Each time you stand on the weighing scale, your weight remains unchanged…
You expect to smile, but you get off the weighing scale with a frown.
What are you doing wrong?
Why is your weight loss journey failing to start?
What do you need to do to make things right?
Tell me, how to lose weight?
If you want to kickstart your weight loss journey, don’t make the common weight loss mistakes beginners make.
So read on.
Mistake #1: Stop Focusing on the Scale Weight
You want to lose weight, but again, it’s taking its sweet time.
When you step on the scale, you see no change.
You aren’t cheating on your diet, so why is that the case?
Your weight can change by up to 4 pounds over the duration of the day, depending on the amount of water and food you had.
In women, high estrogen levels and other hormonal changes can increase water retention, which shows up on the weighing scale.
If the number on the scale is not budging, you’re losing fat mass, not water.
What you need to do is lose the water weight, and here is what you should do next:
- Workout every day, as it can make you lose around 16 to 64 ounces of water weight per hour
- Receive at least 7 to 9 hours of sleep each day
- Perform yoga or other meditation techniques to reduce stress
- Take electrolytes, such as potassium and magnesium
- Manage your salt intake by avoiding processed food
- Take a magnesium supplement
- Drink several glasses of water each day (Ironic, but true, as it helps your body achieve a healthy balance)
Another reason why you’re not losing weight is because you’re gaining muscle and losing weight due to working out.
If that’s the case, your clothes will feel loose, particularly around your waist.
In short, the scale weight is not everything.
You need to stop focusing so much on the scale weight or you’ll drive yourself crazy.
Even after losing water retention, you don’t seem to lose weight, there are other weight loss mistakes you’re making.
Mistake #2: You Have Chosen the Wrong Diet
In fact, choosing the wrong diet may have become a pattern for you.
Every celebrity that comes out with a new diet, you jump on the bandwagon without realizing that it may not suit you.
Perhaps, that same diet may be working for someone you know because it might be perfect for them, but that doesn’t mean it is necessarily perfect for you.
To know if this diet can be your perfect diet, ask yourself these questions:
- What is your budget? (look at the cost of food, exercises classes, support services, and reference materials) If you can’t afford to spend money on a diet plan, consider an online weight loss program, free diet and workout apps, online workout videos, and even virtual coaching from trainers.
- Do you have social support? (Your weight loss journey will only be successful if you have a supportive partner, a friend who is also on a diet, or a community group).
- Do you have health or medical problems? (Visit your doctor to determine which type of health or medical problems you have and based upon that information, choose a diet).
- Does your schedule allow you to prepare diet food? (Consider how much time you will have to spend shopping for the food and then cook it). If your lifestyle does not allow you to shop and prepare for food, consider a diet program that delivers prepared food).
- What diet plans did you try in the past that failed and why did they fail? (List the reasons why the diet plans you tried in the past were unsuccessful). Select a diet that tells you about portion control instead of restricting certain foods.
Mistake #3: Doing It All Alone
One of the biggest mistakes most people make is not to ask for help.
You need to ask for help instead of doing it all alone.
If you feel stuck, seek guidance.
You can ask your friends and family to help you by motivating you to lose weight.
Trust us, having people in the corner can help you drop the pounds.
Here is what you should do:
- Get diet and exercise support from your friends and family.
- Determine your own needs before you approach others.
- Find people at work, gym, neighborhood, or in any community group you are in and determine how they can help you lose weight.
Mistake #4: Stop Believing the “Organic” Food Hype
The University of Michigan discovered that dieters consumed food labeled “organic” a lot more in the day.
Even though you think your snack is healthy because it is organic, so you ate more of it, that is far from the truth, as discovered by the researchers.
It is causing you to gain weight.
Stop believing in the “organic” hype and do this instead:
- Do not fall for the front of the package marketing technique, but look at the nutritional label.
- Your favorite organic food may contain a few healthy ingredients, but might be too high in calories or fat to suit your diet plan.
- A good example of this is avocados. They are high in healthy fat (good) and high in calories (bad). You can eat them in moderation or not eat them at all.
Mistake #5: Stop Rewarding Yourself with Food for Successfully Working Out
Whenever you have a good workout, you end up eating a lot more than you should.
The reason for this is that your appetite has increased, but that does not mean you go on a food rewarding spree.
By eating those snacks, you are reversing your efforts at losing weight.
Here is what you need to do now:
- Reward yourself with a healthy and low-calorie snack
- Eat a healthy lean protein with a carbohydrate
- Or drink skim chocolate milk
- Only stick to weight loss-friendly foods
Mistake #6: Becoming an Obsessive Exerciser
Everything in moderation is healthy.
The same goes for working out.
Do not overdo it.
Exercising too much when your calorie intake is low, or your diet is poor can slow down your metabolism.
Here is what happens to your body when you become an obsessive exerciser:
- Chronic energy deficit — not enough calories to burn — causes your body to assume that food is scarce.
- Your body begins to store fat to protect itself.
- Your body saves energy by decreasing the temperature of your body, which in return slows down your metabolism, weakens your digestive system, reduces your pulse rate, and slows down your thyroid function.
Mistake #7: Your Desk Job Keeps You Seated Most of the Day
If your desk job keeps you seated almost the entire day, you are not burning any calories.
If you go home, only to sit again or lie down on you couch, your weight will stay the same.
Given, that you do not have the time to exercise, but there are ways you can lose weight without exercising.
Here are some ways you can get a workout during the day:
- If you remain seated in your desk for most of the day, you need to get up and walk for 15 minutes every hour
- Walk to the water cooler, restroom, run an errand, or take the stairs instead of the elevator
- Clean your house while dancing to music
- Park far from the grocery store, so you can walk to it
- Walk and talk when you are on the phone
- Play with your kids or pets if you have any
- Try to socialize with others at an event instead of sitting in one place
Mistake #8: Stop Making Excuses to Not Exercise
“I don’t have the time to exercise.”
Make time then.
This is one of the most common excuses to not exercise used by most people.
You should motivate yourself to exercise instead of making excuses not to hit the gym.
Plus, the gym is not the only way to work out. Here are other ways you can work out:
- Join an exercise class
- Exercise with friends
- Walk around your neighborhood or go to the park
- Ride your bicycle
You need to make your health your number one priority.
Being overweight or obese brings on a host of other problems such as diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and more.
Therefore, it is important that you put yourself first.
If you no longer want to continue making weight loss mistakes beginners make and learn more on how to lose weight, please feel free to visit our blog, Health and Fitness Promoter, for useful and valuable information to aid your weight loss journey.
