The biggest weight loss mistakes

Weight Loss vaires from person to person. But, as someone who has lost 50lbs and kept it off for 4 years, I have some insight into the mistakes people make when trying to lose weight.

Weight Loss Mistakes

1. Too Few Calories: this is very common. Women especially tend to assume they can only lose weight if they eat 1200 calories per day. This often results in binging, a lower metabolism, and disappointment. I recommend skipping My Fitness Pal’s built in calorie estimator. Instead, use Scooby’s Workshop Calculator. It’s accurate and can be adjusted based on your goals.
2. Excessive Cardio: doing cardio is great for your heart and for burning calories, but many people take it to the extreme when trying to lose weight. Instead of doing 60 minutes of cardio every day, try doing 15–20 minutes of HIIT 3–4 times a week and incorporate strength training into your routine 3–4 days a week. Strength training increases muscle mass, which in turn increases your basal metabolic rate.
3. Cutting out carbs: while Keto diets are known to help people lose weight, carbs are necessary. Cutting carbs for an extended period of time can decrease thyroid output, increase cortisol levels, and impair mood and cognitive function [1] . Instead try eating more complex carbs and reduce the intake of simple carbs. A study in 2008 found that people following the Mediterranean diet (high in complex carbs) helped overall weight loss .
4. Too much ab focus: everyone wants a smaller more chiseled stomach. But often people think they can do 100 situps and crunches everyday and wake up with abs. The truth is, crunches can harm your body more than help it. For one, they mainly work surface level muscles instead of deep core muscles. Two, they can create pore posture and damage your spine . Instead focus on strength training that activates your core. Squats and deadlifts are excellent for core strength. Also, the biggest key to abs is nutrition. If your nutrition isn’t on point, you likely won’t see abs despite your workout routine.

The biggest advice I have is to pay attention to your body, eat whole foods intuitively, and add variety to your workouts.

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Here’s a list of mistakes I’ve seen, in no particular order:

Going HAM on the Weekend-

During the week is structured. Get up, go to work, come home, go to bed. It’s easy to plan healthy meals during the week. The weekends are a no holds barred free-for-all. There’s no set schedule so you eat whatever is available whenever you’re hungry. This leads to massive consumption of calories.

How to Fix It: Make a plan in the morning. Prep some meals/snacks before embarking on the day. If you don’t have time for that, always have some healthy options to order when out like salads (skip the dressing), sandwiches (skip the bread) or a nice steak.

No Food Awareness-

Not paying attention to how much you eat is an easy weight to put on weight. Not sure what I mean? Do you measure the amount of food you eat in relation to plates? This is not a good way to go about eating.

How to Fix It: First thing, take a picture of everything you consume. Drinks, meals, snacks everything. This will give you a visual representation of the quantity of food you throw down. Second, invest in a kitchen scale (~$20). This way you can get accurate portions of protein and snacks (they usually have the servings in grams on the nutrition label).

Overeating Fruit-

This was my dad’s biggest problem; he would routinely eat bags of grapes or containers of blueberries a day. His response “It’s healthy sugars, it different from candy.” While true, sugar not used for energy is used for fat.

How to Fix It: With the exception of veggies and protein, eat everything else in moderation. “Good” or “Bad” sugars still add size to your waistline.

Eating Low-Fat or Reduced Fat Foods-

When food manufacturers remove fats from foods they add in more sugars to make it still taste good. Fats give flavor, so in order to sell more they have to make it taste good – enter sugar. Take a look at the label at the reduced-fat peanut butter in your cabinet. I bet within the first 3 ingredients you’ll find some form of sugar.

How to Fix It: Go full fat and be done with it. Fats are no longer the enemy.

Not Eating Enough Protein-

Protein is involved in every process of your body. It’s the main source for growing muscles and growing hair and nails. Not to mention it keeps you fuller longer and uses calories to digest. The typical American diet doesn’t place the emphasis on protein but rather carbs. And we wonder why 2/3 of Americans are overweight.

How to Fix It: Aim for 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight regardless if you are weightlifting or not.

Not Eating Enough Vegetables-

Veggies, like protein should make up a majority of your diet. They are full of required vitamins and minerals, water and fiber. The best part, they are not calories dense which means you can eat all the veggies you want. You’d have to eat 6.5 cups of broccoli to get the same amount of calories as you would in 1 cup of rice.

How to Fix It: Eat as much veggies as you want throughout the day.

TV Eating-

Who doesn’t love having a snack while binge watching The Walking Dead on Netflix? Well when you are distracted from what you’re eating, the full response from your brain is delayed which causes you to finish that bag of chips before you finish the first episode. Oops.

How to Fix It: Have that snack, but instead of bringing the bag on the couch with you, take a handful in a bowl. Portion control and zombies for the win.

Eating Too Little-

Have you been on a diet for months and your results seem to have stopped? That’s because a hormone called leptin, which regulates your metabolic rate. When calories get too low, your leptin levels drop. That drop slows down your metabolism making it harder for you to lose fat.

How to Fix It: Increase your calories by 200-300 for 2 weeks or have a high calorie day once a week. These will jump start your metabolism and put you onto the fat burning path again.

Eating Something Healthy Cooked or Drenched in Unhealthy-

I hear this a lot from people in my parent’s generation. They cook chicken in oil and cover it with breadcrumbs and a gravy and say “It’s healthy, it’s chicken.” Chicken is healthy but the other 500 calories in added fat, carbs and gravy aren’t.

How to Fix It: Pay attention to how you’re cooking your food. Healthy food + unhealthy cooking style = unhealthy food.

Having the Mindset of Needing Carbs-

There are essential fats and essential amino acids (protein) but there are no such thing as essential carbs. You can survive perfectly fine without consuming rice, bread or potatoes at every meal. Your body will manufacture all the glucose your brain needs from the other stuff you eat.

How to Fix It: Once you believe you don’t need carbs to live, not eating them becomes a whole lot easier.

Drinking Healthy Calories-

Fruit juices are notoriously high in sugar. Like their solid form, sugars unused for energy are used for fat.

How to Fix It: Skip the juice all together or water it down.

Thinking Healthy Food Taste Bad-

Healthy foods don’t taste bad; they just aren’t manufactured to overwhelm your taste buds with flavor like processed foods are - Making you keep coming back for more.

How to Fix It: Do a week experiment and eat nothing but real food cooked healthy. If you decided to go back the way you were eating before you’ll realize the ridiculous amount of flavor in processed foods.

Changing All at Once-

Rome was not built over night and neither will you change your eating habits. 92% of people fail at keeping their New Year’s Resolution. Change all at once in action.

How to Fix It: K.I.S.S.S. Keep It Small and Simple Stupid. If you want to overhaul your diet start with small steps and introduce them over a period of weeks. This will make the transition easier and build good habits along the way.

Week of Chaos-

Between work, kids and trying to maintain a social life it’s damn near impossible to cook.

How to Fix It: Plan for the week ahead and cook a package of chicken on Sunday. This does 2 things: Saves you time during the week from figuring out what to cook and if things do get busy just microwave up the chicken along with some frozen vegetables and serve for a healthy quick option.

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I have been in the fitness industry now for over ten years and I see countless weight loss mistakes from people and even my clients....what????!  Yes, my clients STILL make mistakes even with my mentoring, crazy, I know!  Look, we are all human and raised by humans (as far as we know, ha) so it's human nature to fall back into bad habits.  Here are my top 4 mistakes people make and how to fix them, enjoy!  Btw, #4 was used on daily burn for their article on this subject when they talked to celebrity trainers.

1. You can’t out work a bad diet!
I have clients telling me all the time that they work out for hours on end so they can “eat whatever they want” and maintain their weight.  This is a slippery slope and may work for the short term but in NO WAY will work in the long term!  When you work out to the extreme your body gets used to burning a lot of calories which will increase your energy expenditure needs (calorie needs), this is generally a good thing as your metabolism is elevated.  With an increased metabolism also comes an increase in appetite which leaves you feeling constantly hungry.  Once you feed your need to indulge in all of the food you have been “depriving” yourself of it creates a snowball effect.  All of the sudden those few slices of pizza turn into an all-night binge of pizza, burgers, fries, and ice cream (believe me, I’ve seen it!).  Your body recognizes sugar and starches as a drug and sends a chemical reaction from your brain that says “FEED ME MORE SUGAR”; you literally CAN’T control yourself!  This goes on for days, then weeks, then months, and before you know it you are wondering why you are gaining fat even though working out for hours on end each week!

The FIX: 

Instead of trying to work out so much that you can enjoy your mashed potatoes, gravy, and fried food try cutting down your workout time (but still making it efficient) and have a small meal full of lean protein, greens, and healthy fats (like avocado, nuts, or olive oil) before you go out with your eating team for the night.  The greens will help digest your food, the protein and healthy fats will keep you full making you less likely to feed your indulgent needs!

2. Wanting a Quick Fix to a Long Term Problem!
I see this all of the time when my clients want a “jump start” to their weight loss goals.  They ask me about the latest and greatest detox or cleanse to get them to lose a bunch of weight in a week or two.  This usually involves drinking some sort of weird concoction that makes you feel like vomiting, passing out…or even worse, both!  What mostly happens is people lose a bunch of weight (usually water) in a week or so because of the calorie deficit, but instead of choosing healthy foods  upon completion, they go right back to their bad eating habits only to gain the weight back and potentially MORE weight than when they first started.
The FIX:
Instead of trying to go cold turkey right away and cutting away all of your bad foods eliminate one thing at a time, maybe that’s soda, sugar, or a calorie bomb muffin in the morning (although delicious) these things need to be gone!   Another option is to do an elimination diet, I have created one myself called the 10 Day Remodel where people slowly eliminate foods that cause bloat, inflammation, weight gain, and other issues.  People become more in tune with their bodies and do lose weight (even though that’s not the goal), learning the difference between food that helps them and foods they need to stay away from. This will enable them to make smart food choices moving forward.

3. Back loading your Calories:  
I train CEO’s, Millionaires, Celebrity Chef’s, TV Hosts, and Movie Stars. One thing that all of these people have in common with us “regular people” is back loading calories at night.  Joey, what is back loading?  We are all busy, tired, and constantly hit snooze multiple times in the morning to get every last second of shut eye. We then jump out of bed and get ready to go to work, leaving no time to eat a well-balanced breakfast. Your busy day doesn’t leave much time to eat much at lunchtime either. So, you end up having the majority of our calories at night!  A few reasons for this: 1. We are so hungry due to the lack of eating during the day that we don’t realize how hungry we are until we start eating that meal.  2. We are bored plopped in front of the TV mindlessly eating. Even if you opt for a healthier option like mixed nuts over a bag of chips, several handfuls of nuts can add up quick…a thousand plus calories….in a snack! 

The FIX: 
This is something you won’t hear most fitness professionals say, but Pig OUT during the day!  What?!  That’s right, it’s time to front load your calories; especially, if you know you are going to go crazy at night. It’s better to eat most of your calories during the day so your body can properly digest your food and utilize the calories as energy so it’s less likely to be stored as fat!  Now this doesn’t mean you can eat donuts and ho ho’s all day long, but it does mean that you SHOULD have a LARGE healthy breakfast, a small snack in between, a LARGE lunch, another small snack, and then a SMALL dinner!  Another option, especially if snacking in front to the TV, is to prepackage your snacks in individual serving sizes; measure out your nuts, chips, protein, etc and only eat that amount, no seconds!

4. Cheat Days:  
The premise of a “cheat” day was initially a concept to trick your system into burning more calories when you are on a lower/restricted calorie diet during the week to spike your metabolism.  You eat higher calories for a day to keep your mind right, fill the “need” to have the foods you have been craving and to spike your metabolism that day so your body doesn’t get used to the lower calories during the week and slow down.  The problem with this “cheat” day is it becomes a massive food eating contest. Consider this: You get up in the morning and have a bacon and cheese omelet (which by itself wouldn’t be bad) and French toast with syrup (can’t forget the syrup!).  Then for lunch you grab a big mac, fries, and a chocolate chip cookie.   For dinner you get the American staple of a few slices of peperoni pizza and wash it down with a delicious chocolate shake!  Your cheat day just scored you about 4600 calories, 202g of fat (77 of those saturated), 5500 grams of sodium (about triple of your recommended amount), 539 grams of carbs, and the kicker, about 5 times your recommended amount of sugar (about 236 grams)!!  Your cheat day just earned you a bloated stomach, gas, nausea, constipation (or the opposite effect), and possible diabetic shock; definitely derailing your health and fitness progress for that week! 

The FIX:
Instead of a cheat day, have a cheat meal for each the week!  When you have a cheat meal you still can have that one meal you have been craving and get right back on the road to health instead of derailing all of your progress and causing yourself to feel sick!  You will still spike your metabolism by increasing your calorie intake without the guilt.  Have that donut, pizza, brownie, and then continue eating clean, preservative free, nutritious food for the rest of the day!