It's a tale as old as time (well, modern times). You decided to drop a couple of pounds. You've made a commitment, you're determined, and you’re actually excited to start this journey. The first day is a breeze but as days go by, it becomes harder and harder to stick to your diet, and worst of all, the scale doesn’t really seem to be tilting in your favor. So, what’s the point? You just give up and decide to go hard on junk food again.

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You’re not alone, we’ve all been there. Today, we’re going to go over the most common mistakes we tend to make when going on a “diet” and how to increase our chances of success. And if you’re wondering why we write “diet” in quotations, it’s because the first mistake is to think of it as a “diet”. The moment you stop looking at it as something you HAVE to do to lose weight and start looking at it as a lifestyle choice to improve your overall well-being, things begin to change for the better.

What are the most common mistakes?

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If you are currently focusing on making some lifestyle changes, especially your eating habits to lose a bit of weight, it is very interesting to find out a little more about what are the main mistakes that can make us lose focus:

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Following an unbalanced and inadequate diet: Some of the leading experts in nutrition and dietetics stress the importance of adjusting the diet according to the energy needs of each person.

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This is so, because someone with a physically active job, like a waiter or construction worker, will probably have different dietary requirements than someone with a more sedentary lifestyle, like a desk job.

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So sure, we can find amazing info on the internet to better understand nutrition, but if we’re really committed to a healthier lifestyle, we need to really understand our bodies, requirements, and overall health. A consultation with a nutritionist is always a great idea.

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Eliminating foods that are actually healthy: There are many people who eliminate foods from their diet thinking that those foods are more fattening. This is a poor decision since in reality there is nothing ‘forbidden', of course, you should limit unhealthy foods such as industrial pastries, junk food or fast food and very fried or fatty food.

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For example, the consumption of certain fruits (such as bananas or avocados) is often eliminated because they are thought to be very high in calories. However, their nutritional benefits far outweigh their supposedly high energy intake. Moreover, avocado is very rich in healthy fats and bananas provide energy and magnesium.

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So don’t stress so much, you can eat everything, in moderation.

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Miracle diets: They are based on absurd proposals and pseudoscientific ideas such as, for example, what food to take according to our horoscope or, even, our blood group. Some of these miracle diets even "promise" a rapid weight reduction even though this, done in a healthy and wholesome way, is almost impossible. These diets can be effective in terms of immediate weight loss, the problem is that people tend to put the weight back on immediately and also they’re health is put at great risk.

Dissociated diets: They are mainly based on the fact that carbohydrates should not be combined with proteins in the same meals, and on the other hand, they do not limit the amount of fat that can be consumed. The result is an increase in cholesterol, nutritional imbalances, weight gain caused by the high consumption of fatty foods, and serious health problems.

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Restrictive diets: Without any doubt, this type of diets are the worst, since they advocate limiting quantities. That is, the less food, supposedly, the thinner, and it is essential to count the calories we eat daily. Granted, to lose weight you need to consume fewer calories than you burn, the problem is that people greatly exaggerate the calorie restriction.

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The end result is very dangerous, since the body goes through fasting for several hours constantly, which then results in attacks of hunger, which favors the abandonment of the diet and weight gain (yo-yo effect). The most dangerous thing, in addition to the above, is the elimination of certain food groups, which can lead to health problems.

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How to do a successful diet

In addition to trying to follow the diet that our dietician has indicated to us, we should also pay attention to those other mistakes that can negatively influences us to keep it correctly. Just a few tweaks will go a LONG way:

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Avoid weighing yourself every day: Although this is something tremendously tempting, and that you can actually do in a few seconds, it is a complete mistake. Do you know why? Fundamentally because if we get on the scales every day we will end up not seeing the evolution, so we will tend to leave the diet thinking that it is not serving anything. The best thing? Try to weigh yourself every 15 days.

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Stay away from miracle diets: Forget about those diets that assure you that you will lose a lot of weight in a very short time. In addition to being impossible, it is quite likely that they are not well balanced, and you may suffer deficits of proteins, carbohydrates, fats or proteins.

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Do not skip any meal: It is a very common mistake to think that by skipping a meal we will tend to lose weight faster. On the contrary, if we skip a meal (especially breakfast or dinner), we will only slow down our metabolism, so that it will cost us much more to lose weight.

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Practice regular physical exercise: Physical exercise is essential, especially to avoid a sedentary lifestyle and try to maintain as active a lifestyle as possible. It is enough to walk, cycle, run or swim for at least 30 minutes every day.

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It’s not a race

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As we can see, although it is very common and normal to make mistakes when dieting, knowing what they are and identifying them will help us in a very positive way to avoid them. And remember something fundamental: weight loss should be done progressively and gradually over time. It is very important to be patient and maintain consistency, at the end of the day, the point is to live as healthy as possible to feel great.