Simple diet mistakes can derail your best efforts to get back into that one size smaller pair of pants. If your weight drops off only to bounce back up, there is a chance you probably are making one of these 7 diet gaffes.
1) Using a Crash Diet
Bent on losing 10 pounds quickly, you turn to a starvation diet. Your scheme calls for eating little more than grapefruit or cabbage soup each day. You restrict your daily calories to fewer than 1,100 and sure enough, the pounds shed away. But when you eat so few calories, you teach your metabolism to slow down. Once the diet is over, you have a physique that burns calories more slowly and gains weight more quickly than ever before.
2) Not Nibbling at All
While carefree snacking can pad your waistline, careful nibbling may do just the opposite. People who plan several small meals and snacks a day are more likely to control hunger and lose weight. Eating 4 to 6 light meals helps keep your metabolism in high gear, especially if the snacks are high in protein. Nuts are a good choice, and research suggests people who snack on nuts tend to be slimmer than those who don’t.
3) Consuming too much Low-Fat
Low-fat products can be important to your diet. Just remember that low-fat does not mean low-calorie and it is not a license to take second and third helpings. If you pile your plate with low-fat cake, you might end up eating more calories than if you had a smaller slice of regular cake. The best way to know how much fat, sugar, and calories you are getting is to check the nutritional label.
4) Drinking Too Little Water
This is the simplest diet blunders to fix. Water is required for burning calories. If you let yourself get dehydrated, your metabolism drags and that means slower weight loss. Research suggests adults who drink eight or more glasses of water daily use up more calories than those who drink less. Add a glass of water to every meal or snack.
5) Removing Dairy Products
Milk, cheese, and ice cream are taboo for some dieters, but removing dairy foods may be counterproductive. Some suggests the body burns more cellulite when it gets enough calcium and produces more cellulite when it is calcium-deprived. Calcium supplements do not appear to yield the same benefits, because dairy products have other compounds at work as well. Most weight loss experts recommend sticking to nonfat or low-fat milk and yogurt.
6) Weekly Weigh-ins. If your goal is to lose 2 pounds a week, you will be satisfied to see your weight drop when you hop on the scale. The outcome is more motivating than the confusing swings that may accompany daily weigh-ins.
7) Avoiding Exercise
Not exercising will place the entire burden of weight loss on your diet. If you become more active, you can eat more of the things you like and still lose weight. It’s important to find an exercise you like. If running around a track seems tedious, try swimming or biking, all consume more calories than walking. Try several different activities until you find one you can do regularly.