4 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Trying to Lose Weight

Restrictive Eating

You’ve been there. You’ve tried eating plain, boring chicken and plain white rice twice a day for weeks on end. It’s horrible, boring, and NOT sustainable – I don’t blame you. And naturally, you would eat anything and everything that didn’t resemble those foods as soon as the opportunity came up.

If you enjoy sweets (cookies, donuts) and you are restricting yourself from having them, you’re more likely to binge and overindulge or reach for them when late-night cravings set in.  Instead, enjoy having them once a week, permit yourself, think of it as earned, and start when you face that craving the most.  You’ll keep calories in check and yourself on track. 

Too Much Cardio

You’re on a piece of equipment that’s designed to make you sweat, so you think you must be doing something right, and why not add more? Keep burning as many calories as you can, right? But you end up with no muscle tone because you haven’t been lifting weights.  Cardio is a helpful tool for weight loss and improving your cardiovascular health and your mental health; however, it should not be the top priority when it comes to losing body fat. You’ve likely heard it before: weight training helps you maintain and build muscle, cardio does not. 

You’re suddenly full of energy instead of drained for the day. Carrying your groceries in one trip becomes easy.  Don’t spend hours doing something you hate.  Do something shorter, harder, and more effective… weight training. 

“Cheat Days”

Let me tell you about Bruce (I’m using a made-up name), an online client who was crushing it with his workouts but not doing so well with the number on the scale. Reviewing his food journal made it clear that something was missing. He started Monday off fired up and on point with his meals. Tuesday went pretty well.  By Wednesday, he was starting to have some cravings. Thursday, there’s a work party, so his lunch and dinner that day were already off track. By Friday, he’s so amped up for the weekend that he didn’t even eat the lunch he prepped and packed. Saturday rolls around, and he wants donuts for breakfast, and it’s a “cheat day,” so why not keep it going all weekend? By Sunday, he’s not feeling great energy-wise, guilted into another week of clean and restrictive eating, and the cycle continues.

Sound familiar?

How did Bruce and I get past this cycle? We fixed that ultra-restrictive plan and mindset, so he can balance his eating across the entire week, NOT just Monday to Thursday, and go nuts on weekends. Special occasions and events are the exceptions here and are going to happen, but he still never went over his target daily calories. 

Not Having a Training Plan

Bob (another made-up name) worked out, but never followed a plan. He would hop back and forth between different machines and exercises he liked that day. He didn’t know if he was getting stronger, and skipped working out his legs often because he didn’t want to be too sore the next day for his bike rides. Fast forward four months, and he’s made no progress.

Bottom line…No plan = no execution. He wanted to build muscle and lose belly fat, but he just spent months working around the areas he neglected. He failed before he even set foot into the gym.

So when Bob came to me, the first thing I did was design him a strength training program he could stick to and gradually make progress on while balancing his cycling. 

We discussed goals and developed a fat loss program. Fast forward 2 months, and he doubled his progress from when he was on his own. He lost 4 inches on his waist, and suddenly, clothes started fitting better.

So, needless to say…I am here to help YOU avoid making the same mistakes and move forward in the ways that I’ve learned and implemented over the last 10 years with my own journey and with clients.

What is your number one challenge?