Top 5 most common fat-loss mistakes to avoid

Apr 25

Written By JC

Losing weight can be challenging, and with so much misguided, outdated, contradictory, and scam-filled advice, it is hard to stay on track and know what to do.

So, if you are tired of being sold countless diets, workout plans, waist trainers, special recipes, magic pills, fat-burning lotions, and detox teas,

And are ready to start losing fat once and for all,

Here are the top 5 common fat-loss mistakes people make when trying to lose fat and keep it off.

1. Falling for food-marketing tricks

Food-marketing tricks are labels corporations place on food that are designed to disguise unhealthy food as healthy.

This advertisement is specifically designed by food corporations to help sell more food, not help you make the healthiest conscious decision.

Let me explain:

The FDA does not regulate the marketing on food. They only regulate what is on the nutrition label, so corporations are allowed to put whatever marketing they want—

Even if it’s not an adequate reflection of the food.

Below are some examples of food marketing tricks corporations include and what they really mean:

“All natural” - foods with refined grains, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and artificial sweeteners can be labeled as “all natural.”
“No sugar” or “sugar-free”—similar to “fat free.” If you take the sugar out, you have to bring the flavor with fat. So, sugar-free usually means more added fat.
“Wheat,” “Multigrain,” “Whole Wheat”: this is literally designed to trick you into thinking you are buying whole grain—which you are not. It’s just flour with the whole grain taken out of it.
Fat-free: means no fat but a lot of added sugar. Fat adds taste, so if you take the fat out, you need to bring the taste back with added sugar.
Made with real fruit—means it’s just sugar and processed juice, which has destroyed all the vitamins and minerals. There is no nutritional value here.
Organic—Foods that say organic on them are made with 95% or more organic ingredients. If it says 'made with organic ingredients', they only need to be made with at least 70% organic ingredients.

Generally, the healthiest food options are those that don’t require advertisement. You don’t see “heart healthy” on a head of lettuce.

So, instead of eating more “high protein” or “heart healthy” foods, choose foods that can be naturally found in nature.

Focus on eating: Steak, Chicken, Fish, Edamame, Lentils, Shrimp, Lamb, Beans, Tempeh, Berries, Vegetables, Citrus, Mushrooms, and/or tofu—real foods found in nature.

2. Focusing on eating less food but not less calories

Eating less food is not the same as eating less calorically-dense food and vice versa.

You can eat healthy and still gain weight.

You can eat less and still gain fat.

And, contrary to popular belief, you can not eat healthy and lose fat (though it would be hard).

Fat loss is not only determined by the food you eat but it is mainly determined by the calories the food has.

For example, foods high in fat will have more calories for less quantity.

That’s why you can eat 2 Oreos and consume 150 calories.

On the other hand, in order to eat 150 calories worth of watermelon, you would have to eat 500 g of watermelon. To put that in perspective that’s about 1/2 a watermelon.

Therefore, learning which foods are high in calories and which foods are low in calories can help you eat more while consuming fewer calories and thus helping you lose fat.

Take the picture above, for example.

You often may think you should be losing fat because you are eating less, and you may actually be eating less, but that does not mean you are eating less calorically-dense foods.

Instead of focusing on eating less, try eating more foods that are low in calories but high in fiber. Focus on eating at least one big salad and 2 fruits a day.

Keep in mind: this does not mean you need to track your calories to lose fat (though it will help), but you do need to be mindful of choosing the less calorically-dense food.

3. Extreme diets

Out of desperation, you may have tried severe diets or fasting to help you lose weight, and it may have worked at the beginning,

But then it stoped working.

Being in a calorie deficit is not just about eating less calories.

Eating less is just one part of the equation.

It’s also important to burn the calories you are eating.

When you go on severe diets or fast, your body goes into a stressful situation, and in turn, causes you to move less to maintain your weight.

You fidget less, move less, sit more, feel more tired, and want to sleep more.

Your body subconsciously wants to “hibernate” to burn less calories, making it harder to lose weight because it does not like extreme changes, that is why going into severe diets is counter-intuitive.

Instead of trying severe diets that shut down your metabolism, focus on maintaining a small calorie deficit of no more than 20% of your daily calories to not shut down your metabolism.

So, focus on eating fewer calories but also moving more.

In addition, psychologically speaking, not only are these diets not sustainable, but when you make severe changes, your body will want to over-indulge.

So, if you find yourself having a perfect diet during the week, you are probably training yourself to overindulge over the weekend and therefore seeing no progress.

4. You cannot out-run or work out a bad diet.

Based on the walking classifications from the Compendium of Physical Activity,

a 170-pound person would burn ~ 80 calories walking one mile at a slow pace (2.0 mph)

83 calories walking one mile at a brisk pace (3.5 mph);

91 calories jog one mile at slow pace (4 mph).

To put this in perspective: if you weighed 170 pounds and ate just 2 double stuffed Oreos (which is 140 calories) with no milk you would need to jog 1.5 miles at a 4 mph pace to burn that off.

No one eats only 2 Oreo’s!

Especially without milk 😤

Therefore, when it comes to calories, it is a lot easier to say no to the donut than it is to burn it off.

That is why you won’t be able to outrun a bad diet.

Now, if you were an elite athlete working out 3x a day and burning off 6,000 calories a day, then sure, you can burn off a bad diet.

But for someone working a 9-5 who works out 30-60 mins a day, burning off a bad diet would be impossible.

So, while regular exercise can help prevent disease, it shouldn’t be used as punishment for eating junk food. Instead, when looking to lose fat, focus on improving your nutrition by 80% and increasing your activity by 20%.

5. All-or-nothing mentality

Eating a piece of cheesecake on your anniversary or having a piece of pie for Thanksgiving will not “ruin” your metabolism, progress, fat loss, or make you gain fat.

One day of eating out can not ruin your progress and make you gain fat.

What will ruin your progress, however, is eating every day or every weekend like it’s Thanksgiving.

But one day of eating will not.

You don’t need to be perfect but you do need to be consistent.

That being said, many people take this advice too loosely and use it as an excuse to “cheat” more frequently.

Because you will always have something going on that will require a celebration.

Food is everywhere in your culture, so it is important to have a balance.

Focus on being 80-90% consistent for the month, and give yourself small opportunities to eat what you can enjoy 10-20% of the time. One day of eating a donut will not kill your progress, but eating every day like it’s Thanksgiving will.

If you messed up, just get back on track; if you had a donut, just make sure your next meal is healthy.

The point is to get back on track and slowly work towards being at least 80% consistent for the month.

80% consistency is about 6-8 days a month (depending on how many days the month has) that you were over your calories and every other day you were on track.

Summary

If you have found yourself yo-yo dieting — constantly gaining fat and losing it only to gain it back again — I have made a guide just for you.

The guide specifically helps you lose fat and keep it off in 3 simple steps:

How to eat so you can have less cravings
How to burn off enough calories throughout your day so you can eat and not worry about how many calories you ate
It will show you exactly how to be in a calorie deficit so you can lose fat and feel better.

Build confidence in yourself again and show you that you are capable of losing fat and keeping it off.

If that is you, click the button below to get your free fat-loss guide today.

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