6 Big Diet Mistakes You’re Probably Making — Win Your War With the Scale

(Photo by chrisphoto on Flickr)

Want to lose weight? Are you trying to bust fat and it’s just not working?

You might be making one (or several!) of these 6 mistakes. Here are some easy ways and miniscule adjustments you can make. These actually work, and they don’t require a full-life overhaul to do.

#1 — Eating Anything With the Words “Diet” or “Light”

No need to go near these products. There’s really no way you can take out all the taste of something and replace it with “healthy” or “light” options without a big trade-off.

This is where calorie counting can be counter-productive. I’m not saying don’t count calories, but on that system, you should be able to drink 7 Diet Cokes a day and never take a hit on your waist. It’s not exactly that simple.

The other day I saw an almost-fat-free yogurt. Not only does it probably taste awful, but they’d added in so much sugar, salt, and other additives to try and get over the fact that they weren’t adding in any fat to the yogurt. I added up the ingredients with the crunchy stuff you add to the yogurt, and it was over 35. Why spend your day consuming stuff like that, and worse, why assume it’s healthy? A smaller portion of real yogurt is better for you (if fatter, of course), and sustainable over the long run.

#2 — Eating Big, Traditional Meals When You Don’t Have To

I’m not talking about holidays here — just that sticking to a 3-meal-a-day, breakfast/lunch/dinner setup isn’t always the best idea. The amount of time between most people’s lunch and dinner means a big drop in blood sugar, and if you’re trying to hit the gym right after work, you’re not going to be at your best.

Divide your meals up so you have a nutritious, smaller meal mid-afternoon — your work will thank you, and your body will too, because you’ll be able to work it out all the better.

#3 — Underestimating How Much You’re Eating

We tend to minimize how much we consume — it’s human nature. Sometimes you’ve gotta employ a few tricks in order to solve this problem — putting stuff away, hiding it, eliminating categories of food from our homes. If you cut up 10 slices of a piece of french bread (a baguette) and put them on a plate, you can probably trick your brain into not realizing you’ve gone ahead and eaten all of them. Same goes for snacks that aren’t in “snack” portions.

Try some tricks like only sitting down to eat. Never eating out of a bag. It’s random stuff that makes a big difference in consumption.

#4 — Not Thinking About Drinks

No matter what you’re doing with your diet, you have to think about liquid calories. Cut out the soft drinks. Cut out the sugary juices. There’s nothing less healhty for you — they are literally the definition of empty calories. They give you no nutritional benefit, leave you feeling just as hungry as before, and hit you right where it hurts if you’re trying to lose weight.

#5 — Eating Way Too Fast

Slowing down while you eat lets the feeling of satiety come quicker. It means you might hold off on taking those last 5 or 6 bites because you’ve let your body actually tell you that you’re full, instead of overloading it and then waiting for a “ok, slow down” signal 15 minutes later.

This is also a must-do strategy to prevent going back for too many helpings.

#6 — Doing Too Much, All At Once

Like any big change, one of the biggest diet mistakes is taking a list like this, and trying to adopt 100% of its strategies, say, this afternoon. You can’t change other aspects of your life that drastically without suffering some consequences, and food is a fundamental aspect of every person’s life. So be both diligent, motivated, and inspired about it — but temper that with a little realism, just so you don’t get way too into a diet and then crash out of it a week later.