Why is weight loss always so temporary? Sure, you shift a few pounds in the beginning but then you turn around and you’ve put it all on again from nowhere. Still, according to Jillita Horton, a certified personal trainer and fitness writer, ‘Permanent weight loss seems unachievable until you nail down a plan and avoid making some classic diet and exercise mistakes.’ So what are these classic mistakes you’re making, and how can you guard your wellbeing against them?
1. Wearing a weight loss suit: While you may think that rocking the Neil Armstrong look when exercising will help you to lose weight faster, the only thing these weight loss space suits do is make you sweat more, which makes you lose water faster. Horton explains, ‘You’ll end up thirsty and gain back the sweat weight by drinking water. These suits look very uncomfortable, and probably are; uncomfortable attire will inhibit your exercise output, and you’ll end up burning fewer calories – and as you can see, this will surely sabotage weight loss efforts.’ As these weight loss suits restrict your movement and make you feel overly hot, they impair your ability to work your hardest or run your fastest. ‘Wear light, loose workout clothes,’ Horton advises. ‘And focus on a rigorous workout, and drink plenty of water.’
2. Thinking that weight loss and weight gain take the same amount of time: This misconception is at least fairly logical; it took three years for you to gain 100 pounds of fat, so surely it takes three years to get back to your original healthy weight. However, Horton explains, ‘A person can gain weight for a variety of reasons, and major weight gains usually do take time. A change in eating and exercise habits, due to large loads of life stress, can still take a few years to result in a 100-pound weight gain. But with a complete turnaround in dietary habits and a renewed commitment to rigorous strength training and vigorous cardio exercise, a person can lose excess body fat in far less time than it took to put it on.’ Still, if you don’t commit to your new wellness programme, your progress will be much, much slower.
3. Believing it’s not safe to lose more than two pounds a week: 3,500 calories is equal to a pound of fat. Let’s say you’re an obese person with a sedentary lifestyle, who consumes 5,000 calories on an average day. You then decide to add an hour’s daily exercise to your lifestyle, and cut your calorie consumption down to 3,000. This means you’ve created a daily calorie deficit of 2,000, which means you consume 14,000 fewer calories a week – this doesn’t even include the ones you burn off from the added exercise. When you divide 14,000 by 3,500, it turns out you’re losing four pounds every week. Then, assuming your hour’s exercise a day burns an extra 500 calories, that makes for a weekly weight loss total of five pounds. But what’s with all the numbers? ‘To say this is unsafe is to say that it is unsafe to consume 3,000 calories a day and exercise one hour a day,’ Horton clarifies. ‘However, if a person goes from 3,000 calories a day to 1,000, then yes, this is very unhealthy and will ultimately screw up metabolism and cause other problems.’
4. Avoiding nuts for weight loss: Horton asserts, ‘Nuts have always gotten a bad rap from the dieting camp. But nuts are super-healthy and improve cholesterol profile.’ She adds that two or three teaspoons of cashews, pecans, peanuts or walnuts can kill your appetite for hours.