Trying to lose fat, we often feel like we are stuck in a maze. Despite putting in hard work, our weight on the weight scale looks the same — a result of some common weight loss mistakes. That’s what makes us frustrated.
Personally, I was there, and I thought extreme dieting and a lot of exercise were the only way to lose weight. But I ended up feeling stuck and disappointed.
But don’t worry, here is the good news. By understanding and fixing your mistakes, you can give your 100% potential in your effort. The purpose of this article is not only to point out your mistakes. It’s about giving you the knowledge to make changes that really work.
Well, let’s explore the common mistakes that people make in their fat loss journey and how to avoid them to get a better result. However, the mistakes that we will talk about in this article are mostly made by beginners who don’t have any knowledge about fat loss. This will help them to break that barrier and reach their desired goals.
Excessive Cardio
Well, doing cardio is totally fine. Whenever we think about fat loss, cardio often comes to mind first. That’s because when we do cardio, we burn approximately 10 to 20 calories per minute. However, excessive cardio can harm our bodies more than it benefits them internally. When you do excessive cardio, it can start to cause muscle loss. Your muscles become fatigued, and the chance of injury increases significantly.
Research from the National Council of Medicine on Exercise shows that excessive cardio can lead to muscle loss. This muscle loss can slow down your metabolism and make fat loss more difficult while making it harder to gain new muscle later on. However, another harmful aspect of excessive cardio is that it releases a hormone called cortisol into your body. This hormone promotes fat storage, especially around your abdominal area.
Solution: You can do up to 30 minutes of cardio daily if you’re also doing weight training. If you’re not doing weight training, you can do cardio for 40 to 45 minutes. If you’re too obese or want to speed up your fat loss journey, you can do cardio twice a day, in the morning and evening.
Doing cardio on an empty stomach in the morning is beneficial. If you’re doing weight training, follow it with 15 to 20 minutes of high-intensity interval training (HIIT), which will make your fat loss efforts more effective.
Setting an Unrealistic Goal
This mindset is what takes people far from their goals. If you think you can lose weight and achieve a great physique within a week, you are mistaken. You need to accept that a fat loss journey is a long-term process.
It depends on your physical condition, exercise, and diet. It is recommended to embark on a fat loss journey with a time frame of three to six months. This approach minimizes the risk of harming your body and makes it easier to gain muscle as well.
Solution: Set a clear, measurable, relevant, and time-bound goal. For instance, instead of aiming to lose 10 pounds in one week, aim to lose one to two pounds per week. This type of goal-setting will keep you motivated.
Also, dividing your long-term vision into smaller achievable milestones has another benefit: after reaching each milestone, you’ll feel small joys that boost your confidence and keep you motivated to move forward.
Not Focusing on Calorie Restriction
It’s not possible to achieve fat burning without calorie restriction. Sometimes you will find some people who spend hours on the treadmill, cycling, doing abdominal exercises, or sticking solely to the cardio section, yet they don’t see significant improvements in their body composition.
Research shows that 25% of people are not aware of their calorie restriction. There is a rule in the gym world called the 70-30 rule, where your fitness journey depends 70% on your diet and 30% on your training.
How much time do you spend in the gym? At most 1 to 2 hours. The remaining 22 hours you spend outside the gym. What you do during that time has a significant impact on your entire fat loss journey.
Let’s make it simple: calorie restriction means that when you are on a fat-loss journey, you need to consume fewer calories and burn more than you consume. This way, you can burn fat more quickly.
Solution: You can use calorie-measuring apps to track your calorie intake. You can also incorporate nutrient-rich foods into your diet that will help you stay full for longer periods. Examples include lean proteins, vegetables, and whole grains. Additionally, practice mindful eating without any destruction, like watching TV while eating, and pay attention to the Hunger and fullness cues.
You can also try intermittent fasting, where you eat all your meals within a specific time window. It will help you to control your calorie intake and improve your metabolic health.
Too much Calorie Restriction
Although calorie restriction is necessary, too much calorie restriction can backfire. When you go on very high-calorie restrictions, it slows down your metabolism and shifts towards muscle loss. Plus, too much calorie restriction can lead to overeating, which starts to increase weight.
According to research from the National Institute of Health, too much calorie restriction reduces your metabolism by 23%, leading to immediate weight loss at first, but eventually, after some time, you will start gaining weight again, which is known as yo-yo dieting.
Solution: Aim to stay within a 500-700 calorie deficit from your daily calorie requirement. Start with a 300-calorie deficit initially and gradually increase it. This helps maintain a healthy fat loss rate and preserves muscle mass. Plus, it keeps your metabolism rate steady. Make sure to include a variety of nutritional elements in your new plan, like proteins, carbs, and healthy fats.
Overloading All Tools At Once
Just as calorie restriction is necessary, excessive calorie restriction can be harmful to you. It’s something that many people struggle with, feeling upset, demotivated, and frustrated because they find fat loss very challenging. Beginners often make this mistake the most. They start using all the tools together—crash diets, excessive cardio—and try to do everything needed for fat loss all at once.
However, this is a mistake; it’s not advisable to go into such heavy restrictions in the initial stages. Though this can lead to immediate weight loss but later on, it can later result in nutritional deficiencies, hormonal imbalance, and long-term damage to your health.
Research from the American Psychological Association shows that 40% of people face intense stress and complexity, which prevents them from continuing their fat loss journey.
Solution: Instead of complicating your daily routine too much at the start of your fat loss journey, train your body through one or two small changes. This gradual method is safer and less stressful. These small healthy habits will help you establish dominance and help you stay on track for the long term. If needed, you can engage in stress reduction activities such as yoga, meditation, or any activities that bring you mental pleasure. These will mentally support your weight loss journey.
Ignoring Weight Training
Weight training is a must during your fat loss journey. If you ignore weight training and just focus and depend on cardio, you’ll start to lose muscle, which can significantly slow down your metabolism.
Studies found that combining weight training with cardio results in more effective fat loss and helps preserve muscle that cardio alone cannot achieve. Your muscles are metabolically active, meaning they help you burn more calories even when resting. This accelerates your fat loss.
Solution: Incorporate weight training two to three days a week alongside your cardio sessions. Focus on compound movements like squats, deadlifts, and bench presses. These exercises maximize muscle retention and metabolic rate. Additionally, weight training enhances your physical performance and reduces the risk of injury.
Not Drinking Enough Water and Ignoring Sleep Quality
Ignoring these two aspects can have a significant negative impact on your weight journey. Dehydration slows down your metabolism, and poor sleep quality increases your hunger hormones, leading you to eat more.
Research shows that when you get quality sleep, your body burns approximately 300 to 400 calories per night. Your physical and mental abilities are weakened by lack of sleep, which makes it more difficult to maintain your healthy routines.
Solution: Aim to drink at least 8 to 10 glasses of water daily and get 7 to 8 hours of quality sleep every night. Proper hydration and rest improve your overall body composition and aid in your weight loss journey. Create a regular sleep routine, stay away from electronics and blue light an hour before bed, and improve the quality of your sleep. Drink a glass of water 30 minutes before meals to help control your appetite.
Using Unnatural Hormones and Supplements
A lot of people use hormones and supplements to lose weight. However, they are not aware of the long-term damage it can do to their bodies. This can lead to serious health problems like diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
Some studies have shown that these things increase your risk of heart disease significantly. It also increases your chances of liver damage. Plus, these anabolic steroids cause hormonal disturbances that reduce the production of testosterone and increase the level of estrogen. As a result, diseases like gynecomastia and infertility are more likely to occur.
Solution: Focus more on natural methods such as a well-balanced diet and regular exercise. If you want to use a supplement, use supplements that have scientific evidence.
However, before this, you should consult a doctor. Try to use a supplement that supports your overall health. For example, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. You can pay attention to natural fat burners such as green tea and caffeine, which will boost your metabolism and support your flat loss a lot.
Ignoring Hidden Calories
People often have a complaint that we are in a calorie restriction, but still not seeing any results. A big reason for this is that we have no idea about the hidden calories in our foods, and we do not think about them at all.
For example, you may be eating sugar with coffee, processed food, maybe sausages, or maybe a beverage that destroys all your efforts to burn fat, and you do not see any results, even after so much effort.
Solution: Be mindful of what you eat and drink. Choose low-calorie or no-calorie foods as your alternative and read the nutrition level well before purchase. Pay attention to homemade food where you can control the calories, ingredients, and Portion sizes. Use herbs and spices to flavor your food instead of high-calorie sauces and dressings. And choose unsweetened beverages over sugary drinks.
Additional Valuable Advice
Well, if you are very motivated by fat loss, then keep in mind that motivation is temporary; you will not find that motivation in yourself after a few hours. But by making it a habit through discipline, you will definitely be able to reach your goal very quickly.
You can’t change an unhealthy lifestyle that you’ve built yourself over the years overnight. Maybe you will follow for two to four days and then you will see that you have gone back to your previous life. Fitness isn’t really like that, but it’s best if you talk to your trainer.
But don’t worry, I’ll give you a road map. There is no need to go on a crash diet right now; first of all, identify what you are eating unhealthy during the day. It could be coffee with a little bit of sugar, it could be biscuits, or any other unhealthy things, and remove them from your diet list.
Train your body in this way for some time. When it slowly becomes a habit through discipline, it may take a week or two weeks for many people, or it may take a month, but when it becomes a habit, you will go towards calorie restriction. Find out your daily calorie requirement; from that, start your calorie restriction through a 300-calorie deficit, then gradually reduce 100, to 100 calories more.
In this way, you can be in deficit as compared to your daily requirement up to 700 calories. And never skip the exercise. Try to do at least 5 days a week of 30 minutes of cardio and two to three days of weight training, drink enough water, and maintain a quality sleep of 7 to 8 hours. If you can follow these, you will be able to reach your fat loss journey very soon.
The Bottom Line
No matter who you currently follow on social media as a fitness role model, you wish your physique was just like his or hers. But you don’t see the dedication behind it. How hard did he have to work to get to this point?
That’s all I’ll tell you in the end
- Trust in yourself.
- Go with your lifestyle without expecting too much in the beginning and set goals that you will be able to achieve.
- Maintain consistency.
- Identify the mistakes and fix them.
- Understand your daily calorie needs, don’t go for extreme calorie restriction, and avoid the hidden calories
- Always stay hydrated and maintain the quality of sleep.
- Never ignore nutrition because this is the most powerful weapon.
- If needed, consult with a professional or someone who is already successful on that track.
Keep it up, all the best for your journey.
And don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments section.
