You've planned your meals all week and know that sticking to vegetables is the most effective way to shed those extra pounds. But aside from equipping yourself with the knowledge of the things you should eat, it is also important that you are aware of the mistakes you might make that may end up with you gaining more weight.
Pop Sugar asked Whole Health Nutrition's certified dietitian, Leslie Langevin, MS, RD, CD, to reveal the worst mistake people usually do when attempting to shed some pounds. And surprisingly, her answer was "cutting out too much."
Most people usually ditch processed foods when they start a new diet, and even though doing a total diet reset comes with benefits, avoiding carbs, sugar, meat and dairy altogether is not necessarily a wise move. Drinking shakes laden with protein powder and totally avoiding carbs may make you lose weight, but it will not do your weight any good in the long run, as it is an impossible diet to maintain. Once you start eating the foods you once tried to avoid, you will easily gain weight and cravings will also be stronger.
Another manner of this weight-loss mistake is eating healthy during the weekdays and then loosening up your strict diet when the weekend arrives-which means consuming whatever you are craving for. Langevin explains, "A starved body during the week will hoard calories on the weekend if it is a normal pattern."
If you follow a strict diet from Monday to Friday, your body will feel so depressed that when the weekend arrives, there are urges to binge and cravings so strong that you will overeat. A pattern like this will make increase your calorie intake and as a result, make your weight go up.
The key to losing weight is eating in moderation and applying the 80/20 rule to your diet. The Huffington Post suggests following this rule to achieve a healthy lifestyle. Eating clean all the time can be challenging and as what Langevin explained, can also be damaging when you start eating unhealthy foods.
This is why the 80/20 is a good rule to follow. It is about eating healthy 80 percent of the week, focusing on consuming plant-based foods and then eating what you love 20 percent of the week. This means, if you are a person who eats three times a day, you get to have about three meals of your choice each week.
Allowing yourself to give in to your cravings every once in a while can help you manage them better and prevent you from binge eating. Not only is this an excellent way to eat what you want, but you also lose weight in the process, too.
