16 Practices to Quit to Lose Weight According to Registered Dieticians

By Jeff Ochoa March 21, 2020 Healthy Tips, Motivation, Nutrition 0 Comments

16 Practices to Quit to Lose Weight According to Registered Dieticians

By now, you understand how weight loss takes time, consistency, and perseverance. Creating healthy habits require determination and patience. While all these are true, knowledge is at the foundation of a successful weight loss. If you know what works and doesn’t work for you as a unique individual, your efforts will be more guided and directed. You won’t have to waste precious time on a lengthy trial and error process. Fortunately for you, registered dietitians frequently work with clients and have seen some of the common mistakes they make when it comes to losing weight in a healthy manner. Here are 16 things you should avoid to make sure you are effectively shedding those pounds off.

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Copying somebody else’s strategy for weight loss

Whether it is a celebrity or a close friend, you will tend to be amazed by somebody else’s weight loss success. You will then get curious about what he or she did and duplicate it in the hopes that it will work on you too. This is especially true with fad diets and how tempting it can be to follow them and just jump with everybody else on the bandwagon. However, this is also one of the reasons you cannot lose weight like they have because you are a different individual and what they did may not be suited for you. Summer Yule, RD expounds by pointing out that the individual differences can lie in one’s health condition, activity levels, food preferences, and energy requirements. As such, following a generic weight loss strategy may not be the optimal fit for you. Instead, Yule suggests that you develop a nutrition plan that is customized according to your particular needs. A registered dietician can help you create a personalized plan that will support your weight loss goals in alignment with your current lifestyle.

Making immense changes right away

Going from 0 to 100 is a big leap and when you are trying to lose weight, you cannot make that big of a progress overnight. Thinking that you can go from sedentary or zero physical activity to a fitness buff who’s at the gym each day is close to impossible. Laurel Jakubowski, RD has seen how some clients have made the mistake of hurriedly attempting to take big steps that only set them up for failure. What she recommends instead is that you take small steps that are achievable so you can keep going up the ladder of success. So go from zero exercise to once or twice a week and then work your way up. In the same way, you certainly want to eat and drink healthy but deciding to ditch junk food and soda all at once is unrealistic. Try reducing your consumption to a fewer times a week and then once you are ready, swap your favorite high calorie dessert for fiber-rich fruit.

Banishing your favorite foods for good

A balanced diet is not only consist of the major food groups but includes your favorite foods as well. Jane Pelcher, RD espouses that eliminating the foods that you love regularly from your diet will only result in overindulgent cheat days. You will see how it will aggravate your cravings as it comes back with a vengeance. So instead of accelerating your weight loss, it will actually counter it. A good practice would be to follow an 80/20 guide that consists of 80% health food and 20% favorite food. Learn to love veggies, whole grains, fruits, high quality proteins, seeds, and nuts while balancing it with the cookies or fries that you already love. Acknowledging your cravings by enjoying them from time to time is no crime. Have a little until you crave for them less and less.

Giving up on meat and protein

Vegans and vegetarians have a cause to fight for. If you would like to lose weight the healthy way however, giving up on meat is not the way to go. On its own, shunning protein from your diet is not a highly-recommended weight loss strategy. Jessica Swift, RD explains that going meatless will not always make your thinner and healthier. This is because meat is the source of protein that is responsible for burning fat, building muscles, and ultimately, weight loss. When you cut meat off your diet, the tendency is that they get replaced with food that are high in starch that do not help with muscle building in any way. What you should opt for in this case is a well-rounded protein intake that consists of seafood, lean meat, whole grains, low sodium soy products, legumes, and beans.

Not accounting for your other eating activities

Apparently, all eating activities matter when you are trying to lose weight. It is not just your main meals but dessert, snacks, and bites in between. Andres E. Ayesta, RD is the founder of Vive Nutrition as well as a strength and conditioning specialist. Ayesta points out how you would consciously count calories for the main dishes that you enjoy but not what you mindlessly munch on during the day or night. You have probably noticed when you are cooking how you tend to have a taste here and there. Or when you treat yourself with snacks that are easy to grab at home or at the office. So yes, the licks, bites, and tastes are all counted so you have to be conscious about them too if you want to trim down. Keeping a food journal can help you keep track of your food consumption for the day and give you a perspective about your overall progress and areas for improvement. To ensure that you are adhering to your diet scheme, make a weekly plan and prepare your snacks ahead of time.

Taking fresh fruits for granted

Fruit juices and dried fruits seem to have taken over the world of weight loss. However, Yule has noted that it would be easier to come up with a calorie deficit when your meals contain lots of fiber, lean protein, and water. So while fruit juices and dried fruits may also contain the antioxidants in whole fruits, it is never the same. Fruit juices do not contain as much fiber as their whole counterparts while dried fruits have less water content. It is only with whole fruits that you will be able to benefit from the most filling volume of calories. As such, a cup of whole grapes is around 100 calories while the juiced version have roughly 160 calories and raisins can have as much as 500 calories. And so to lose weight, always go for fresh fruits or even frozen ones over juiced or dried.

Missing out on water

Water can become a side note when you get caught up in eating the right foods for losing weight. As a consulting dietitian, Taylor Stolt, RD has noticed the same with clients at Plate and Canvas. Meanwhile, the value that water brings to facilitate weight loss cannot be overemphasized. Drinking enough water has some major benefits to the body. When you stay hydrated, your hunger gets significantly reduced. You will find yourself more energetic when you drink more water as it improves the ability of the body to burn fat for energy. It also helps you burn more calories. As a guide for drinking the right amount of water, Stolt advises you start by computing how much your body weight is in ounces and half of that will be how much you should be drinking. Aside from water, your fluid intake can likewise include bone broth or tea.

Tracking calories only

When you have a weight loss goal, calorie count can become one of the most important numbers to be conscious about. Meanwhile, Pelcher emphasizes that calories are not the only indicators of good health and nutrition. Fortunately, it is now easy to check your other nutritional data using apps that will help guide you on your weight loss journey. For instance, you can check on your daily fiber intake and work on a 25 grams goal for women and 38 grams for the men. You just have to choose foods rich in fiber like veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, and whole grains to reach your goal. Fiber plays a big role in satiety and are also good for gut health. It reduces the risk of heart disease and is a good source of vitamins and minerals. Fiber isn’t the only nutrient to pay attention to when you are trying to lose weight but the point is that, nutrition is more important than calorie count.

Scratching off carbs from your list

Going on a low-carb or no-carb diet is quite popular these days in the weight loss space. There is a huge misunderstanding to this though because to lose weight, the objective is to reduce the consumption of simple or refined carbs such as white bread, candy, and baked goods but not all carbohydrates. Swift clarifies that complex carbohydrates including whole wheat products and quinoa are non-negotiable for healthy weight loss. It will be difficult for you to sustain a healthy diet if you cut out all the carbohydrates especially when it is found in several food groups like dairy, fruits, and veggies. When you scratch off carb sources from your grocery list, your diet plan will not only be insufficient but it will be hard for you to sustain it as well. Don’t forget that, the body prefers carbohydrates to break down for energy. Complex carbs are also rich in protein, fiber, and all the other nutrients that help with stabilizing your blood sugar during the break down process.

Relying on the activity tracker

You may be used to judging calories based on what an activity tracker will tell you. But in general, most registered dietitians do not recommend using it to guide you in evaluating your caloric needs. Most often than not, fitness trackers are inaccurate in that you will tend to overestimate how much you’ve burned in calories while underestimating how many calories you have eaten. Because of this, Jakubowski has seen how clients have been led to think that they have earned a big slice of a 600-calorie chocolate cake when their workout actually burned only 400 calories. If you keep that going, a 200 calorie excess each time is definitely going to build up and before you know it, you’ve gain weight instead of lost it. Accordingly, it is best to listen to your body more and tap into your satiety level, then keep track of your weight so you can determine the amount of calories that will work with your level of activity.

Eating like there’s no tomorrow

With all the other things that you need done, you just want to eat as fast as you can and have it over and done with. Sometimes, you even eat while doing something else so you do not waste precious time. But Lori Rosenthal, RD, coach of the Rise weight-loss app is saying that you are not a snake, so do not eat like them. If you want to shed those pounds off, you need to take the time to chew and savor the food in front of you. This way, you do not only enjoy your meals but naturally eat less than you usually do. Besides, it takes approximately 20 minutes for the brain to catch up with your stomach. This means that you do not wait for your brain to tell you that you are already full because you will tend to overeat. But if you eat slowly, you will know that you have already reached your satiety levels right on time.

Ditching fruits and vegetables due to high sugar content

It’s easy to think that some fruits and veggies have high sugar content and should be avoided at all costs. While this may be true to some extent, Michelle Dudash, RD of the Clean Eating Cooking School argues that this naturally occurring sugars also contain the fiber that help counterbalance the effect on your blood sugar. As such, you do not make the mistake of avoiding such highly nutritious fruits and veggies on the account of their sugar content. Besides, they are much better off than those highly processed snacks or drinks. Petite Nutrition owner, Anne London, MS, RDN shares how she keeps a bag of organic baby spinach in her ref. London adds the spinach to anything and everything she prepares like spaghetti sauce, smoothies, slow-cooker dishes, stews, and scrambled eggs. You do not only boost your vegetable intake this way but you also achieve your daily veggie requirements and feel extra energized with little effort.

Depending on weight loss supplements alone

With strong conviction, Jennifer O’Donnell-Giles, MS, RD, CSSD states that if there was a weight loss pill that worked for the long-term, then weight management could have been the easiest to implement. Relying on quick fixes is never a solution to successful and healthy weight loss. Weight management is a skill that involves changing the way you think about fueling your body. Food is fuel for everyday living and you have to fuel your body the best way you can. When you are able to shift your thinking in this manner, then the rest will simply take care of itself.

Turning away from healthy fats

The fat phobia had its roots from the ‘70s to the ‘90s and today, we can still feel the holdover. A lot of people have turned their backs from healthy fats by going on a fat-free or low-fat diet to lose weight. Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics spokesperson, Alissa Rumsey, MS, RD advocates that you do not have to turn away from fats completely as a moderate amount is crucial in helping with your satiety. When you feel full for longer, you tend to eat less and crave even lesser. Each time you go for a low-fat or fat-free diet, you only tend to replace fats with refined carbohydrates – posing more dangers to your health and adding to your weight. It is best then to enjoy healthy fat with your meals and snacks such as seeds, nuts, avocados, liquid oils, soy, fish, and dairy products.

Getting obsessed with calorie counting

Consulting dietitian Emily Cope-Kyle, MS, RD helps clients transition to counting nutrients instead of calories through her practice. Cope-Kyle believes that what you eat is of equal importance with how much you eat. She constantly sees how clients tend to fall into the trap of counting calories and she considers it as one of the biggest pitfalls. What happens is that they eat too few calories. Clients come to her and talk about their struggle following a 1,200-calorie diet per day. They also ask what could help make them full during the day. However, Cope-Kyle has a simple answer and that is to eat more! While popular culture dictates calorie counting for weight loss, it can result to deprivation from the very nutrients that your body needs. Worse, the same nutrients are the ones which will actually help you lose weight and live healthier. So don’t forget, count nutrients instead of calories. As for what to eat, it is better to focus on what you can have instead of what you can’t have. One can get obsessed over avoiding cheese, dessert, bread, alcohol, or sugar. But the key to successful weight loss really is paying attention to what you can eat and including all the nutritious and filling superfoods you can find.

Proceeding without a solid plan

A lot of people take planning for granted and just dive in their supposed weight loss journey blind and clueless. The owner of Tasty Balance Nutrition, Lindsey Pine, MS, RD emphasizes that this could be your biggest mistake. It is important to set yourself up for success from the very beginning and that can only happen when you have a solid plan in place. You’ve got to have actionable steps all planned out and they have to be small steps that are challenging but attainable. You can start by laying out a few specific goals that you are to achieve on your first week. As soon as you have mastered those goals, you can keep adding more. The ultimate goal is to be able to develop habits out of them that will not only help you lose weight but sustain you in living a healthy lifestyle for good.

Are you ready to lose weight, build muscle, or feel more fit? Join Beachbody On Demand, and get unlimited access to Beachbody’s world-famous programs, including 80 Day Obsession, Liift 4, 21 Day FIX®, Body Beast, Insanity, TurboFire, PiYo, P90X®, 21 Day Fix Extreme, T25 and 100’s more. Don’t miss out on your chance for amazing results. Sign up today!