More and more people are struggling to lose weight, so it is not surprising that new and new diets are appearing on social networks and media. According to the World Health Organization, about 52% of the world’s population is either overweight or obese. Many of these people at some point in their lives opted for some type of diet and experimented with extreme weight loss. But research shows that extreme weight loss is not effective in the long run, but extremely harmful to your health.
On the other hand, there is a problem with most people who constantly exercise and are on certain diets but still fail to lose weight. Motivation drops to a low level when the scales show exactly the same weight you had before exercise, and there is even a desire to simply give up. What is the point of sitting in the gym for so long and not putting your mouth to any dessert if these things are not visible on the scales? There are certainly valid reasons why this happens, so let’s find out what mistakes you make and what prevent you from losing weight.
Mistake # 1 – You do not eat enough
You may think that eating fewer calories will bring you visible results, but in fact this is not the case. Low calorie diets cause rapid weight loss, but the truth is that they are not sustainable and the sooner you lose weight, the sooner you will regain it after you stop dieting. This will make you more stressed and you will want to eat even more. When you put too many restrictions on your body, hunger becomes even more difficult to control. The body’s natural defense system when you put it on a diet is to think that you are at risk of starvation, so it slows down the functions needed to burn calories, including the thyroid gland, metabolism and blood pressure. It can lead to hormonal imbalance and eventually you will get the opposite effect – you will gain weight. The extreme weight loss that you are trying to achieve by reducing your calorie intake usually means losing weight in a record time, but you should keep in mind that this leads to muscle loss in the long run, not to fat.
Mistake # 2 – You exercise a lot, but you ignore your diet
A healthy and balanced diet is very important in losing weight. If your diet is based on unhealthy and fast food, you should not be convinced that with an extra hour in the gym you will lose all your calories and balance things out. In the end, the success of the diet is 70% in the diet and 30% in sports. Those two things go together. The reason the body attacks the muscles first is because it wants to conserve energy when food is reduced. The body needs more energy to maintain muscles.
Mistake # 3 – Insufficient sleep
The importance of diet and exercise and good quality sleep contribute to weight loss. Lack of sleep affects you hormonally, so it directly affects your metabolism. According to a study presented by the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, those who sleep less than four hours are 73% more likely to gain weight than those who sleep the recommended 7-9 hours. The same thing happens when you drink too much, leave too much time between meals, do not have enough rest, so you have less willpower and end up eating the wrong food. The longer you stay awake the more time you have to eat.
Mistake # 4 – You’re constantly under stress
When you are constantly stressed, you are too full to think of a balanced meal, so you eat what comes to hand first. In addition, many people eat simply to relieve stress, not hunger. Stress can be the result of an unhealthy lifestyle, a busy schedule, problems in other aspects of life, and a lack of sleep. It is important to achieve a balanced diet, but it is just as important to strike a balance in your overall lifestyle. If something goes wrong at work and you are constantly stressed, it may be time to change your job. Another proof that it is very important to have balance in all areas of your life in order to lose weight. The body tells you what suits it and what does not, learn to listen to it.
How to lose weight the right way?
You need to keep in mind that successful weight loss does not happen overnight. You need to eat fewer calories, but not overdo it. You can cut 300 calories by 500 calories less, no more. Plus, make sure you eat no less than 1,200 calories if you are a woman and 1,500 calories if you are a man.
Diets fail, but a healthy diet does!
Give up diets if you find that they do not work. It is known that almost all diets have a yo-yo effect. They work while you are on a diet, but once you get back to your old diet, you gain weight faster than you lost it before. It is best to commit to eating as healthy as possible, to get all the necessary substances and over time you will be able to successfully get rid of excess weight.
