When trying to lose weight the last thing you want to think about is wondering whether you’re doing the right thing. When trying to lose weight I always like to keep in mind that it’s hard enough already without all the fake and misleading information that is out there these days. You don’t need another blog post telling you that going keto is the only way to lose weight, you don’t need another blog telling you that a caloric deficit will make you lose weight over time. What you need is a blog that points out the common mistakes and pitfalls, so you don’t have to make the same mistakes as well. The less energy and time you have to spend on worrying about doing the right thing the more time you have to actually doing the right thing for you. This will lead to sustainable weight loss over time.

So, let’s talk about the common mistakes that we see people make while trying to lose weight.

You’re undereating

Yes, I understand you have to be in a caloric deficit to lose weight. But you can’t expect to drastically cut your calories down and keep losing weight consistently. Your own body is protecting itself from shutting down. So rather than using calories that your body suspects it’s not going to get and shutting down, it will decrease the number of calories it burns to keep your energy levels up. This causes your weight loss to level out eventually and your body will feel tired all the time because of the lack of calories burned to keep your energy levels high. You much rather start with a slight decrease in calories and keep building down from there until you reach your ideal weight. By going slower, you will eventually reach further than the faster approach.

Too focused on the small things

The small things are definitely important in the grand scheme of things, but the big things are big for a reason. figuring out whether you should eat 3, 4 or 5 times a day is great but it’s not going to matter if your macronutrient intake looks like shit. Let’s build our nutrition from the ground up. The stronger the base, the sturdier the top will be. If we focus on getting our carbohydrate, fat and protein intake in from whole foods, we’re focusing on the big things first.

Trying to out train a bad ”diet”

A lot of people seem to think that working out 1 hour a day (plus a possible daily 30-minute walk) will get rid of any and all of their health problems. We have to understand that this hour (and a half) makes up 4% of your day. Outside of sleeping you have another 16 or so hours to completely ruin your nutrition. 16 hours takes up around 64% of your day. What has a bigger impact? The 5% of working out or the 64% of daily life choices? On top of that, you probably don’t work out 7 days a week anyways, so some days it’s 0% working out and 100% of daily life decisions. Let’s think about this concept every single day to make better decisions.

Thinking carbs will make you fat

Let me be clear about this. There is no nutrient group (carbohydrates, fat and protein) that will make you fat. Sitting on the couch all day long while eating more than you should will make you gain weight or fat. Carbohydrates are a source of energy, if you spend that energy there’s nothing wrong with that. Once you eat more than you spend it becomes a problem. But that’s the case for every single food group.

You don’t know what you’re actually getting in each day

This is probably the number 1 reason why people can’t lose weight? Is this 15 grams of peanut butter or 30 grams? Ah screw it, just go with it. Is this 50 grams of granola or 80 grams? It is basically the same thing, right? No, it’s not the same thing and yes, those 15- and 30-gram differences matter. If you’re in a 200-calorie deficit you can almost completely erase that with a serving of peanut butter. Those 200 calories add up to 1400 calories a week, 5600 a month and you can do the math from there. Imagine if you’re in a 300 or 400 calorie or higher deficit. Choosing to be in a slightly bigger deficit might give you more room to work with but ultimately, it’s important to know what you’re getting in period. Even though you don’t feel like the small differences matter, at the end of the day it will add up more than you think.

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