Having successfully helped hundreds of Indians lose body fat, improve their health and live a more fulfilled life it has been easy to spot common trends in the reasons why some diets fail.
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7 common dieting mistakes and what to do!
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- 1.The diet you have developed is too restrictive, you are not able to enjoy foods that you normally eat and its difficult to stick to.
What to do:
Find methods to incorporate the foods you enjoy into your plan, if my clients enjoy eating Indian food, then we find methods to allow for that within their calorie deficit! I commonly use increased calorie intake on training days and lower intake on rest days, this allows for more food when your body needs it the most and will allow you to sneak in a few treats!
- 2.The diet is unrealistic. Starting a diet is hard enough without cutting out entire food groups! Choose a realistic path to weight loss.
What to do:
Avoid demonising foods! There is a tendency to go to extremes when dieting. Eliminating entire food groups or types of food will make it harder to adhere to the plan. If you are constantly craving chocolate and you end up bingeing once a week, then carefully adding in chocolate through the week whilst remaining in a calorie deficit will not adversely effect results.
- 3.The diet is not developed specifically for your requirements! If you cannot eat breakfast in the morning but get hungrier later in the day, your diet should reflect this, set the plan up to suit your needs.
What to do:
Ignore the hype surrounding breakfast being the most important meal of the day. Set your diet up so it is aligned with your specific needs! Ensure you have more calories available at times you feel hunger creeping in! Allow for the fact that your schedule may change almost daily therefore a black and white document outline specific meals and certain times will most likely leave you in a state of panic if you fail to achieve this. Be adaptable!
- 4.The diet does not take into account your family or social life. Having a black and white sheet with your diet on can make family dinners or social occasions extremely difficult. Incorporating important occasions into your diet set up is integral for your success.
What to do:
Develop strategies leading up to family dinners, social occasions or even evening meals to allow you increased calorie intake when you need it the most! Do not stop yourself from enjoying the time you spend with loved ones or friends as it’s a sure fire way to make you resent the process!
- 5.The diet does not teach you how to adapt. Following a set diet for months on end will not teach you how to adapt around occasions that are important to you, or the progress you have made physiologically. I find clients who have adapted to training are more responsive to increased food intake through a fat loss phase!
What to do:
The diet you start with should not be the diet you end up with! As you evolve so should your plans, whether it be increasing calories around training to improve performance which will illicit a greater response in terms of lean muscle mass or increasing carbohydrates in the evening as you have noticed your sleep quality is markedly improved when you do this! Adapt the diet to allow you to function optimally!
- 6.You are not eating enough! A very common error is to go extremely low calorie instantly! If it effects your performance in the gym or your general non-exercise activity (walking etc.) you will start to see a reduced rate of progress!
What to do:
Develop a calorie deficit that takes into account your need to move more and exercise! Not fuelling your body efficiently will ultimately lead you to reduced activity which will in turn stop you from seeing the progress you desire. If you do go ultra-low immediately, ensure you are tracking steps on non-exercise activity to make sure you do not slow down your rate of fat loss!
- 7.The most important reasons for not seeing results? Your reason for starting the process was not BIG enough! Motivation comes and goes when dieting, if you tell yourself you just want to look a little better and don’t delve into the WHY, you are setting yourself up for failure.
What to do:
I cannot stress the importance of understanding why you choose to start dropping body fat. Feeling healthier, feeling more energetic, feeling younger… they are all results of the process! You need to dig deep for this one. WHY do you want this? Is it to make sure you are at your children’s wedding, is it to ensure that you are healthy enough to provide for your family, would you like to be able to kick the ball around with your grandchildren. Do you want to avoid the illness that run rife in your family, whether it be diabetes or heart disease, do you want to avoid the early deaths of family members and friends? If you do not have a strong enough reason, the first obstacle will become a huge hill, the second a mountain and the third will cause you to fail completely!
The most successful transformations are not always the people that work the hardest, its the people that have their reasons for beginning the process deeply engrained in every action they take!
