6 Fatloss pitfalls to avoid
I’ve made a list of the main fatloss pitfalls I have seen time and time again over the years. Things that directly or indirectly stop people from losing body fat and reaching their goal. Have a read and see if any are holding you back. Equally, if you can get these things right, they will fundamentally accelerate your fatloss results.
Relying on diet alone - Diet can only get you so far. It may stop you gaining more body fat but if you want to tackle what you’re already carrying, you need to do more. You need to walk more, and you need to do some form of structured exercise - something physically challenging, that will get your heart beating - preferably strength training - 2-4 x per week. Bring all three together and you’ll start to see results.
Going from eating too much, to too little - It’s easy to over-eat on processed food. It’s also easy to under-eat on healthy food. Why is this an issue to your goal? Besides making you feeling awful and having the strength of a lamb, at some stage you will rebound because you’re hungry! It’s as simple as that. And you won’t be reaching for more meat or the spuds; you’ll go straight for high caloric, high fat, high sugar foods. The good stuff. Your body isn’t stupid. You can avoid this crash by adding quality fats and carbs to your meals, along with your animal protein and green vegetables. Find a way to not go hungry and you’ve won half the battle.
A lack of strength training - Strength training, lifting weights, is the most efficient and effective way to drop body fat and improve one’s body composition. The reason it is optimal for fatloss, and far superior to any other form of exercise, is because of the ability to directly increase muscle mass. Increasing muscle mass leads to an increase in metabolism, which means more calories burned and more fatloss. The opposite also applies; the less muscle mass on the body, the slower the metabolism, and the slower the fatloss.
Leading a sedentary lifestyle - This ties in with my first point. You need diet, training and walking combined, to see results. In my book, anything less than 70k steps per week - emphasis on ‘per week’ - is a sedentary lifestyle. You need to deliberately intervene and get walking and movement into your day. We’re built to move, not sit on our backsides all day. If you are some way off 70k, gradually build up over time.
Tracking progress solely based on weight - Total body mass (scale weight) is an awful measurement for fatloss as it doesn’t provide any context for an increase or decrease in weight. Not that it was ever designed for that. It does however, have a place as part of wider selection of different tracking markers, but like with everything, requires context. You should also be making use of progress photos, tape measurement readings, and how clothes fit, in order to come to a sensible conclusion about how you are getting on.
A lack of consistency - Often one that lets so many people down. Sometimes in the pursuit of perfection, and sometimes down to a lack of conviction in ‘why’ they are making a change. Or wanting to at least. Your success rides on how consistent you can be. It doesn’t even necessarily come down to ticking all the right boxes. If you can consistently turn up, day after day, and do even 40% of the things right, you’ll make far more progress than someone who does everything 100% right, some of the time.