5 Habits That Can Be Detrimental to Your Weight Loss Journey

There is nothing more frustrating than months and months of working hard to achieve your goals and not getting the results that you want. You go to the gym weekly and deny yourself your favorite foods, for what? To stand on the scale and see the same number over and over. Well, before you give up on your fitness routine and declare that you will never lose those excess pounds, you should take a look at your daily routine to see if there may be something there that could be sabotaging your fitness routine and keeping you from achieving your weight loss goals.

• Dieting. Many of us think that we can go on a diet and deny ourselves certain foods and quickly and easily achieve our weight loss goals. However, as most of us seem to find out, this is not the case. You will eventually go off your diet and start eating normally again. So, if you happened to lose any weight you will gain it right back. You need to try to slowly overhaul your normal diet and substitute in healthier foods. It is also better to give in to your desires once in a while. If you try to constantly deny yourself something you love, you will hate your diet and become even more frustrated when it does not work out the way you want it.
• Caloric intake. It is important to watch your caloric intake to lose those excess pounds. However, there are many other factors that you need to consider. You can not solely rely on the calorie counts of your food. You need to be sure that you’re not only eating healthy, but that you’re eating the correct balance of carbs, protein to fat ratio with each and every meal. If you skip this rule, you’re not doing your body any favors, even if your meals are “healthy”.
• Focusing on the scale. We all do it. A lot of us hop on the scale multiple times a day, and for what? To see if after a few hours if the needle will point a little lower. It can seem ridiculous thinking about it, but we do it everyday. It does seem fairly reasonable that if we want to lose weight, the best way to measure our success is through weighing ourselves. However, the scale can be extremely misleading. There are many things that it does not measure such as, becoming more physically fit, dropping dress sizes, gaining endurance and energy, increasing muscles mass and decreasing body fat. Just because the scale is not moving, does not necessarily mean you are not achieving your fitness goals.
• Dieting without exercise. Most of us think that if we do not have the time or energy needed to exercise, then we can easily lose weight through diet alone. It may be possible to shed those pounds through only dieting, but it will be harder, take longer to get the results that you want and omit all the positives you get from exercising. It will become obvious in no time that you can only cut so much from your diet before you become tired, hungry and feel drained. This can make anyone edgy and frustrated, especially if you happen to notice that your weight loss has seemed to plateaued. You are ultimately setting yourself up for failure.
• Giving up too quickly. We all want to see results right away. However, this does not happen in the real world. It takes time and effort to get the results that we want. You also have to accept the fact that you can not be perfect. Everyone experiences setbacks every now and then. The most important thing is to remember that you have to get over it. Stand up, shake yourself off and move on with your fitness routine. Do not give up just because of one diet or workout slip. It is okay to screw up every now and then, as long as you forgive yourself and quickly get back into your everyday routine.

It can be a difficult and frustrating journey trying to lose those excess pounds, but we need to remember that slow and steady wins the race. Do not expect to change your everyday routine in mere seconds and see results from your new and healthier routine right away. It may take some time to get where you want to be, but it will be worth it in the long run. You will end up feeling and looking healthier, while improving many areas of your life.

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