If you're looking to start a weight loss journey, it can seem a bit confusing
sometimes. In this video,
I'm going to share the most common mistakes that beginners in their thirties and
forties make when they're trying to lose weight.
Hi, it's
Ivana, helping you get fit healthy and strong at any age.
Now I specialize in working with people in their thirties and forties,
and there are certain things I notice when someone's a beginner and they're at
the start of their weight loss journey.
I want you to be able to do this right from the very beginning.
So here's some of the mistakes that I've seen beginners make,
and hopefully you can avoid making them too.
The first one is focusing on the wrong things.
About 90% of your weight loss results are going to come from the total calories
that you eat in the day and how much protein you take in.
But beginners often get caught up in things that don't really matter that much
for weight loss. So it can either be excluding things like: Should I quit carbs?
Should I cut down on sugar? Should I reduce my fat intake?
Should I cut out gluten?
Or it can be including things that aren't really that impactful for weight loss,
things like supplements, so-called superfoods, or even organic foods.
Listen, if you're in your thirties and forties,
you're probably very busy and you really need to prioritize the things that
matter.
So don't get caught up in all these complicated things that you'll often see in
the media. It's not important. Focus on the things that matter.
The next mistake is following the latest trendy diet. Now, right now,
intermittent fasting and the ketogenic diet are "so hot right now".
you're hearing a lot about those diets in the media and you must be thinking,
"Oh, is that what I should do?
Is that the thing that that's finally going to help me lose weight?"
And it's really tempting when everyone's talking about it and celebrities are
going on and on about it. And your favorite sporting heroes,
perhaps: "I was kind of one this before the trends" are telling you that it's the
best thing to do. Just because Tim Tebow is doing the keto diet doesn't mean that
you have to as well. It basically comes down to this.
If you produce a calorie deficit,
then you're going to lose weight and you have to find the way of producing a
calorie deficit that makes the most sense for you. So if you love carbs,
I don't know why you'd want to do the ketogenic diet because you're not allowed
to have carbs. Now,
of course you can lose weight with intermittent fasting or with keto.
But all I'm saying is that you don't have to.
I like having food in the morning and I like carbs.
Whether it's potatoes or sushi or ice cream or
chocolate. Nothing
any celebrity or sports star says is going to change my mind because I'm already
achieving my goal of maintaining a healthy weight, having a balanced, fun life
that includes chocolate.
And I get to enjoy the pleasures of Ben and Jerry's and a couple of beers
once in a while. The next mistake is not prioritizing strength training.
I guess there's the impression that if you want to lose weight and you want to
lose fat, you should do cardio. And if you want to get jacked and build muscle,
then you should do weight training.
And this is changing and I've noticed it changed over the past decade or so.
Weight training has become a lot more popular because people have realized that
you're not going to get big and bulky like a professional bodybuilder,
just because you do two to three weight training sessions a week. Believe me,
they work very, very hard.
And of course they have enhancements as well in order to
achieve that huge size. It's not that easy to build muscle.
So don't worry that you're going to accidentally end up looking like a
professional bodybuilder just by doing some weight training.
When you're in your thirties and forties,
it's really important to prioritize building muscle.
If you're not doing any strength training,
you're going to start to lose that muscle over time.
And you're not going to like how it feels.
Weight training also helps you build bone density,
which is going to be really important when you get into your fifties and sixties
and seventies being strong and having good bone density is going to massively
affect the quality of your life as you get into your golden years.
And you might not be thinking about that right now, but it's important.
The confidence that comes from lifting weights and being able to do body
weight exercises that many people half your age can't do,
that's pretty useful too.
It gives you the motivation to continue with your nutrition plan,
which is where most of the weight loss result is going to come from.
Another mistake that a lot of beginners make is that they try to burn off the
calories that they're eating with exercise. Now,
if you spent any time with my fitness pal to have a look at the calories of
certain foods, particularly your favorite treat foods like donuts or muffins,
you might've been surprised to find out just how high in calories these things
can be. And if you've had a look at the calorie burn of particular
exercises as well,
you might've been quite disappointed by how little you're burning off in terms
of calories. This is why if you're trying to produce weight loss,
it makes much more sense to focus on the nutrition side of things,
than trying to drastically increase your physical activity level.
If you're in your thirties or forties and you haven't been active before,
or you haven't been active for a long time,
trying to work out every single day for a couple of hours is just going to
burn you out.
You're going to be in pain and you're not going to be able to keep it up,
Try to focus on the calorie intake rather than thinking about what you're
burning off every time you go to work out.
The other thing that I don't really like about it is that it kind of gives you a
negative association with exercise.
So your basically punishing yourself for what you've eaten.
And that's a lousy way to treat exercise.
I really think that exercise should make you feel strong and fitter and
more energetic. And you want to learn to
appreciate how it makes your body feel. Now,
I realize this doesn't come naturally for everybody,
but I've found working with so many people that even people who are not very
athletic,
getting eventually learned to love at least how the exercise makes them
feel...if not the process itself.
So let's keep that positive association with exercise and not think about it as
a way to burn off calories.
Another mistake is changing your meal frequency unnecessarily.
So we used to think that eating multiple times a day would sort of stoke the
fat burning furnace,
or I'm not sure what we use to say. That the more often you ate,
the more thermogenic your body would be,
and you'd burn off more calories.
The research doesn't seem to support that. When calories are equal,
it doesn't really matter whether you're having two meals a day or five or six
meals a day. So a lot of people think, "Oh, if I want to lose weight,
I have to go back to five or six or having small meals more frequently"
but that doesn't always work. It isn't the ideal plan for everybody.
If you're going to have fewer calories while you're eating only two meals than
if you're eating five meals,
then you're going to be more successful with two meals.
And that's what you should do. Remember though,
if you have two meals and you have a big gap between lunch and dinner,
and then you feel ravenous by the time dinner comes around and you're having
huge meals, and it's going to bring your calorie intake up or even worse.
Maybe you've got cravings later on in the evening.
And then you're going to eat a lot of treat foods. You're going to be in there,
rummaging around trying to find some chips or some chocolate late at
night. And that's going to bring your calorie intake up.
Then two meals a day is not ideal for you. For some people it'll work.
They'll be able to maintain their calorie intake with just those two meals.
Other people won't be able to manage their appetite.
And then they're going to end up in a calorie surplus,
therefore putting on weight. So it's important to know which one you are.
I work with my clients sometimes over a period of months to figure out what
frequency is ideal for them.
What gap between meals is going to do the best job of controlling
food cravings, particularly carb cravings, and those that happen later at night.
So it's a process. Figure out what works for you to maintain a calorie deficit.
One mistake I see, not just beginners,
but pretty much everybody make is judging foods as either good or bad.
So you set up this dichotomy where I can have this.
If I'm being good and I can't have this,
there's no reason why you have to do that.
There's nothing inherently bad about carbs. They provide energy and fuel.
They have fiber. There's a lot of benefits to carbs.
Sugar is not the devil. Processed foods -
while you want to have a smaller amount of processed foods compared to whole
food - there's nothing that switches over.
And as soon as you have one processed food,
all of a sudden your whole diet is a disaster.
You can have a little bit of processed food every day,
but if the rest of what you're eating,
let's say 80% is whole foods, vegetables,
and proteins. Then you're still going to be successful with weight loss.
And it is a healthy diet.
There's a place for processed foods and sugar in a healthy weight
loss diet.
And you certainly don't need to ban gluten or dairy unless you have those
specific intolerances. And here's the biggest mistake
I see beginners in their thirties and forties make with weight loss:
making drastic changes in their diets and workouts.
Many people go from being sedentary and eating tons of processed foods
to trying to eat chicken breasts and broccoli and working out every day.
Now this doesn't make any sense. This kind of all-or-nothing
principle really doesn't work.
And it's something that I work with a lot of my clients on,
because often we think, "Oh,
I'm going to go on a diet and start exercising."
And it's all these big things that you have to change.
And it has to change at a particular point. You're going to be like, "Oh,
the diet is going to start on Monday. And I'm going to go to the gym every day,
that week". And it doesn't have to be that way. In fact,
if you want to be successful,
you need your nutrition and your workouts to be sustainable for you.
They need to fit into your busy lifestyle.
You need to include the foods that you enjoy on a regular basis.
A gradual approach is the most sustainable approach.
And that's what I believe in. What's the point in losing 10 or 15 pounds.
If you're just going to gain it back again? Nothing's really changed.
And the reason for that is up here because weight loss actually
becomes more of a mental thing than anything else.
You need to believe that you can do it. You need to have the right strategy.
You need to not be afraid of certain foods.
You need to not be afraid that taking a few days off from working out is going
to make everything collapse.
You need to have confidence in the process and you need to follow through on the
system that you're using. Weight loss.
isn't as complicated as most people think. Many beginners are reluctant to start
on their weight loss journey because it feels overwhelming.
They think they have to do so many things, but you really don't.
It all starts with a single step.
The first time you turn down that second serving of dessert,
the first time you do a workout, even if it's just a 20 minute workout,
it all matters.
Every little step reinforces that process in your mind,
and you don't need to make a lot of these steps. It's all about consistency.
If you can be consistent with small changes in the long-term,
you're going to be much more successful than someone who tries to do something
very drastic that they can only maintain for a short time.
I believe in a gradual and sustainable approach,
changing a little bit at a time so that it works for you.
And you hardly even notice the change. Now it takes longer,
but if you want a long-term result,
I think it's really important that you do it the right way.
So I hope you like the sound of that approach.
If you do hit the like button below,
And if you want more guidance on your weight loss journey,
please check out the videos I've linked here.