1. Not Having A Plan!
95% of everyone that starts a diet is going to fail. That's a statistical fact! The number one reason that people fail on their diets is because they didn't have a plan. The most alarming thing about losing weight isn't the fact that people don't know how to lose the weight, it's that they don't put forth the work to back it up. What you need is a plan for every minute of every day on what you are going to eat and when you are going to exercise. If you know in advance what you are going to eat, and when you are going to exercise then you are way more likely to succeed.
2. Not pre-planning meals
The problem happens when you work a long day and you are tired and starving and all you want is something fast and easy. If you’ve got your food ready to go and already plan in advance, then eating healthy is just as easy if not easier than getting fast food. However, if you don’t plan ahead the temptation to veer off the road to the nearest fast food restaurant on your way home from work will be too tempting.
3. Lack of knowledge of how to exercise most efficiently.
Most people don’t understand how much they should exercise. Some people don’t work out with enough effort to see any results, and others work out to the point where they overwork their bodies and don’t achieve the results they are looking for. In short, the way you know you are working sufficiently hard is, you should be breaking out in a sweat when you work out, even in an air-conditioned building. If you aren’t sweating, you aren’t working nearly hard enough. On the other hand, to prevent over-training, try to keep your workouts between 45 minutes to an hour. Anything more than that and you run the risk of over-training.
4. Drinking alcohol.
Drinking alcohol is like drinking pure fat. It contains seven calories per gram, much more than carbs, which only contain four calories per gram. In addition, the body cannot receive any nutritional value from alcohol. So stay away from the alcohol or you’ll regret it later.
5. Cultural and familial pressures
One of the hardest parts about being on a strict diet and exercise program is the flak you get from your friends and family. Two things happen here. First, when family and friends notice you are making a difference in your body, whether consciously or subconsciously there is going to be a fear that you might leave them because you are looking better. There is a deep-seated fear that if you don’t look the way they do, and you lose all that fat, you’ll look elsewhere for companionship. This is nonsense, because I can tell you from personal experience that just because you change the way you look on the outside you never change who you are inside; you will still have the same affection for the people that you care about. Second, food has always been a staple of societal bonds between people. When you refuse to eat the foods that others around you eat, it will create a noticeable tension between you. There really isn’t anything you can do about this. People should accept you for whoever you are, whatever your pursuits in life may be, or whatever you are trying to be. The people who really care about you will always stick by your side, no matter what kinds of peer pressure you may receive about food and your exercise plan.
6. Preconceived notions of normal eating habits.
There is a pre-conceived notion in America that normal eating habits should consist of eating at fast food restaurants, and eating pizza and takeout Chinese food. Everyone should be able to ingest lots of soda, cookies, ice cream, cake and donuts and yet still be thin and have lean muscles. Well, unless you have the genetics of the 0.00001% of the population who can do that, it’s unlikely you or anyone you know will be able to gorge themselves on junk food and keep a six pack. Sure, some people may have to work harder than others, but that’s the lot we’ve all been given in life. Don’t lament the fact that it’s easier for some people to take off the weight than you. Don’t get discouraged that it’s harder for you to lose the fat. Yes, it may be harder, but it’s not impossible. No person in this world is doomed to be fat; it is the choices we make in life and the effort we put forward that determine how we will ultimately look.
7. Underestimating the amount of calories eaten in a day.
So many people underestimate the number of calories they eat in a day. If you ask any obese person what they eat in a day, they’ll probably tell you something normal, like an egg for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, and maybe a little bowl of spaghetti for dinner. None of that sounds too terrible. The truth is they probably ate half a dozen eggs with toast, and cookies and candies between breakfast and lunch. They had two hamburgers with large fries for lunch, more snacks between lunch and dinner, and a full pound of pasta for dinner. The difference in the truth versus what is claimed is not conscious deception, but it’s very easy to forget about the foods that you ate that really didn’t fill you up or that you ate out of boredom. One of the best ways to prevent overeating out of habit or just out of pure hunger is to keep a food journal of everything you put in your mouth. Be honest, and write it down immediately after you eat it. Don’t wait till the end of the day to write it all down. It’s too late by then. If you keep a food journal, it will keep you honest about the foods you have eaten and prevent you from underestimating the calories you’ve eaten in a day.
8. Underestimating the amount of work it takes to burn fat.
I’ve seen many people work out for hours at a time and then, right after, head to the nearest fast food joint and pig out. They never lose the fat or the weight and then wonder why they have put in all that effort for little to no results. Well, friend, that’s because you just blew all that hard work and calories burnt at the gym and filled up again on lots of high fat, high glycemic food that shot your insulin through the roof and shuttled everything you just ate into fat again.
If you want to burn fat, you have to work twice as hard as you think you should in order to burn off that fat. Not only do you have to burn the calories you’ve eaten in the day, but you also have to burn the excess fat you have on your body. Don’t even think about severely reducing your calories to spare you from having to work out as hard, because that just slows down your metabolism.
There are no shortcuts; you’ve got to put in the work. You have to have the diet along with the exercise to see results. It’s as simple as that.
9. Immediate results - or lack thereof.
People stop dieting and exercising because they stop seeing results after the first couple of weeks. This is absolutely normal, and you should expect that. When you hit a wall, you have to keep pushing and you’ll get past it. Stopping, eating a cheat meal, or taking a break are not going to cut it. You’ve got to commit yourself to the long haul, and I promise you will be happy you did. It’s at those moments that you feel you’ve hit a wall and can’t go further, but still do, that you make the most progress, and a few weeks later you’ll see the results.
10. Not Understanding the Basics of Diet and Exercise
Not understanding basic nutrition will hold you back from your goals. You’ve gotta eat the right kinds of foods to lose fat. You have to exercise to build lean muscle and get rid of the fat. If you don’t understand those two components, you’ll never have the body of your dreams.
