THE TOP 4 WEIGHT LOSS MISTAKES EVERYONE MAKES
I talk a lot about “What TO do” to sustain your weight loss, however some minds think better in “What NOT to do” - this is for you. Most of us make the same health and weight loss mistakes, and most of us repeat them for years before seeking a nutrition or fitness coach. You might not quite be at that stage, (reach out if you are!) so for now, let’s discuss the top 4 dieting mistakes:
1. Dieting from too little intake
2. Restricting entire food groups
3. Dieting without your health in check
4. Not having an exit-diet strategy
Far too many women are dieting when they “want to”, when they feel uncomfortable in their skin or because that special event is coming up in 6 weeks. I get it. You’re uncomfortable. You want to feel better, look better, you want change, however, dieting every time you “want to” and not setting yourself up for success is going to lead you down a deep dark tunnel of frustration and body chaos. You don’t have to believe me but you can believe your friends, coworkers, other women you have spoken to because this is one of the most common reasons I have women pounding down my door.
If you are chasing fat loss, you are doing something wrong.
If you are frustrated, you are doing something wrong.
Mistake 1: Dieting From Too Little Intake
One of the most common mistakes I see when it comes to weight loss: Doing too much, too fast.
A lot of women cut out too many calories too quickly, follow fad diets (juice cleanses etc) and/or do too much cardio and training with no real plan too soon.
Weight loss requires you to be in a deficit of intake, fact.
What that statement doesn’t explain is how much of a deficit. Often I find people interpreting the meaning of deficit... as an extreme.
We have two ways to create a deficit of intake. We can either eat less or we can do more.
More often than not I see people cutting out a whole ton of calories or entire food groups that they’ve seen demonized online. They often combine this with working out every single day in gym classes, running, training etc and this is all going to the extremes from the get go. The result? They plateau rather quickly.
Here’s an example: say your maintenance intake is 2000 calories per day with resistance training 4 days per week. Many times I’ll see someone increase to 6 days a week resistance training and 4 days of cardio at 45 minutes, while dropping to 1300 calories.
But hold up... there were a LOT of gradual steps that got skipped there. What about just adding 2 x 25 minute cardio sessions and dropping to 1900 calories first? What if you can see weight loss with just a few small tweaks? Most likely if you set your body up internally and metabolically, you will. Going straight to the extreme is going to be detrimental to your ability to drop weight and sustain consistency, not to mention, why restrict more than you need to if you could see weight loss by just making a few simple changes first?
Keep this in mind when you are making changes to your diet and training for weight loss.
Mistake 2: Restricting Entire Food Groups
I have seen many people experience both physiological and psychological issues due to incorporating ‘random acts of health’. You can be doing all the ‘healthy things’ yet create a very unhealthy body simply by doing the wrong ‘healthy things’.
There’s a lot of advice out there telling you what you should and shouldn’t eat but none of it is personalized, plus, what happened to balance?
Just cutting out foods like dairy or red meat without a valid reason or supporting the nutrients lost when no longer eating that food source is not the healthy option.
Finding these generic ‘diets’ and following them or a meal template without customizing it may give you quick weight loss results, but not sustainably healthy ones. I see a lot of women make mistakes that may be “healthy” by the conventional teachings, but which truly are not healthy for their specific needs or goals.
While you’re cutting out calories with these food bans, you are actually also cutting out nutrients that your body needs to function. For example, if you cut out dairy, you need to ensure you are getting your calcium from green vegetables or your vitamin D from fish, red meat and eggs.
Mistake 3: Dieting Without Your Health in Check
The reality is… weight is a symptom.
Simply losing weight isn’t going to make you healthy.
Weight and health are related, however they are not the same thing.
Health is determined by a multitude of functions of your body including your energy, hunger signals, relationship with food, menstrual cycle, sleep quality, stress, mood, good digestion and regular daily digestion, hair/skin/nails health, etc
And weight is a result of energy in vs. energy out.
👉🏼 Simply losing weight isn’t going to create health.
When you focus on the roots (those items I listed above that make up health), you will create much better control over the weight of your body as these are reflections of your metabolic health.
You will be more successful with your weight loss if you are healthy and feel good before you diet. Let me explain…
I see so many weight loss attempts fail.
Most of you start a diet (calorie deficit) because you just don’t feel good, you’re:
lacking quality and sufficient sleep
highly stressed out
having digestive issues like gas, bloat or constipation
struggling with low energy
lacking daily movement and sunlight
forgetting to drink water
under eating
have terrible pms
When we aren’t doing the things we need to FEEL good, our body is going to feel scared, threatened. It will adapt and 'slow down' its metabolic processes in order to prioritize energy in case of emergency. So that calorie deficit you put on top of this state of living is likely going to backfire. Leaving you more hormonally and metabolically disrupted, not to mention MORE frustrated.
Attempting a calorie deficit when you are NOT:
getting quality sleep and 7-9 hours of it
managing your stress
having 1-3 bowels per day with minimal to no gas/bloat
feeling solid energy throughout the day
eating enough food to support your hormones, digestion, energy and metabolism
having a regular cycle with minimal pms symptoms
already consistent in your strength training routines
is a surefire way to fail, again.
Before you start to diet, make sure you check in with your body first, not just decide it’s ready because YOU want to. Is your body ready to diet? Is it feeling safe? Is life in a good place where you feel confident in your adherence?
If you don’t feel good (digestive issues, energy lulls, sleep disturbances, weight loss resistance, PMS symptoms, brain fog, etc…) after incorporating “healthy behaviors”, it might be time to get some professional guidance and make sure those ‘healthy behaviors’ are healthy and right for you.
We offerconsultations and1:1 coaching services to help you know what to do along with the help you need to create the behavioral changes to feel confident in your abilities long after you work with us. Stop guessing and running circles around your goals.Fill out an application and let's chat!
Mistake 4: Not Having an Exit-Diet Strategy
Dieting is not the end goal.
That stage should only be for 12-18 weeks (sometimes a little longer if you are very overweight). Dieting has a start and a stop to it and should end when one is no longer able to adhere (mentally fatigued), biofeedback markers are wavering (for example, energy or sleep are affected), we could call this physical fatigue, or you’ve hit your goals, seen great changes.
This is why a time frame can be helpful as well so that you don’t just continue to diet without being consistent or checking in with your body if it’s actually making a difference and creating positive results.
A big issue I see with clients is the never-ending cycle of dieting. You have a holiday, you diet. You have a wedding, you diet. Your jeans fit differently, you diet.
A common experience goes like this. You experience a trigger that tells you that you need to feel better, lose weight, look better and immediately you go to an extreme method to try and lose weight fast. From there you realize that you can’t sustain that extreme method and fall back into patterns that are more realistic and slowly any changes that came from the extreme method start to go away leaving you right back where you started.
So what if those triggers never came up again?
You have a holiday, you already feel bikini ready. You have a wedding, you’re already confident in any dress you try on. Your favorite feel good jeans already fit, no sweat! How would that FEEL?!
This is why an exit strategy is so important. You need to have the knowledge and tools to carefully come out of the diet.
*By the way, when I say diet you should know that means calorie-deficit.
To maintain the results you’ve created, first, you need to create a sustainable method to getting there and second, you need to slowly and strategically bring your calories back up to maintenance. Strategy really matters in terms of the results you will keep and the way you feel throughout the process.
This strategy is different for everyone depending on their goals and lifestyle and it’s something VRHC plans and adjusts carefully for each client.
So now, I have to ask, did you read all these mistakes and find you do some of them or even every one?
You’re not alone girl!
If you are wanting to lose weight or tone up, run through your plan and see whether any of the stages are guilty of these top 4 mistakes.
You might not be ready to commit to coaching, but we’d love to hear your story and give advice. You can book a free call with us to get help directing you towards a more sustainable approach (and one that actually works!)