You have decided to lose weight. You have joined a gym, taken a diet plan and start your fitness journey. Initially results show up but after sometime, results stop showing. The effort put by you remains the same but now results have stopped. The scale is not coming down..neither is your waist. So what could you be doing wrong? Before getting demotivated and making all your hard work useless, check these common mistakes which we make during our weight loss journey-
Sticking to the same diet plan for months
When you first started your diet, your body was not at all used to it. So initially it responded well by reducing water weight and even some body fat when you started the diet. But when you tend to have the same food items over and over, week to week, month to month, your body is pretty smart to adapt to it and then gets used to it. So it is very important to keep switching between food items to avoid monotonous dieting and so that your body does not get used to them. If you are having oatmeal with apple for breakfast, you can switch apple for a banana or strawberries, brown rice can be switched with whole wheat chapatti etc.
Being active only when you workout
Sitting is the new smoking. This statement is apt for today”s generation as most of our work is done while sitting. Our sedentary lifestyle includes desk jobs, a lot of screen time and very little movement throughout the day. We travel by cars, prefer elevators and do very less to move around. Staying active only for 1 hour while working out is not enough if the rest of your day is sedentary. Try to move more as the more you move, the more calories you will be burning which would help you in weight loss.
Crash dieting/ completely cutting out carbohydrates
This is a big mistake which is done by a lot of people due to lack of awareness. Crash dieting is the worst way to lose weight and causes your body to develop nutritional deficiencies. Do not completely remove food from your plate. People often cut out carbs completely from their diet thinking it will lead to faster weight loss. Carbs are essential for our body and are the primary source of energy. Completely cutting them out would lead to low energy levels and affect the digestive system as your body will not receive fiber. Aim to eliminate simple carbs and include complex carbs which will help you stay full for longer time like oats, brown rice, whole wheat chapatti etc.
Overindulging during weekends
You have put in a lot of hard work to workout and stick to your diet plan. Then the weekend comes and you start thinking of rewarding yourself. Though the idea to reward yourself is not bad at all, it should be kept in mind that a cheat meal should not become a cheat day. Weight loss occurs when you consume less calories and burn more. Sometimes people, in order to reward themselves, consume so much calories during weekends that it actually dismantles the caloric deficit created during the week. A slice of pizza is better than a whole pizza. Similarly a pastry is better than a whole cake.
Your are impatient
Once you’ve made the decision to lose weight, you want it over and done with as soon as possible. When you find that you’re losing weight at a rate of one to two pounds a week, you’re frustrated. After a couple of weeks, you give up, convinced you’re failing because you’re not losing weight as fast as you’d like to. Remind yourself that it took months or years to gain that weight-it’ll take some time to lose it, too. Remember that dieters who lose weight slowly are much more likely to keep it off for long-term.
Not getting enough sleep
Not getting enough sleep, i.e. less than 6 hours can hamper your weight loss results even if you are on a strict diet. Sleep deprivation can cause you to feel hungrier, have less satisfaction after meals and have low energy levels during workout. Less sleep hampers your metabolism and will affect your weight loss. Sound sleep is a part of a successful weight loss program and you should not overlook it.
Health and fitness 