Weight loss is all about healthy eating, in the right amount, and also regular exercise, but even when you are working hard, certain factors can act as diet saboteurs and derail your efforts to get lean and fit – it can be anything from your own attitude to having a sweet tooth. If you desperately want to lose extra weight and get healthier, start on a good weight loss program such as the Rati Beauty diet, do a bit of exercise, and steer clear of these most common diet saboteurs which/who make losing weight and getting fit extremely difficult for you.
1. Food Pushers: Food pushers are all around us – in the family, in the office, in our close friend circle! These food pushers tempt you to get off the diet plan, eat more food, overeat, and encourage you to eat unhealthy food that’s not part of your diet. These “food pushers,” can knowingly or unknowingly hamper your weight loss plan, by encouraging you to eat more food. “Food pushers” can stand between you and your goal weight and it becomes extremely difficult to say “no” to such people, especially when they are family, friends, and relatives. But if you want to lose weight at any cost, you have to practice saying “no” and find polite ways to do so. Read about “7 Polite Ways to Say No To Food Pushers” in this post.
2. Tweaking the Diet on your Own: When you start on a weight loss diet, make sure you stick to the meal plans. Tweaking the diet and making dramatic changes on your own may not get you the desired results. Check out the amazing meal plans on the Rati Beauty app for more details.
3. Hyperpalatable Foods: Is it even possible to stop at just one bag of potato chips? The smell, the flavour, the taste – it’s one thing which most of us can get addicted to – yes, that’s right, certain foods are processed in such a way that they can make you addicted to them! These foods are called “hyperpalatable” and have ingredients like sugar, sodium, unhealthy fat, and certain synthetic ingredients that enhance their taste, triggering the reward center of the brain and release of “feel-good chemicals” that can put us in a constant state of craving, wanting to have more of such food. Also, since these foods are easily digested, they cause sharp rise in insulin and the subsequent dip causes imbalance in blood sugar levels, leaving one hungry within a short span of time. The problems with such foods is that they are high in calories, have unhealthy fat, sugar, and salt – leading to weight gain. Identify and avoid foods that are unhealthy and addictive in nature.
4. Sleep Deprivation: Lack of sleep elevates the level of hormones such as insulin, cortisol, and ghrelin (hunger hormone) that actually encourage the body to store fat instead of burning fat, throwing water over your efforts. Break this habit by going to bed earlier and getting at least 7 hours of sleep each night because with lack of rest and proper sleep, the body lowers metabolism and its ability to burn more calories. Also, stress hormone and hunger hormone rise leading to cravings for unhealthy food. Keep away all gadgets one hour before hitting the bed because it interferes with circadian rhythm, disrupts the quality of sleep.
5. Not Practicing Portion Control: We tend to underestimate the amount of calories in food when we resort to eyeballing the quantity. It would be prudent to weigh and measure the food as mentioned on the diet plan. Because without measuring, you may be consuming a lot more calories.
6. Endocrine Disruptors: Plastic items, food wraps, and even house dust act as obesogens, disrupting normal functioning of fat-burning hormones, and also lowering metabolism, making it a bit difficult to drop extra pounds. Read about “9 Ways To Avoid Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals That Lead to Obesity.”
7. Toxins in the Environment: Exposure to air pollutants, heavy metals, pesticides, antibiotics, medications, can enter the body, release toxins, affect the gut, lower the metabolism, and actually sabotage your weight loss efforts.
8. Addiction to Junk Foods: It’s a fact that junk food not only adds unhealthy and high-calorie ingredients, they also add pleasurable ingredients such as sugar, salt, and transfat that activate pleasure center of the brain, leading to a sort of an addiction, where one tends to crave for such food again and again. Additionally, junk and processed food dull out tastebuds and as a result, you no longer enjoy healthy food. Junk food is unhealthy, rich in calories, and lacks nutritional value, and that’s why it’s important to break junk food addiction.
9. Letting Guards Down During Weekends: It isn’t hard to undo a week of careful eating with just a few indulgences over the weekend. Your weight isn’t going to budge if you binge eat during the weekends and turn the cheat meal into a cheat day or worse, into a cheat weekend. Do practice mindful eating during weekends and keep a tabs on calorie intake even while socializing or getting together with friends. Most importantly, keep “cheat meal” as a single time indulgence, avoid stretching it into a two-day affair.
10. Rewarding Exercise with Food: Sometimes we tend to overestimate the number of calories burnt during exercise and reward ourselves with unhealthy snacks. To counter this, keep a food diary and also a log of amount of calories burnt during workout.
11. All or Nothing Attitude: Taking a bite off a slice of pizza or eating a doughnut is not a “go ahead” to eat unhealthy snacks for the rest of the day. Likewise, if you have not been able to exercise for a few days, do not become a couch potato. “All or nothing attitude: can sabotage the weight loss plan really badly. So, consider every meal as a new opportunity to lose weight and be active for the most part of the day, and also avoid the “all or nothing attitude” at all cost.
12. Being Impatient with Dieting: Just like you didn’t gain weight overnight, you wouldn’t lose all the excess fat in a single day. Patience is the key here because weight loss is a process that will take time to show results. Calling it quits just within a few days of starting a diet will not bring you any results at all, so do give your diet enough time to show its magic.
Steer clear of these diet saboteurs and lose weight like a boss!
9 Ways To Avoid Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals That Lead to Obesity
How To Stay Motivated During Weight Loss Process
