25 Dieting Mistakes – How Many Of These Are You Guilty Of Making?

Many well-intentioned people go on a diet to lose weight and get in shape but the majority of those sabotage their progress with mistakes.Here’s 25 of the most common ones…

1. You grocery shop on the fly. When dieting always have a list and work from that, this way you’re not tempted to buy and “goodies.” If you don’t trust yourself shop online, dieters who shopped at Web-based groceries bought fewer high-fat foods, a study from the University of Connecticut found.
2. You don’t ever count calories. While its important to exercise to burn off calories its also important to know whats going in the “gas tank.” You may be surprised at how much exercise you need to do to even burn off the smallest candy bar, so control those calories.
3. Have you set your weight loss goal too high? This is one of the biggest dieting mistakes setting unrealistic goals and not allowing enough time to see results is a disaster waiting to happen.
4. Never turn to starvation as a means of dieting.
5. Many dieters fall prey to becoming obsessed with the number on the weigh scale.  While its good to monitor your progress, it can also be harmful if you let the numbers dictate your diet and your life.  Its normal to gain weight or lose weight and for someone addicted to checking the numbers, such fluctuations can drive you crazy and possibly lead to poor dieting practices such as starvation.
6. Salads for diets are a great idea, but many people tend to stick to only salads.The thoughts of having to live on salads for the rest of your life would send even the sanest person over the edge.
7. While you might think telling others that you’re on a diet is a good thing, it can backfire on you especially if these have weight problems. While they may want the best for you they may sabotage your efforts by commenting how how badly you’re doing and that we’ve never been successful in the past.
8. So many people do well during mealtime, but forget about the extra food they’ve had along the way — the handful of nuts before dinner, the taste-testing of cookie dough, the food left on their kid’s plate etc.
9. Another great mistake when it comes to dieting is selecting a diet plan where you eat the same thing every day – (for the same reason as mistake 6).
10. Perhaps the single largest mistake that dieters make is adopting an all or nothing attitude. While it may sound like giving it 100% is the right path to take sometimes it better to improve your eating and exercise habits over a gradual period this way its not so drastic and you’ll feel more confident of staying the path.
11. Thinking diet pills, vitamins, diet food or magic creams are more powerful than they really are in achieving weight loss. Ah, if only life were so simple. Don’t get taken in by the marketing hype, if you read the instruction of any weight loss pill they always say “Your results will be better if you exercise.” In other word it may work for you but you’re going to have to put in some effort yourself to get better results.
12. Downing liquid calories is another dieting mistakes. Almost all liquids apart from water contain calories drinking anything other that this in only adding calories you’re going to have to burn off – and this is especally true with diet drinks!
13. Having long periods without eating. Remember eating small, healthy meals about every three hours is the best way to keep your metabolism revving.
14. If the key to losing weight is cutting calories then why not cut a bunch at once by skipping a meal.  If you skip meals when you’re trying to lose weight, you’re doing yourself more harm than good.
15. Thinking that “dieting” sprees — and not total lifestyle change — will garner lasting weight loss results.
16. Thinking of exercise as a chore, instead of a way to improve your health and your life.
17. Don’t be hard on yourself if you slip up. Let your failures teach you as much as your successes and you should be well on your way to the healthier person that you know is hiding inside.
18. Never skip breakfast – in reality, breakfast may influence weight loss more than any other meal.
19. Not recording what you eat every day, a simple thing of having a food diary can double your weight loss success.
20. The rule of thumb is that during the first three weeks, you’re going to lose a higher rate of weight and then it’s going to slow down. Expect this to happen and you’ll see that you’re still on the right path and not a failure, you might have a completion date but your body probably has other ideas.
21. Avoid diets that contain only a small number of food types. Diets containing unvaried food can be dangerous, as it makes your body receive only a certain set of vitamins and minerals.
22. Relieve your stress levels with some healthy eating, keep your favorite healthy snacks on hand everywhere.
23. It takes twenty minutes for the brain to sense that your stomach is full, if you still feel full after a meal takes another few minutes before eating more, just in case its old habits rather than real hunger.
24. Eating on the run and in every place (assign one place to eat in the house)this way you won’t have any distractions like television and over eating like mistake 23.
25. The final mistake when it comes to dieting that is made all too often is giving up.  You may have had a bad day or even a bad week when it comes to your dietary goals and plans.  But remember even those who have achieved monumental dieting success have met with failure on the road.

P.S – Read the above list at least once per month as its amazing how quickly we forget information and return to old habits.

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Filed under: Weight Loss