Common Diet Mistakes for Weight Loss
By Bob Howard 1. Skipping breakfast This has to be one of the most common of all diet mistakes. Most people know the difference but still do it just the same. Breakfast IS the most important meal of the day. The body has just gone 6 to 8 hours or more without food. Its just begging for nutrients when you wake up. Skipping breakfast also leads to overeating later during the day as your body compensates by greatly increasing your appetite. A healthy weight loss diet should definitely include breakfast. 2. Eating junk food While the occasional chocolate bar or bowel of ice cream is fine, for the most part junk food should be avoided. Most forms of junk food are loaded with calories and saturated fat. On the other hand they provide few healthy nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Junk the junk food! 3. Over indulgence in soft drinks or alcohol Soft drinks are loaded with sugar. Just one can of soda pop contains 10 to 12 spoonfuls of sugar. Other than perhaps a good source of clean water they provide few if any nutrients. Alcohol is also loaded with empty calories, and worse, slows down your bodys metabolism, making fat storage all the more likely. For males, alcohol will decrease testosterone levels. This increases fat storage and decreases the ability to build lean muscle mass. Keep alcohol consumption to a bare minimum and avoid this diet mistake. 4. Unrealistic goals. Besides overeating, one of the easiest ways to ruin a healthy diet is to set the bar too high. By this we mean setting unrealistic and rarely obtainable goals. If you try to lose too much weight too fast, youll only get discouraged after a few weeks. Start out slow. For example set a goal of 5 or 10 pounds over a month, rather than trying to lose the same amount over one or two weeks. Its much easier to stay with something when you see it working. 5. Taking in too few calories Just as taking in too many calories can lead to health problems, so too is there a lower limit. For most women,1200 to1500 calories a day should suffice. Anything less than that will be putting you at risk for nutrient deficiencies. In addition cutting your calorie intake below 1000 calories per day will cause your body to slow down its metabolism. So even though you may be taking in less calories you may still not experience any weight loss. 6. Following fad diets. Fad diets are just that fads! Most are designed to cash in on peoples gullibility for the quick fix. The majority of fad diets recommend extreme patterns of eating. Some stress cutting carbs by 50 percent or more. Others say you can eat all the fat you want. The human body evolved to use nutrients in balance and most fad diets ignore this fact. Avoid this diet mistake and ignore fad diets. 7. Only dieting While you can lose weight by just dieting, youll lose more by dieting AND exercising. And by including regular exercise into your week theres a greater chance that the weight you lose will primarily be fat. Dieting by itself often leads to a loss of muscle mass. Exercise, especially weight training, will preserve the muscle mass while stimulating fat loss. 8. Forgetting to keep recordsBy keeping a daily record of wha t you eat, youll get a better feel for where your weaknesses are. You may think that youre eating healthy but after a few days of jotting everything down youll quickly discover where the excess calories come from. While you dont necessarily need to record your food intake for a full year, it is very valuable to periodically check your nutrient and calorie intake to prevent overeating. 9. Not taking enough water Water is probably the most important nutrient. For many people its also the most neglected. The human body is over 70 percent water by volume. You should be drinking at least 6 to 8 glasses every day. More if youre engaged in physical work or exercise and sweating profusely. 10. Carbs alone Man (or woman!) does not live by bread alone. The same can be said about carbohydrate. Thanks to some fad diets many people think that eating only carbohydrates will fulfill all their body needs and will help with weight loss. Dont forget that good fats, protein, and other essential vitamins and minerals are also required by the body for optimum health. 11. Coffee is not breakfast! For many people breakfast consists of a cup of coffee. But coffee contains virtually no calories or nutrients. It does, however contain caffeine that will dehydrate you, stress your nervous system, and interfere with sleep patterns. One or two cups of coffee throughout the day is fine but dont live on it, and dont treat it as a meal or snack. Its not. Bob Howard expert on bodybuilding and steroids. Are you looking for more of his diet mistakes articles? Dietsinformation Article. 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