Does this sound familiar? You eat healthy foods most of the time, you work out regularly and have a high step count daily on your fitness tracker – but you’re still not losing weight. Could it be your age, a sluggish metabolism, or could you be unintentionally sabotaging your weight loss?
Nutrition is a key component to weight management. In fact, it is the most important factor in weight management. Exercise is great for cardiovascular benefits as well as muscle building, but it is impossible to out-exercise bad eating habits or high calorie eating. Weight loss happens when your nutrition is in-check. That is why it pays to look closely at some pesky habits associated with food and eating.
Keep reading for a few of the most common reasons you might not be reaching your goals and what can be done to change it.
SKIPPING BREAKFAST
In an effort to lose weight many people will skip breakfast to save calories. In doing so you miss out on the benefits of a morning meal which jump starts the metabolism, improves cognition and regulates hunger and satiety hormones. In addition, eating breakfast helps prevent overeating later in the day.
Tip: Choose foods that combine a good source of fiber with protein and healthy fats such as oatmeal made with milk and topped with blueberries and a tablespoon of chopped walnuts.
Eating too much of a good thing
You’ve stocked your kitchen with healthy foods like quinoa, avocados and raw almonds, and you make social media-worthy grain bowls, but this doesn’t mean they can be consumed in unlimited quantities – portion sizes must be kept in check. Eating whole foods that are nutrient dense is important to a healthy balanced diet, but it doesn’t mean it’s a green light to eat larger portions.
Tip: watch the serving sizes on all foods, even if it’s healthy and organic. Familiarize yourself with what a serving is and stick to it as closely as possible.
Drinking your calories
It’s easy to overlook beverages as a source of extra calories and many of them are empty ones like soda and alcohol. A quick smoothie, while convenient, can clock in at more than 400 calories. And although smoothies and shakes are a good way to ensure you’re getting your daily intake of fruits and veggies; these calorie bombs can seriously undermine your success. What’s more, your body takes in more calories from food that’s been processed or broken down from its natural form, so drinking your produce in the form of a smoothie means you’ll absorb more calories compared to eating the fruit or veggies whole.
Tip: For weight loss, it’s better to eat your calories than drink them! Try drinking unsweetened tea, seltzer water, plain water or water flavored with sliced lemon or lime.
Rewarding exercise with more food
Some people use exercise as an excuse to eat, believing if they’ve burned 400 calories in a workout, they can eat an additional 400 calories that day. But be warned, you may not be burning as many calories as you think when you work out. Fitness trackers and exercise machines provide information on the number of calories burned during activity, but those numbers aren’t 100% accurate and you could fall prey to eating more calories than your body really needs which can stall your weight loss.
Tip: Exercise for the health benefits, and for stress relief, but look at the calories burned as a bonus, don’t use that as reward to eat more.
Giving yourself a free pass on the weekend
If you eat well all week and look at the weekend as a time to indulge, getting the scale to move in your favor will be nearly impossible. We tend to socialize more on the weekends and that usually means getting together with friends and family to share a meal and/or drinks. According to a study in the Annals of Epidemiology the average adult takes in an extra 180 calories on Saturday compared to the rest of the week.
Tip: Plan before heading out. Check the menu online and look over the choices, review the nutrition stats so you’ll know exactly what you’ll order before you get to the restaurant. If you want dessert, share it and go easy on alcohol, alternate between a glass of water and a glass of alcohol.
Content submitted by Janyce Gately – MS, RD, LDN, CHWC
Reach out to our Registered Dietitian, Janyce, for more insight ways you may be undermining your best efforts and to learn best practices for sustainable weight loss.