Metabolism: Want To Lose Weight? Don't Do These 5 Things.
Observations from 14 years of being an RD.
If you want to lose weight, you likely want it to happen quicker than what your body decides feels right. You may see slow progress as no progress and feel like giving up.
This can feel frustrating and can lead to more intense dieting behaviors like overly restricting. Or maybe you don’t cut back on calories or certain foods, but you begin to feel like a “failure” and lose belief in yourself. Neither feel good!
There is no “perfect” plan to lose weight. While there are key things to consider to help you more easily and sustainably lose weight, there isn’t a concrete formula that works for everyone.
While bioindividuality can feel freeing, it can also feel overwhelming.
Here are tips that seem to work well for most people AND things you may want to stop doing if you’re on the weight loss journey
Mistake #1:
Taking on too many weight loss habits at once.
Have you ever decided to tackle a new nutrition plan, and then felt a little spicy and decided to one-up that goal?
It can feel tempting to layer a new fitness plan, meditation, fasting, and a step goal onto your desire to eat healthier. That often backfires.
We underestimate how much work goes into meal planning, shopping, prepping, eating, and cleaning. This is especially true when you’re turning off autopilot at the grocery store and choosing different foods to “add to cart”.
Consider starting with ONE thing.
In his book, The ONE Thing, Gary Keller highlights the importance of focused attention; and how success isn’t about doing more, it’s about prioritizing the one thing that matters.
“Extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus … when you spread yourself out, you end up spread thin.” - Gary Keller
As women, we have a neverending list of things that need to get done. We believe that in order to succeed in our health goals, doing more = doing better.
Nope. Doing more = doing more. That’s it.
If you’re starting out on your weight loss journey, please don’t try to tackle more than 1-2 new behavior changes at once. Once you feel solid in your nutrition plan, slowly add in movement, meditation, step goals, fasting, or whatever you feel is your next reasonable aim.
Mistake #2:
Placing foods on a “do not eat” list.
This may sound counterintuitive if you’ve been on ANY diet program. A common theme across many diets is the exclusion of one or more foods. There may be legitimate science for it, in the case of an elimination diet, but for the most part, these rules are arbitrary and unrealistic long-term.
Not only are they unrealistic, they can damage your relationship with food. Research suggests that placing unnecessary restrictions on food can lead to a substantial disinhibition effect. What does this mean?
The more you restrict, the more you crave “off limits” foods and the harder it is to say no.
I refuse to believe having an occasional piece of cake or bowl of REAL ice cream is detrimental. In fact, after working with 1,000+ people at this point in my career, people who avoid foods for arbitrary reasons are arguably less healthy.
The idea that your meals should ALWAYS be whole food-based and sugar-free isn’t inspirational, it’s orthorexic.
“Although being aware of and concerned with the nutritional quality of the food you eat isn’t a problem in and of itself, people with orthorexia become so fixated on so-called ‘healthy eating’ that they actually damage their own well-being.” - National Eating Disorders Association.
If you are concerned a type of food (such as milk) or a category of foods (such as dairy) doesn’t work for you, an elimination diet, where you intentionally remove the food for 30 days and then systematically reintroduce it, is a fantastic idea.
So today, I’m asking you to consider and re-evaluate what you’re currently avoiding. What makes you believe it doesn’t work for you? Could you explore reintroducing it?
If you heard a certain food was “bad” for you, do you still believe that today? What evidence do you have that it doesn’t work for you? Challenge yourself on your own beliefs.
I’ll share more about why restriction backfires and how to include your favorite foods in a metabolically supportive way in another article, but for now, I want you to become more aware of your own beliefs and behaviors. Where do they come from and what is worth challenging?
Mistake #3:
Using ONE measurement to gauge progress.
Letting the scale dictate your progress leads to frustration, especially for women. There are several things that influence what the scale says that do not indicate how well you’re doing. In fact, the scale tends to stop or stall people from taking action, even when progress is happening. People give up when the number isn’t what they hoped for.
Here are a few reasons why the scale sucks as a single measurement.
The scale isn’t accurate if:
You ate a meal too close to bed and check in the morning.
You step on the scale after eating or later in the day than normal.
You consumed more sodium the day before, including in your electrolyte powder.
You haven’t had a solid bowel movement in the last 24 hours.
You had an intense workout the day before.
You are in the luteal phase (ovulation to day 1 of your period).
Monitoring progress isn’t a bad thing. It just has to be done with the right mindset and context.
Here’s how I recommend tracking:
If you monitor your scale weight, do it daily first thing in the morning (naked, before food) and take a weekly average. This will be more accurate.
Take tape measurements (waist, thighs, hips, chest, arms).
Assess non-scale victories (improvements in energy, skin, mood, confidence, etc).
Track consistent days of completing your health habits (use a calendar and X the days you complete your goal).
Mistake #4:
Having unrealistic expectations.
Similar to the point above about scale weight…we often think we’ll lose weight quicker than we realistically can…especially if we’re smart about how we’re doing it.
Thanks to the Biggest Loser, book slogans promising you’ll “Lose 10 lbs in 10 Days” and other media influences, we believe our progress is mediocre when it’s actually fantastic.
In fact, you may actually feel really proud of yourself, notice your clothes are fitting better, but “only” see 0.5 lbs lost on the scale and get irritated. If I told you that you ARE crushing it, you wouldn’t believe me. If you saw a friend looking more vibrant and she told you the same, I bet you would cheer her on vs. what you’d tell yourself in the same situation.
We can be our own biggest critics. Then we give up.
Have realistic expectations for your nutrition plan, exercise plan, and results. Then celebrate yourself when you have a good day, week, or overcome a barrier. Change is hard! Your efforts are worth it, even when the outcome doesn’t feel mindblowing.
Mistake #5:
Being too aggressive with your calorie deficit.
While it can feel tempting to drastically cut calories to see results faster, that never ends well. Calorie deficits require effort and a little grit, but they shouldn’t be something you white knuckle through. If you’re eating like a bird or consuming less than 1500 calories, you’re not going to enjoy the process. And the process can be fun!
Two routes.
Depending on the person I work with, we either take:
Route 1: Slow and steady. We drop as few calories as we can and see where it goes. It may be as little as 100-200 calories a day, which doesn’t feel overwhelming. We stay there until our tracking or goals tell us otherwise.
Route 2: Initial sprint, then relax. For some people, seeing a “quick win” is helpful to stick with the plan. We start a little more aggressive with the deficit and then quickly modulate the intake back up to a more reasonable deficit.
Now I want to hear from you! What do you see as an area of growth or opportunity for you based on the info above?