So, you want to lose weight, but you’re not sure where to start. The best advice out there is to look for things you shouldn’t be doing before looking for what you should be doing. Many people go about the wrong methods when trying to lose weight, and as such they are met with disappointment.
Whether you’re just turning 21 or past the age of 80. The best way to guarantee your success in losing the extra weight is by avoiding these common mistakes.
Buying Fat-Free Foods
The fat free food product craze is one of the smartest marketing ploys in history. People assume that just because something doesn’t have fat that it’s automatically healthier for them. In reality, fat free food is not any healthier, and is often packed full of sugar and other additives to make it taste like it’s full fat.
Unfortunately, this leads to eating even worse ingredients that you would have eaten had you just had the full fat version of the food you’re enjoying. Diet foods like “fat free” packaging are often just smoke and mirrors tactics to get people to buy them.
Starving Themselves
It’s logical to believe that the less you eat the faster you’ll lose weight. Unfortunately, when you restrict yourself from food for too long, you often end up overeating on a binge. Letting yourself get to a point of extreme hunger often leads to poor dietary choices. Instead of not allowing yourself to eat for long periods of time, practice quantity control. By allowing yourself to eat in small portions consistently throughout the day, you’ll reach your goal weight sooner.
Not Working Out
It’s true that the most effective element of losing weight is changing your diet. However, many people only change their diets and continue to live sedentary lifestyles. It’s important that in addition to a healthy diet, you also move your body as much as possible. That doesn’t necessarily mean you need to run then miles a day, bu dot get into the habit of being generally active.
Whether it’s walking to work, or incorporating a daily activity into your day like an at home workout DVD or joining a class, the idea is to burn more calories to boost your weight loss efforts.
Not Sleeping
People rarely realize the connection between health and rest—particularly when it comes to your diet. The less you sleep the more your body craves food to keep it energized. Unfortunately, your body doesn’t need more food, but rather more rest. Studies find that people who sleep more are less inclined to make unhealthy choices when eating meals, and more likely to opt for healthy and wholesome meals instead.