly, water is essential for several bodily functions like energy expenditure, nutrient absorption, lymphatic cleansing, and fat loss. Without water, your body slows down its performance, which can hinder your weight loss goals.
Secondly, we can confuse thirst with hunger, and eat more than we need to when all our body needs are some water.
How to fix: One quick way to ensure hydration is to always keep a water bottle with you. You should also keep track of how much water you drink in a day. Experts suggest that an average person should get around eight 8-ounce glasses every day.
You aren’t doing the right exercise:
Exercise is equally important as diet in an effective weight loss strategy; however, you should be doing the right kind of exercise. Going to the gym and lifting weights on your own isn’t the ideal activity for weight loss. Such exercises are useful for building muscle, but they are almost ineffective in cutting fat.
Moreover, the time and frequency of your workouts also play a role in determining their effectiveness.
How to fix: Instead of doing sedentary exercises like lifting weights, you should focus on more active forms of training. Moreover, it would help if you kept changing up your workouts to keep them exciting. One day of the week, you can do CrossFit, on another, maybe you can take a dancing lesson, and how about a couple of boxing classes.
“It’s just a bite, how unhealthy can it be.”
They might not seem like much, but those small bites you take when you are cooking, or you have a food craving can add up. Moreover, eating a little food like this can disrupt your body’s schedule, and adversely affect your metabolism and digestive system.
When you eat at the same time every day, your body gets used to it, and it can optimize its resources to favor digestion at the specific times that you eat, however, taking small bites out of your routine, can disrupt this system.
How to fix: Eat according to a schedule and don’t take those small bites lightly.
Your fitness tracker might be lying to you:
Fitness trackers can be useful if you use them properly, but trusting everything that they tell you isn’t wise. The technology used in these gadgets just isn’t refined enough yet, and the results displayed by it can have some discrepancies. For instance, after running on a treadmill, the tracker might show you that you have but 400 calories, it doesn’t mean that you can go ahead and eat another 400. The information on these gadgets can’t be trusted completely.
How to fix: Instead of relying on a fitness tracker, trust the diet and exercise plan that you devised by consulting a nutritionist and a physical trainer.