12 Things You Should Never Do If You Want To Lose Weight

’12 Things You Should Never Do If You Want To Lose Weight’ – Monica May

When we decide we want to start losing weight, we are determined to try and do almost anything to achieve it.

However, there are a few things that many people do to lose weight, that are totally unnecessary.

In fact, they can only waste your time and slow you down.

So, here are the 12 things you should never do if you want to lose weight.

Let’s jump right into them!

12 Things You Should Never Do If You Want To Lose Weight

1. Skipping Meals

While skipping meals might seem like a great opportunity to eat less, it will actually do the exact opposite thing – you’ll end up eating more latter on.

You’ll probably end up snacking a bunch, and maybe having more calories in than you should’ve had with the meal.

Aside from a caloric perspective, skipping meals is not healthy at all and it can have harmful health consequences if it’s done long term.

So, instead of grabbing a bag of chips, have a full meal.

2. Cutting Out Entire Groups Of Food

There is  no villain when it comes to food groups – they are all equally important and we should include all of them as a part of a healthy and balanced diet.

Cutting out foods that are actually beneficial for your body is not a good way to approach weight loss and health overall.

Let’s take keto as an example.

My personal issue with a diet like this is that first of all is restrictive and second you’re cutting out foods that are healthy and so beneficial for your health.

For example lentils, beans, peas, potato, brown rice, carrots…

Do I think they are all healthier and better for you than bacon? ABSOLUTELY!

Then why the heck you are not allowed to eat them? Just because they have carbs.

But what about the fiber you are excluding, a nutrient you can’t get out of anything else other than carbs?

3. Eating Less

Eating less is not a good way to lose fat either.

For starters, eating less than your body needs will slow down your metabolism, which is not a good thing.

You may lose weight short term, but once you’re done with your diet you’ll gain more weight than you used to have, aka as the yo-yo effect.

This only happens when diet slows down your metabolism, because of eating less nutrients than your body needs for fuel.

Plus, when you’re hungry all the time, you are more likely to reach for unhealthy foods and binge eat at the end of the day.

You don’t have to eat less, you just have to eat right.

4. Relying On Exercise

So many people think that if they exercise, then it’s okay to eat whatever they want.

However, that’s a rookie mistake.

Exercise is just a tiny component in our daily energy use.

Exercise accounts for up to 20% of the calories you burn.

The rest is left up to your food choices.

You can never out-train a bad diet.

If you’re constantly relying on malnutrition, sugars and junks and hope to burn them all with a one hour visit to the gym – you’re just wasting your time.

You can learn more about that in my article Diet Vs. Workout – What’s more important?

5. Going For Magic Solutions

From waist trainers, to detox teas, meal replacements, and all kinds of diet pills, gummy bears and vitamins.

Please don’t fall for them.

People standing behind the marketing are genius: Get a hot girl with couple hundred thousand followers on IG, have them hold the tea and claim that they use it to look like that.

JUST SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!

I tried most of them and they don’t work.

There’s no public research regarding the statement that any of these will help you lose weight on their own.

The fact is – we cannot melt our pounds away  just by adding one single product to our diet or lifestyle.

It doesn’t work that way.

Learn more about why you should avoid popular “magic solutions” in my article Lose Weight Not Money!

6. Focusing On Calories

So many people are stuck with counting calories these days, that I get the feeling that they don’t value HEALTHY FOOD anymore.

Now, I know it’s common sense that the fewer calories you eat the more weight you’ll lose.

It’s all about calories in vs calories out. Except it’s not.

I talk about this all the time on my blog, all calories are not the same.

In fact, healthy food doesn’t always mean low-calorie food and it’s always better, for both your body and health, to have a handful of almonds with over 300 calories, instead of a coke zero.

I always say, with calories as with diamonds, it’s the quality that matters most and enhances their value.

This means that it’s not how many calories are involved that matters, but if the food is healthy and good for your body or not.

You can count calories all day long, but as long as they come from junk foods, you’ll end up with no long term results.

7. Going Gluten-Free

Going gluten-free when you don’t really need to eat gluten-free won’t do anything for you in terms of getting healthy and losing weight.

Unless you are diagnosed with celiac disease, it’s not harmful or unhealthy to eat it, and it’s not an ingredient that causes weight gain.

In fact, it’s usually the other ingredients that are a problem for your health, like quick rise yeast, and added sugars.

8. Eating The Same Foods

Like any other relationship in life, your relationship with food has to be maintained and worked on too.

You have to work hard on keeping it interesting and exciting, because the moment you feel bored, you’ll be most likely to cheat and go to your old eating habits.

And it can be a real challenge to keep healthy food fun all the time, which is actually the main problem with most diets:

They suggest you to eat certain foods over and over again.

A food can easily become boring because when you eat something over and over your dopamine levels start to drop.

This means you won’t be as excited about eating and when you don’t enjoy the food you eat, you’re most likely to get out of track.

You can’t keep eating foods you don’t like just because they’re healthy, so learn new recipes daily, to keep it fun, diverse and sustainable.

Check out my video:

9. Eating Foods You Don’t Like

Another main problem with diets – they tell you what to eat, without considering the possibility that’s not actually your favorite food.

In real life, you lose weight by not eating bad foods, junk foods, packed foods and fake foods, and start eating healthy foods you actually like.

If you constantly eat foods you don’t like, you’re more likely to cheat and end up breaking your diet.

Start with the foods you really like, and experiment with the ones you haven’t tried – you may end up falling in love with healthy food. 

10. Eating Highly Processed Foods

Eating healthy is important, but what’s even more important is staying away from bad foods.

Processed foods that are far away from healthy and are poor in nutrients are just as bad for you and you have to avoid them.

From all kinds of cereal, granola bars, flavored nuts, instant oatmeal, sauces, dips and all kinds of highly processed foods you can find on the market shelf.

They may be labeled as healthy, but that doesn’t mean they really are.

Swapping foods with healthier options is something that has helped me so much and is still helping me.

Here are the 15 healthy food swaps that are a complete game changer for me.

11. Rushing Things Out

Weight loss can’t happen overnight – you haven’t gained it in a few weeks, so you can’t expect to lose it in a few weeks too.

It takes time, commitment, and hard work.

From my own experience, when you start eating healthy and exercise it takes at least 4 weeks for you to notice the first change, not to mention reaching your body goals – probably months.

Just be patient, don’t rush things out and remember: anything worth getting does not come easy.

12. Focusing On Losing Weight On Just One Part Of Your Body

I’ve heard it so many times:

“I want to build a bigger booty, but I’m afraid my legs will get bulky.”

…or…

“I want to lose belly fat, but keep the rest of my body as is.”

Well, I’m sorry to break this down for you, but the truth is you can’t lose weight in just one body part.

Unfortunately spot reduction isn’t possible.

You can do hundreds of crunches each training session, and the only thing you would get is stronger abs.

When it comes to weight loss, it’s all or nothing.

This means that you can only lose overall body fat by working on your body as a whole piece and eating healthy.

Focus on working on a better body overall, and you’ll get amazing results.

BONUS: Comparing Yourself To Others

And last, but not least, the bonus tip, which is:

Never, ever, compare yourself to other women, or fitness influencers you see on social media.

You don’t know their story!

You don’t know what they did to get there, is it genetics, is it posing, is it photoshop… you just don’t know.

I explain all about that in my YouTube video ‘Why You Will Never Look Like a Fitness Influencer’, so make sure to check it out…

Till next time, babes!
xoxo