Seven common pitfalls when losing weight

Many people dream of losing weight, the more courageous ones take actual steps towards making their dream a reality.

However, as reality would have it, losing weight is easier said than done and even after succeeding in losing the weight, success is sometimes fleeting as the lost weight is ‘found’ again.

Here are seven pitfalls that make losing weight a tricky affair:

1. You lose weight but can’t keep it off

Diets that cut off important groups of food entirely such as carbohydrates and fat are ones that leave you feeling deprived.

These types of diets are simply impractical and not to mention unhealthy.

What you need to do is practice moderation.

The low-carb eating strategy is based on the theory that people who eat carbohydrates take in more calories and gain weight, while people on a high-protein diet eat less and lose weight.

However, low-carbohydrate diets tend to cause dehydration by shedding pounds as urine.

The result we get is rapid weight loss, but after a few months the lost weight tends to slow and reverse, just as it happens with other diets.

2. After your diet, you seem to put on weight more quickly

When you drastically restrict your food intake, your metabolism will temporarily slow down.

Once you go back to eating normally, you will gain the weight until your metabolism bounces back.

The best way to ensure sustainable weight-loss is to lose the weight gradually and in a healthy way.

3. You think short-term diet not lifestyle change

If you want to achieve permanent weight loss, a quick-fix diet is not the answer.

Various popular diets can help jumpstart your weight loss, but permanent changes in our lifestyle and food choices is what you should go for.

Committing to reducing food portion sizes, replacing high calorie-food with low calorie-food and becoming more active will work in the long run.

4. You don’t have a plan to help you track your progress

You should check your weight to know your progress and motivate yourself in the journey to a healthier fit body.

Popular tools for tracking include weight scales and journals.

Journals are used to write down the type of food you eat and the calorie intake, the types of exercise you do and of course your progress.

5. Looking at the person on the commercial who lost 14Kgs in two months

We all have fallen prey to the enticing commercials on TV or the newspapers with models that look like the goal you set out to achieve.

Some diets are simply unrealistic and trying to live up to an idealistic impossible goal will drain you.

Even worse, you might lose hope in achieving your goals and abandon the efforts completely.

6. You shop for groceries when hungry

If you go shopping on an empty stomach and without a shopping list, you tend to pick convenience foods or snacks that are high in calories.

Buying these snacks will do little to help your health and fitness goals because when you see them, you will definitely eat them.

In this regard the best approach is ‘out of sight out of mind’.

7. Eating while reading or watching TV

Eating slowly is one of the things that help you lose weight, moreover, eating without the distractions of a book or the TV will allow you to savor every bite.

The good news is that by making smarter choices every day, adopting healthy lifestyle changes and developing new eating habits, you will not only lose weight and be able to keep it off, you will also improve your outlook, mood and have more energy.