5 Common Mistakes that make you Regain Weight

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5 Common Mistakes that make you Regain Weight

Last Updated on February 26, 2018

You’re trying hard to lose weight but nothing seems to be bringing any significant change in your body. You are frustrated, exhausted and losing motivation. Turns out you’re not investing your time and energy in the right things.

Weight loss is a journey that requires complete dedication, commitment and steadfastness. You need to keep a check on every calorie you’re consuming and also keep a track of how much you are burning.

We all come up with our personal favourite ways to reduce weight. Following special diets, maintaining a specific workout routine and lifting weights. Whatever you are planning to do, make sure you are avoiding common mistakes that can in turn increase your weight.

Here is a list of some things you need to avoid if you are trying to lose weight:

Skipping Meals

Skipping meals might seem like a promising idea, but it does far more damage than benefit. This kind of diet encourages unhealthy habits and does not offer long term solutions for weight loss.

Skipping a meal results in extreme hunger and increases more cravings. Your body goes into a state where it will cling to its fat reserves. This might work out for a couple of days but it’s not the kind of plan that is doable for several months because after all you will end up eating even more fatty food, making you gain weight more than you might have reduced. If you somehow do manage to resist the urge of cravings, you will feel tired, exhausted and cranky all the time.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Make sure you have a healthy meal that is is rich in protein and some carbs to provide you with sufficient energy to be productive.

You not only need enough carbohydrates to have a satisfactory workout but also to perform physically. Your brain also needs energy just like your muscles do. Experts say that breakfast-eaters reach for less food throughout the day and have lower rates of heart disease, blood pressure and cholesterol.

Skipping meals is never the answer to a successful weight loss plan, instead it can pose some serious threats to your overall health and make you more prone to gaining weight.

Sedentary Lifestyle

If your job requires you to sit and stare at a screen then it means you are spending most of your time not doing any physical work. Your body not only needs physical activity to stay in shape, but also to lead a healthy and stress-free life.

Active people never limit physical activity to the gym only and they do all that is possible to stay active in their normal everyday activities. Incorporate walking in your life within your daily routine by creating opportunities like parking your car farther away from the office, shopping mall or when you visit a restaurant.

Be creative and consider riding a bike on your way to work. Always try to skip the elevator ride and choose the stairs. Do all chores at home yourself. Make your weekends active by playing sports or going hiking. Choose vacation spots that include activities like hiking, kayaking and skiing. In short, switch to an active lifestyle to stay fit always.

Wrong choice of food

Everybody wants to eat healthy and food brands use this as a marketing strategy to sell their products. Labelling them with big, bold and catchy words and displaying them as healthy foods is a technique to convince people to buy them.

Always make sure to check nutrition information of every food product you buy and educate yourself on whether or not it is as healthy as it claims to be. Most healthy labelled foods are infact junky, processed snacks in disguise. Many of these products are loaded with sugar to improve their taste. A quick look at the quantity of sugar, additives and carbs in nutrition information can tell you how unhealthy it is.

Low-fat and processed foods are more likely to make you hungrier and you could end up eating even more. For example, one cup (245 grams) of low-fat, flavored yogurt contains an enormous amount of 47 grams of sugar (almost 12 teaspoons).

So, instead of low-fat or “diet” foods, choose a combination of nutritious, minimally processed foods and always make sure to keep yourself informed about what you’re putting in your body so that you can make the best choice.

Eating more than you burn

Counting your calories is important if you have a habit of eating without thinking. Always keep track of whether the food you’re eating is required by your body or whether it will end up getting stored as fats causing you to gain weight. Try to be as accurate as possible when counting calories, including all that you drink as well as what you eat.

Midnight snacks also add up as unnecessary consumption . You are never going to use any calories you consume right before you sleep, or in the middle of your sleep. If you’re on a diet, or trying to eat healthy, the snacks you will eat while you’re half asleep can never be beneficial for you. Furthermore, midnight snacks can be very addictive. So if you eat in the middle of the night, you might get yourself into a cycle of extra food intake and unhealthy sleeping habits.

Overconsumption is also common when you are urged by boredom. Accidentally eating a whole bag of chips or cookies just because you were bored, is the kind of mistake that can happen when you don’t think about what you eat.

Dehydration

Dehydration is one of the most common causes of extra eating. Often when we are thirsty,our bodies misinterpret it as hunger and we end up eating more food than we should. If you feel hungry even though you’ve eaten recently, try drinking a few glasses of water and wait for 15 minutes. You’ll be amazed at how full you feel.

Hydration is essential for a bunch of reasons ranging from your skin to your heart, plus it can help you keep off the weight. Water will not necessarily decrease your appetite, but it will help you differentiate between hunger and thirst.

Always carry around a water bottle and sip it after every few hours. This might help you to eat less, and you’ll be surprised how much your cravings have decreased.

About the author:

Amanda Bentley has 5 years’ experience in the food and beverage industry and currently works as a Content writer at Qavashop (www.qavashop.com).  Qavashop.com is an online store for all the “coffee aficionados” located in the GCC. Apart from providing its customers with quality coffee machines and consumables, it also provides them with skilled, knowledgeable advice on how to make their own restaurant quality espresso at home.