Online guide: 15 mistakes to avoid to lose weight
The things you don't have to do
If you have decided to go on a diet, the initiative is good, but before starting you must understand what are the unclear ideas that risk making your project fail, despite the good will.
To lose weight quickly, many would be willing to do anything and often gross mistakes are made that can endanger health.
Although experts recommend slow but steady weight loss, it is still possible to lose weight quickly and stay healthy with a few small steps.
Among these we have a healthy and balanced diet, drink plenty of water and above all exercise to activate the metabolism.
Here are 15 mistakes to avoid to lose weight
1 - Go overboard with light foods
Today the market offers a wide choice of foods with a reduced sugar and fat content, but don't think you can eat them in unlimited quantities.
Low in fat does not mean no calories: and, if the quantities are exaggerated, in the end it doesn't add up and the scales go up.
Read the labels carefully, consider how many fats and calories a light product contains and then add it to your daily menu instead of other similar foods (a light mozzarella can replace a "normal" mozzarella).
Avoid eating puddings, creams, mousses at any time of the day, taking the excuse that they are low in fat and therefore cannot damage your diet.
2 - Expect perfection
Believing that you can follow a strict diet without admitting the slightest mistake is not only unrealistic, it is also very stressful. The risk is to feel so unmotivated at the first mistake, to abandon the diet altogether.
We must try to avoid that a sin of gluttony triggers irrational behavior, trying instead to consider it only as an accident, which can be recovered simply by checking what will be eaten in the next meal.
The important thing is to be aware that the diet period is not a test of will, but a path, sometimes difficult, to learn to eat better, also indulging in what you like, but with criteria.
3 - Tell everyone that you are on a diet
Family and friends are often the least likely to offer help when making the decision to go on a diet.
Sometimes because they are anxious, sometimes because they are nervous or, even worse, envious, or simply because they fear change.
The fact is that they can engage in a whole range of behaviors that can put your programs at risk.
What's more, everyone has tried to diet at least once and are ready to give advice that often ends up confusing your mind.
Better, therefore, not to talk about your intentions and start with small, almost unnoticeable changes (recipes with less fat, a little more careful expenditure), to evaluate the reaction of family and friends, then deciding how and when to let them know how much you are. doing.
4 - Drink a little water
Those on a diet should drink even more than usual, reaching at least one and a half liters of natural mineral water a day: this promotes diuresis, helps to keep the intestine regulated and to eliminate waste and toxins.
Do not worry, however: water, even if sparkling, drunk with a meal does not make you fat; at the limit it risks dilating the stomach.
The problem is represented, however, by sweet carbonated drinks, which must be strictly avoided if you want to lose weight, because they are rich in empty calories, which only make you fat without providing nutrients to the body.
5 - Eat in front of the TV
If you have decided to control how much you eat, you must avoid any circumstance that leads you to consume your food absent-mindedly.
Eating in front of the TV, on the sofa, sitting at the computer or in the car is the best there is to overdo it without even realizing it.
The impression, in fact, is that of just having a snack; so, as soon as you finish, you will be hungry again and you will go back to eating.
Moreover, eating in these conditions tends to choose practical foods, such as snacks, sweets, sandwiches, which are generally high in fat and calories.
Therefore, always and only eat seated at the table, setting the table carefully, so that the moment of food represents a pleasant and peaceful break.
6 - Eliminate pasta and rice completely
Thinking that carbohydrates make you fat and must therefore be removed when you are on a diet is a very widespread belief, but absolutely wrong. Because the body needs the energy of carbohydrates to function at its best: in the absence of sugars, the body uses proteins and fats, with the risk of losing weight, but also muscles and producing a series of substances of waste that generate a general state of intoxication.
Moreover, pasta and rice are by no means more caloric than other foods: it is important to season them lightly, avoiding elaborate sauces rich in fats and preferring seasonings based on vegetables, cooked or raw, and raw oil.
7 - Have a single big meal
Many studies have shown that to stay lean it is good to eat five times a day, including two mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks alongside the three main meals.
By doing so, the level of sugar in the blood is kept constant, avoiding drops in glucose (sugars), which generally lead to throwing yourself on food. Eating frequently activates the digestive system which burns calories to work.
Snacks should be chosen wisely, focusing on light foods so as not to overdo the calories: low-fat yogurt, skimmed milk, rusks, juices, tea with little sugar.
8 - Give yourself something more by thinking of disposing of it in the gym
When you decide to drop the scales, it is also important to exercise which, by activating the metabolism, helps to burn calories. But going to the gym or swimming pool shouldn't become an excuse to eat more: the calories burned in an hour of aerobics or tennis (about 250) are lower than those accumulated by eating a plate of pasta with sauce or a slice. of sweet.
9 - Skip meals
Have you exaggerated at the table and are you thinking of making up for it by skipping the next meal? Nothing could be more wrong: avoiding lunch or dinner means finding yourself in the middle of the morning or, worse, in the middle of the night with an exaggerated hunger, which needs to be appeased with a substantial dose of food.
Deprivation, then, often leads to a desire for compensation, which is exhausted with the foods that you like best and which, in general, are the most gluttonous and rich in calories. Better, after some extravagance, to make up for it by consuming only one course in the next meal, which can be a nice plate of soup, a mixed salad, a bowl of low-fat yogurt, accompanying everything with a cup of unsweetened green tea.
10 - Weigh yourself every day
Having the constant worry of the scale can be bad when you are on a diet. The weight, in fact, is influenced by factors that do not depend only on what you eat (just think of the variations due to the menstrual cycle) and notice that the needle of the scale does not go down or, worse, it goes up by a few hectograms can lead to feeling discouraged and to abandon the diet.
Weigh yourself when you start the diet and do it again only once a week on an empty stomach and in the same clothes. Evaluate the results only after a month: the improvements obtained will help you continue.
11 - Fill the pantry at home
Staying on a diet requires will and it is clear that, seeing a load of tempting foods in the refrigerator, resisting becomes more difficult. Better to do the opposite maneuver: as soon as you have decided to follow a diet, clean up the pantry by eliminating dangerous foods, such as chocolate, candies, snacks, fatty cheeses (you can give everything away): by not finding them you will have less chance of giving in to temptation.
Then make a list of what you need for the diet, buy it and place it in plain sight in the refrigerator and in the cabinets. Do not forget to stock up on vegetables, such as carrots, fennel, peppers, celery: cut into strips, they will help you to curb sudden hunger with few calories.
12 - Just drink coffee in the morning
Breakfast is a meal of great importance in the plan of a balanced diet: only by eating correctly in the morning is it possible to fill up with the energy necessary to arrive at lunch without giving in to hunger pangs, which lead to continual eating between meals. .
Furthermore, the calories introduced with breakfast are disposed of more easily: it is therefore possible to indulge in something more (always within the limits of reasonable) without the risk of gaining weight. The correct choices for the morning are the proteins provided by yogurt and low-fat milk, the carbohydrates of rusks, cereals, muesli and dry biscuits, the sugars of fruit, juices, honey and jam.
13 - Abundant with fruit
Thinking that fruit does not make you fat and that you can eat a lot of it certainly does not help you lose weight. Beyond water, which has no calories, all foods are caloric and, by eating them in excess, you risk gaining weight.
Among fruit, due distinctions must be made: there are very sugary fruits, such as grapes, bananas, avocados, pears, mangoes, which provide a good number of calories and which must be consumed carefully, and others with a high water content, such as watermelon, melon, strawberries, apricots, which are lighter choices.
When on a diet, it is strictly forbidden to use dried fruit, a true concentrate of sugars, fats and, therefore, calories.
14 - Follow a starvation regime for only a few days
The best way to lose weight is to eat well, without deprivation but without exaggerating in quantities and to always do it, all year round. The solution of not eating anything for two or three days is just an excuse not to commit; a strict diet followed for a few days puts the needle on the scales, but what is lost is not fat, but water and lean mass, that is, muscles.
The result? The weight is regained and often with interest, as restrictions lead to overdoing food. Better to reduce the amount of what you eat, keeping the commitment consistently to lose weight more slowly, but be sure to maintain the results.
15 - Replace the bread
These alternatives are certainly lighter in consistency, but they have about double the calories than bread and end up weighing more in the daily calorie calculation. Dry baked goods, in fact, have lost the water in which bread is rich and, for the same weight, contain more starch; they are often enriched with fats that are not present in ordinary bread.
Then there is another reason to avoid them: being dry, they do not satiate a lot and therefore encourage you to eat more. It is good, therefore, to have a supply of fresh bread, even if it is easier to keep crackers and breadsticks in the pantry ready to be eaten on any occasion.
TO REMEMBER:
Consistency, combined with a balanced diet is more effective than fasting
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