Hey Viewers!
Doesn’t it feel strange that half the year is already over?
And yet many of us are still struggling with our new year’s resolution of having a healthy body.
To be fair, the road to fitness is not an easy one. While this journey takes some time,
you could be making mistakes that will keep you from reaching your goal.
In today's video, we’ll go over some of the biggest and most common mistakes made
when trying to get in shape and how to correct them! Let’s get started…
Exercising too much or not at all.
You either get so excited about losing weight that you spend overtime at the gym or don’t
exercise enough. In the worst-case scenario, you expect your salads to do all the work.
It is important to exercise while you are on a diet.
Otherwise, you’ll lose your lean, muscle, and fat mass. You can’t avoid losing muscle
mass while trying to lose weight, but you can minimize it with regular exercises.
The more lean mass you have, the easier it is to lose and maintain weight.
Overexercising, on the other hand, has its risks. Studies have shown that excessive
exercise never works out in the long term due to the stress it can cause.
Your body will tell you it’s had enough through the unpleasant feeling of fatigue. The Endocrine
hormones that help your body regulate functions can suffer if you over-exercise.
Here’s what you can do
If you are new to working out and find yourself exhausted after a long workout session,
try limiting your exercise time to 20 to 35 minutes a session.
Gradually upgrade your timing when you feel you are comfortable doing so. Studies
recommend that 225 to 420 minutes of exercise per week promote clinically significant weight loss.
This means 1 hour of exercising every day is enough to help you get into shape.
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Choosing low fat or “diet” food
Once you start losing some weight, you become more conscious of what you are eating and how much.
You may already have an idea for a list of “diet” foods. But did you know that most diet foods are
processed and, although they are low-fat, can have the opposite effect on the body?
Many processed food products are loaded with sugar to improve the taste. For example,
a 6-ounce container of low-fat flavored yogurt can contain 23.5 grams of sugar!
A product may say low-fat, but did you know that eating low-fat products can also make
you feel hungrier, which may lead you to eat more than your body needs without noticing?
What should you eat instead?
Try going for a combination of nutritious, minimally processed foods.
Fruits and vegetables, including canned and frozen, are naturally low-fat and packed
with essential nutrients, making them the best low-fat diet food.
Instead of eating a whole egg, skip the yolk, and opt for just the egg whites.
Crab, white fish, shrimp, light tuna packed in water, chicken and turkey breast without skin,
or ground turkey are some of the low-fat foods you can go for to curb your meat and seafood cravings.
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You may not be getting sufficient amounts of fiber.
When you are on a restrictive diet, you don’t allow your body to get essential
nutrients from food. A lot of these diets fail to give you efficient fiber as a result.
Eating adequate amounts of fiber is very important to your health and body.
It also reduces constipation, promotes gut bacteria, and can benefit your digestive system.
Fiber helps with weight loss and keeps your weight maintained. Studies show viscous fiber reduces
weight and waist circumference even without a calorie-restricted diet. Another study showed
that it could interact with gut microbes producing hormones that make you feel full.
Include these high-fiber foods in your diet for a change in pace
Ditch the white pasta, and go for whole grain pasta instead. Whole grains are a great source of
fiber. Not to mention Legumes are also a great source of protein and fiber; try having some
chickpeas as they are a great source of this nutrient. Make sure you add Edamame, immature
soybeans, chia seeds, pears, berries, brussels sprouts, and barley to your next grocery list too.
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Focusing only on the scale
It’s common to find yourself impatiently circling the weighing scale to see how much
you have lost so far, even if it is just day two of going to the gym and eating healthy.
You might even think you are not losing weight fast enough despite following a healthy lifestyle.
Sadly, this obsession with the scale can trigger anxiety. People easily
get demotivated when they find themselves getting nowhere and eventually call it quits.
Remember that the number on the scale is only one means of measuring weight change.
Many factors influence your body weight, including genetic makeup, gender, age, fluid fluctuation,
and the amount of food remaining in your system. Your weight can quickly fluctuate from 2 pounds
to 4 pounds in just 2 days, depending on how much food and liquid you have consumed.
When it comes to the female body, hormonal changes can lead to excess
building up of fluids in your body. So, If the number on the scale is not moving,
chances are that you might be holding on to the water weight despite losing all the fat mass.
Another problem with using a scale is that it cannot differentiate between fat
and muscle weight. So even if you are sweating it all out to get into shape,
the numbers won’t go down if you gain muscle.
How can you get rid of this habit?
Instead of a scale, use a measuring tape to measure your waist and take
monthly pictures of yourself. This can help you get an idea
of how much you’ve transformed since you started dieting and working out.
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Setting unrealistic expectations
It's good to have a goal while trying to lose weight. In fact, that will keep you motivated.
But having unrealistic expectations could discourage you down the line.
We’re not implying that you can’t look like those social media influencers you
see on your feed every day. It’s common to want to
aim for an unrealistic “perfect body” when the media bombards us with the ideal body.
But a lot of these “perfect bodies” are photoshopped or have gone under cosmetic surgery.
So, having unrealistic expectations can work against you.
It may lead to frustration. People easily lose
interest when they don’t seem to get what they were looking for halfway into their diets.
What can you do about this?
The best thing to do here is to set practical goals to help increase your chances of meeting
them while healthily losing weight. You can take small steps and set a weekly or monthly goal.
For instance, you can aim to drop 1 or 2 pounds each week for a month.
This may help you meet your goal more efficiently at a healthy rate.
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And lastly, Not getting the right amount of sleep.
Dark circles are not the only thing you’re gaining from being sleep-deprived.
Sleep is an important factor for an overall healthy body. Many of us are guilty of this.
We often sacrifice our naptime to be more productive and get more things done on time.
It has been proven by studies that sufficient amounts of sleep help in losing weight.
Moreover, a lack of sleep can weaken your immune system,
upset your gut health and throw your hormones out of balance.
When you are sleep-deprived, you tend to get more food cravings.
Furthermore, the body starts responding by making more ghrelin and less leptin,
which are appetite hormones, that would cause overeating.
So how do you tackle this problem?
An average adult needs at least 8 hours of proper sleep. Maintaining healthy sleeping habits is just
as necessary as exercising and dieting. Go to bed as early as possible to get a long rest.
Don’t use electronics an hour before sleeping. You can try meditating before you sleep if you
find trouble falling asleep. If this does not help, seek help from a professional.
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Making mistakes makes us human, but learning from these mistakes and doing better is what
makes us grow! Do you want to learn more about these weight loss tips? Let's keep
the conversation rolling with a couple more exercise and diet-related videos, shall we?
Watch 12
Diet Mistakes To Avoid When You’re Trying To Lose Weight
Or, 16 Quick But Strange Weight Loss Tips You Can Use
Go ahead, click on one, or better yet watch both. Which of these weight loss
mistakes are you guilty of? Let us know in the comments below!