Are you unintentionally self-sabotaging your diet?
Are you trying to lose weight without as much success as you would like?
It can feel like you are doing all the right things: depriving yourself of treats, going to the gym, eating the celery, only to step on the scales and find that nothing has changed. Or worse still, the sad step tells you that you have actually gained weight. What is going on???
Could it be that you are unintentionally undoing your good efforts?
And just for the record, I have made every one of these mistakes and continue to make a few of them every now and then!
#1 You are not in a calorie deficit
If you are overweight and trying to lose body fat without success, then you are consuming more calories than you are burning.
To lose weight, we must shift the energy balance.
Weight loss is calculated as follows: energy in (food) – energy out = weight loss.
Faddy diets are unnecessary. Every diet under the sun ultimately comes back down to a calorie deficit. Restricting food groups, fasting, points, sins, green and red days, high protein, low carb….so many choices and so very confusing, but it really doesn’t need to be. ALL of these diets have the potential to lead to a calorie deficit; they are just dressed up slightly differently. So why not just figure out your own calorific needs, eat the foods you enjoy while staying within your energy budget, and lose weight that way?!
It’s a bit like finances;
How much money you earn – how much you spend on bills = how much you have left over.
If you spend more than you earn, you go into debt. In the same way, if you eat more than you burn, you gain weight.
#2 You do not know how many calories you need
Around 70% of the calories you burn every day are burned without even moving. This is called your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). These are the calories that your body needs to function at rest. Energy to power the nervous system, heartbeat, digestion, endocrine system, and so on (muscle burns more calories at rest than # just saying!) Your BMR is determined by your weight, height, and age.
Your NEAT calories (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), in other words, how active you are on a day-to-day basis, burns more calories than your gym session. These are the calories you burn by getting up for regular walk breaks during the day instead of sitting at your desk, taking the stairs instead of the lift, and parking your car further away from the shops. These calories add up!
Have a look at my calorie calculator to give you a good starting point of how many calories you need Calorie Calculator.
#3 You are using the gym as the place to burn your calories
Are you falling into the trap of thinking you are burning off more calories than you really are when you are exercising? Research shows that people tend to believe that they are exercising harder and more often than reality. The gym is not the place where you burn all your calories. In reality, you burn more calories away from the gym.
I do not encourage people to exercise solely for the purpose of losing weight. It turns movement into a punishment for eating, or an act you must endure to “earn” food. Either way, exercise becomes a negative. You will see from the previous paragraphs that exercise is not where you burn most of your energy. It is an added bonus.
Exercise for mental health benefits, muscle building, bone density, improved immune function, lower risk of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, dementia, exercise for fun…But do not expect your aerobics class to melt away the pounds.
“But my fitness tracker tells me I burned off 700 calories in my spin class”. Fitness trackers can be great for counting steps and measuring heart rate, but research suggests that they tend to exaggerate the calories burned during exercise, so take it with a pinch of salt. The same applies to the gym machine that tells you your calorie burn. It is misleading.
#4 Rewarding yourself with treats because you’ve exercised
As above, you are not burning as many calories as you think. You are not a dog. Do not exercise and then reward yourself with a food treat. Treat yourself, sure. Celebrate how much progress you are making, but not with food.
#5 You are being too restrictive
Are you cutting out all your favourite foods in an attempt to lose weight? I don’t recommend it. It will make you miserable and lead to yo-yo dieting. Work out your calorific needs and factor your favourite foods in.
We tend to split foods into the good and the bad. The ones that make us feel rather smug if we include them and the ones that we think we should avoid. Foods are not good or bad, they are energy on a sliding scale of nutritional value. Some have many more nutrients than others, but that doesn’t mean you have to be perfect. Just be normal. Being overly restrictive can lead to bingeing and yo-yo dieting (been there, got the t-shirt). Enjoy dinner with your family and drinks with your friends. Life is too short to not have cake now and then.
#6 Your weekends are undoing your hard work
To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume. Every day is slightly different, so look at how many calories you are consuming across the whole week, including the weekend. “But I’ve been so good, why haven’t I lost weight?” Have you though? Or have you been restrictive during the week and then blown it at the weekend, undoing all your good intentions? It’s very easily done.
#7 You are drinking too much alcohol
Gram for gram, alcohol contains more calories than carbs or protein. In fact, it contains nearly as much as pure fat. Switching the night out at the pub for a different activity is an option… as is making some sensible swaps. Alternate alcoholic drinks with soft drinks and consider how many calories are in that pint of lager or glass of wine and switch them to lower calorie options. Try to have some alcohol-free nights.
#8 You are eating out a lot
Even if you try to order the sensible options, it is impossible to know exactly what’s in your meal when you eat out. Oils, butter and cheese are added to meals to make them tastier, which leads to way more calories being consumed than you realise.
#9 Some of your “healthy” choices are not so healthy
Salad dressings, coconut oil, protein bars, nut butters, orange juice, smoothies, granola, rice cakes, dried fruit…all healthy choices, right? Not necessarily. Some of the options that are dressed up as “good for you” or “healthy options” are actually high in fat and sugar, have hidden trans fats, or have more calories than you realise. Do not believe the marketing on the front of the packaging, which lures us in to believing something which isn’t strictly true. Check the back of the food labels and remember that even “good” foods have calories and they all add up.
#10 Your portion sizes are too big
Have you ever measured a portion size? I would encourage everyone who is trying to lose weight to start measuring their foods. It can be eye-opening! Do not become a slave to the scales. You do not need to measure every morsel that goes into your mouth forevermore, but having an idea of what an actual portion size looks like compared to how much you are having is a good idea. It is very easy to trick yourself into thinking you are eating just one portion. Cutting back on portion size is an easy win!
#11 You are focusing too much on the scales (the other ones!)
The scales are one way of measuring weight changes. They are not the only way. Too many of us ignore everything else that tells us that we are losing body fat and changing our body composition because this little step that we stand on has not given us the reading that we hoped for.
Research shows that weight can fluctuate by several pounds over the course of a few days, so if you are weighing yourself every day or relying solely on this measurement alone to track your weight loss, then you may end up being disappointed and disheartened. This can lead to two things:
- The sod it mentality – “It hasn’t worked so I may as well have insert food/drink here” – then you feel guilty and cut back and restrict yourself, or you give up.
- Or you’ll go straight for the overly restricted response and cut back even more, which makes you miserable, and then you eventually overeat, or worse, continue to further restrict.
Either way, it messes up your relationship with food and can quite easily progress to disordered eating.
Weight is influenced by several things. Fluid fluctuations, hormones, what we have eaten, training, toilet habits, salt.
There are other ways of measuring your weight loss. There are also much kinder ways of measuring your weight loss. Take measurements from several points (chest, waist, hips, legs); use an item of clothing as a way to gauge progress—is it fitting any better? Are you closer to being able to button it up?
Take photos. I know a lot of people cringe when they think of this, but it’s for you only. No-one else needs to see them or know that you took them. It can be really motivating to see your body changing. If the measurements are getting smaller, your clothes are fitting better, and the camera shows a more toned physique, then you are losing body fat. That is what is important, NOT what the number on the scales says. A number that no one else knows (unless you go around telling everyone!)
It can be tempting to blame our genetics. I’m big-boned, I have a slow metabolism, I’ve always been big, my parents are big, etc etc. In truth, your genetics are not to blame for you being overweight or not being able to lose weight. Our bodies are a visual representation of the lifestyle that we lead. What we eat, how much we eat, how much we move. And whilst there are some disorders which can reduce the number of calories you burn, there is no secret or magic formula. It’s just calories in vs. calories out.
Remember: You do not need to be perfect all the time; you just need to do enough.
