Losing excess fat improves health, gives you more energy, and can give a much more aesthetically pleasing body composition. But losing weight is not always the easiest task in the world. In fact, for many people it is a challenge. Everyone’s brain is wired differently and too often we don’t account for the individual differences when embarking on a fat loss plan. And with so much information out there, it is sometimes hard to distinguish the good advice from bad. You may have made better food substitutions, counted calories, and become a regular exerciser. All of that is a major part of losing the weight, however, if you are still struggling you may be committing some common mistakes and not even realize it.

 

Eating ‘Low Fat’

During the 1990s, there was a big craze of companies producing low fat foods. People want to lose weight? Eat low fat! The problem with that strategy was that fat was often just replaced with sugar, not to mention those processed foods weren’t a healthy option no matter the fat content. Fat isn’t bad. In fact, it has an important role to play in your body. If you want to lose fat faster, skip out on the processed foods full of refined sugar, even when they claim to be low fat.

 

Don’t Skip Meals

Skipping meals is not beneficial to fat loss. Many people have the idea that they will just skip meals in order to lose weight. Yes, you may lose weight in the short term, however, in the long run you are slowing your metabolism, making your body want to store more fat, hurting your health, and will have a worse body composition to show for it. Losing fat is about calories in vs calories out BUT the calories in still matter!  You still need the nutrients and you still need to preserve muscle mass in a calorie deficient state. Stay the course and feed your body right.

 

You Don’t Have a Real Plan

People can be too optimistic about their fat loss goals. They can have the tendency to think that since fat loss is a straightforward process, they can simply wing it and accomplish their fitness goals. After a little bit of time, they learn that the food cravings are more powerful than they thought, they don’t know how many calories they need each day, they don’t know how to progressively build their workouts, etc.  Planning prepares you for the roadblocks that you will face on your journey and gives you a set of tools to choose the right way to deal with them, don’t overlook planning your goals.

 

Wasting your Calorie Allotment on Liquid Calories

Alcohol, soda, juices, etc. are all forms of liquids that can have significant calories which when added to your diet can have a huge impact on your fat loss. It is a great idea to cut all of these out of your diet or to specifically make room for the healthier options. For example, I still drink a fruit smoothie with no added sugar while cutting, mainly for the vitamin and mineral content. However, I make sure to fit within the over scheme of my daily caloric allotment.

 

Don’t Obsess Over Weight Fluctuations

Losing fat takes time and ‘weight’ isn’t necessarily representative of that. Sometimes, you will be a few pounds heavier due to water weight, then you may not lose any weight for a week or two and become frustrated. Results will come if you let them, don’t obsess over the short-term and keep your end goal in perspective. If after two weeks, you are still stuck, then consider making slight adjustments until things get jump started again.