Not Eating Before Exercising
According to personal trainer Bianca Buresh, this is the biggest mistake that people make. Bianca says that her clients who work out on an empty stomach often experience nausea and fatigue—hardly optimal conditions when trying to get fit and burn calories. “You can’t have an amazing workout and sustain your energy without eating anything,” she explains. She recommends eating something (even just a little something) about forty-five minutes to an hour before exercising, though she says that, if necessary, twenty minutes beforehand would suffice, too. There are conflicting theories about this, but ultimately, our bodies perform better when they have energy to work with. You can Google “pre-exercise snacks” for ideas, or find out what works for you through trial and error.
Eating Too Infrequently
Metabolic rates lower not only when given an inadequate amount of calories, but also when there is too much time in between meals. “By delaying or skipping meals, you slow down your metabolism,” says Manuel. “The longer you wait, the more ghrelin [an appetite-stimulating hormone] is produced, and the more you have to eat later to feel satiated.” Eating more frequently—smaller meals and snacks—keeps our metabolism at a steady burn, regulates blood sugar levels, and staves off hunger-induced crankiness. It will also keep diets on track—if someone is starving and desperate, that person is less likely to make a smart meal choice and opt for whatever is fastest and most convenient, like a vending machine or fast food.
An All-or-Nothing Attitude
One of the worst mistakes people make when trying to lose weight is setting impossibly high standards for themselves. Having a goal to work toward is a great way to keep ourselves motivated, but if the goals are too drastic (e.g., never eating bread again), any misstep will promote feelings of failure, which impedes progress. “It’s better to set small goals, make them, and feel empowered rather than shooting for the stars,” Manuel advises. For example, if a sedentary person makes it a goal to exercise three times a week instead of every day, he is more likely to meet (or even exceed) that manageable goal rather than being overwhelmed.
Setting extreme rules for food choices is an equally bad idea. Labeling foods we’re trying to limit as “bad” will only make us feel guilty when we do eat them, which might encourage a “well, I already slipped; might as well make it worth it!” attitude. “Your mentality toward food choices should be positive,” Raina says.
Not Balancing Exercise and Diet
Raina and Manuel believe that people put too much emphasis on exercising when it comes to losing weight. “Exercise is important,” says Raina, “but I don’t think that it’s a 50-50 split.” Both Raina and Manuel gave the same ratio—80 percent diet, 20 percent exercise—for losing weight. The problem with focusing solely on exercise is that people don’t fuel themselves properly, which can lead to weight gain. “Many times, [people] get so involved in exercise, and they eat so little that their metabolism shuts down,” Manuel explains. “Or they start to exercise, the appetite goes up, and they eat more than they need,” he says.
Bianca agrees that exercise should be somewhat limited. “There’s no reason you have to spend any longer than an hour [per day] in the gym,” she says. However, she is quick to point out, “You should work out at least four to five times a week.” She also recommends synchronizing our diet with our exercise plan.
Not Realizing This Is a Lifestyle and Not a Quick Fix
Once the numbers on the scale or the sizes of our clothes decrease, that’s not the end of the journey. What many of us fail to realize is that it’s often keeping the weight off—not losing it—that becomes the hardest part of all. “People know how to lose weight, but they don’t know how to maintain,” Raina states. “Maintenance is for the rest of your life.” It goes along with not prioritizing ourselves—our plan needs to be something we can do forever, and that’s a difficult concept for many of us to accept. If we can’t live without brownies forever, or we can’t spend five days a week at the gym, we shouldn’t create those rules for ourselves. Instead, we should find a way to incorporate attainable diet and fitness goals into our lives, to make sure we can permanently stick to our plan. After all, each small, positive step we make toward our goals will ultimately yield a bigger payoff.
