Dieting Mistakes

[Erik]

I can't remember if we did a thread like this in the past, and I don't really care either. :lol:

What would you consider your top three previously made dieting mistakes?

I'm working on something, and want to see if I'm missing anything.

[pillowtalk]

Thinking short term.

Eyeing out food instead of weighing or tracking it.

Mindless nibbling.

[Brandy]

In the beginning of my journey-
Thinking I would have this tight, hot body after a few lifting sessions.
Seriously, unrealistic goals are a big downfall. Playing mind games with myself. Comparing yourself to others.

[jaleena]

Not understanding the difference between losing fat and just losing weight--tied in with Brandy's mention of unrealistic goals, you can't reasonably have a goal weight that's lower than your LBM :nope:

Getting overly bent around details and not seeing that they don't matter much until the big stuff is right (and sometimes that makes them not matter at all anymore). So kind of a paralysis by analysis.

[Amy]

Consistency- Realizing that it is an everyday thing and not just a Monday through Friday lifestyle. One day off plan on the weekend can cause a halt to progress.
Not weighing food- 10 grams a peanut butter is a whole lot less than most people think :wink:

[Cindy Day]

Some dieting mistakes of mine:


ASSuming no loss on the scale meant no loss of body fat (I'm sure you have that one covered ;) ).

Because of the above mindset, dropping too many carbs, calories sooner than required and setting myself up for a fall (off plan).

Not including enough healthy (essential) fats in my diet.

Once going off plan having a f*** it mentality and gorging the remainder of the day.

Underestimating the damage of excessive cheat meal or refeed (calories exceeding the 90/10 rule).

[Mols]

not getting nuff healthy fats. i used to think fats = fat. Lived off of salads, fruit and protein powder. NOT GOOD.

[jaleena]

Thinking protein bars/MRP's were healthier than whole foods because they were designed with fitness folks in mind :doh:

[Mols]

Thinking protein bars/MRP's were healthier than whole foods because they were designed with fitness folks in mind :doh:
oh yea good one, overseas I ate those things 2x/day. for a MEAL. double :dope:

[Cris]

As has been already mentioned:

Guesstimating weights of foods.
Skipping meals
All-or-nothing mentality...one bite of off plan would lead to all day, might lead to a few days straight

And I still struggle with getting proper water intake.

[mcv]

1. Going too low, too fast (in calories).
2. Too much cardio, in general, and too much ss cardio specifically.
3. Not enough good fats.

[Meadows]

Eating very low (under 300 cals) per day
Slimfast
not lifting, doing insane amounts of cardio (on the 300 cals per day)

[smuggie]

Eating very low (under 300 cals) per day
Slimfast
not lifting, doing insane amounts of cardio (on the 300 cals per day)
:faint: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/montagnu/confused%20and%20thinking%20smilies/pumpkinblink.gif http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/montagnu/confused%20and%20thinking%20smilies/hamstershocked.gif

[Amy]

Eating very low (under 300 cals) per day
Slimfast
not lifting, doing insane amounts of cardio (on the 300 cals per day)
You have no idea how crazy I was :sad: I am sure I did enough cardio for ALL of us :ruloco:

[Sarah]

Eating very low (under 300 cals) per day
Slimfast
not lifting, doing insane amounts of cardio (on the 300 cals per day)
:ditto:

[Patyal]

Mine:

- Living in denial. I sorrounded myself with ladies whose life-style is not active at all. So, even though I was overweight, I still was one of the leanest of the group. Each time I complained about not losing, regardless of my efforts, they all jumped to tell me "oh come on! You look great. You are SO skinny" :piggie: Lesson: Sorround with mind-like people.

- Get a medical check out to rule out any hormonal conditions hindering your progress. In my case it was PCOS, but thiroid related problems are also very common.

- Not to stress about it. I think my cortisol levels jumped to the roof each time I did, (even thought I don't drink caffeine).

[Patyal]

Eating very low (under 300 cals) per day
Slimfast
not lifting, doing insane amounts of cardio (on the 300 cals per day)
I've seen that one is one of the most common in some :poledance: girls. :D

[Audrey]

- Dropping carbs very low and eating nothing but proetin and fat - or worse just protein and veggies - without ever including any carb-ups or carb cycling

- Dieting for too long (more than 12-16 weeks) without taking dieting breaks

- Increasing my training volume even more when I was doing more than enough already.

[TriciaE]

1) Not counting or weighing anything and assuming I was not overeating.
How my jeans were getting tighter and tighter was a complete mystery to me! haha

2) Under eating which made me so hungry I would binge every few days when I couldn't take it anymore.

3) Drinking slim fast type of things/taking metabolife and other crap like that.

[pixie]

Getting lazy and not packing the next day's food the night prior. I am NOT a morning person, so packing food in the AM is a recipe for disaster.

Not being consistent with water intake.

Getting caught up in the daily weigh in; comparing myself to others, not giving myself credit for what's already been accomplished.

Expecting immediate results and getting melancholy when I don't manage to lose 45lbs overnight.
:oops:

-Jennifer

[hsquared]

My mistakes are really basic, like not understanding when and why you eat certain foods. I didn't understand why and when you eat carbs or even how to calculate the number of calories I would need and when to lower that. I had to relearn EVERYTHING. :sad: I am STILL relearning everything :D

Right now, I am struggling with the "here and now" and not looking at the big picture. This is really bad when I am hungry :lol:

[soontobefit]

My worst enemy is the scale...I would sometimes get into a downwards spiral of weighing myself EVERYDAY, then getting depressed that nothing was working...

Life is much simpler without the scale and I only weigh myself once a week. MEasurements and how my clothese fit mean so much more....

[DianeD]

Blaming the clothes dryer because all my jeans were getting too tight:dope:
:icanthearyou: :icanthearyou:

[Ana]

Blaming the clothes dryer because all my jeans were getting too tight:dope:
:icanthearyou: :icanthearyou:

:omg: I do this too :funny:

[Espi]

Not counting calories as I thought it was too much of a PITA, so I didn't know whether I was under- or overeating. With the activity I had at the time, probably undereating.

Thinking that I could create a deficit by just training and not realizing how much easier it is, to do less volume and hence not overeat so often as a kneejerk reaction to overtraining on low carb intakes.

Thinking very low-carb is the only way to lose weight for everyone while it depends on how active you are and just how your body responds to carb/fats in general. Don't try to push a VLC diet onto a 'carb' burner nor pushing a high-carb diet onto a 'fat' burner.

[Ruthie]

C A N D Y

[Ruthie]

making popcorn a meal

[Sohee]

Eating only two meals a day, then eventually one a day, and finally not at all. These "meals" consisted of a bowl of cereal (French Toast Crunch or Cinnamon Toast Crunch) w/ milk for breakfast, then tiny nibbles of whatever my mom cooked for dinner (ex. three bites of meat, a spoonful of rice).

Avoiding even vegetables (lettuce!) because I didn't understand that different foods had different calorie densities. Every single food was out to get me.

No water. Anything that could cause the number on the scale to go up was evil.

Believing that all the diet products would work. And believing my mom when she would tell me that tofu had no calories and that I could eat as much of it as I wanted. She shouldn't have said that :ninja:

Eating some junk food (half of a waffle with a little bit of whipped cream) when I wasn't ever planning on doing so, and then thinking that I was going to wake up fat the next day.

Refusing to learn about macronutrients because I "just wasn't interested" and I thought I didn't need to know to get the body I wanted.



And this is a huge exercise mistake:
Running for 1-1.5 hours, plus 3000 sit-ups and 300 push ups every single day for about six months straight. I never missed a day :ninja:

No wonder I was so unhappy.

[Blondell]

Not understanding the difference between losing fat and just losing weight--tied in with Brandy's mention of unrealistic goals, you can't reasonably have a goal weight that's lower than your LBM :nope:


this is definitely one of my greatest mistakes. David and I were saying, not too long ago, that we would both have so much more LBM if we had just grasped the concept earlier.

Also, I'll add being impatient.

[Blondell]

Blaming the clothes dryer because all my jeans were getting too tight:dope:
:icanthearyou: :icanthearyou:

:muahaha:

[KellyFL]

Thinking protien bars were a great meal choice

Doing cardio before weight training (even legs, eek)

Being afraid to eat a big breakfast.

[Sohee]

Oh yeah... and when I first started weight training, I was still doing lots of cardio. I'd do cardio, weight train, and then do more cardio :wigging:

[smuggie]

Oh yeah... and when I first started weight training, I was still doing lots of cardio. I'd do cardio, weight train, and then do more cardio :wigging:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/montagnu/confused%20and%20thinking%20smilies/penguinohmy.gif

[sarahlou]

I can name quite a few (unfortunately):
saving up my calories to eat a huge meal at night
not eating breakfast (goes along with the above)
eating very little the next day after messing up (binging) or
od'ing on cardio the next day after messing up (binging)

[Gnat]

I can name quite a few (unfortunately):
saving up my calories to eat a huge meal at night
not eating breakfast (goes along with the above)
eating very little the next day after messing up (binging) or
od'ing on cardio the next day after messing up (binging)
:ditto:

A big one for me I have noticed lately...not drinking water consistently during the day. I WILL over eat and/or indulge in off-plan foodies if I haven't had enough water to drink during the day.

[Sohee]

:ditto:

A big one for me I have noticed lately...not drinking water consistently during the day. I WILL over eat and/or indulge in off-plan foodies if I haven't had enough water to drink during the day.

This is extremely interesting. I wonder what's the physiology behind this?

[Gnat]

This is extremely interesting. I wonder what's the physiology behind this? I have heard that our body can misinterpret thirst signals for hunger. Perhaps this has something to do with it?

[Anca]

One of my biggest mistakes was overeating on my weekly free day when I was doing Body for Life. I only lost 7 lbs in 3 months because I was eating 4,000+ cals on free days. Heck, the book emphasized "eat whatever you want!". Hubby and I actually believed that the more we ate, the more our metabolism would ramp up. :rolleyes:

[pavermama]

With me it's by not taking things one day at a time. Before I know it the weeks over and I've been good all week. I also learned to not overdo it on the weekends to totally wipe out everything I've done the past week. And if I do screw up, move on don't get the f*** it attitude and totally splurge for the whole day or week or whatever.

Exercise consistently whether it just a quick 30 minute work out. I was only working out 3 days a week and that's not enough for me anyway. I have to do SOMETHING 5-6 days a week. Even if it's just a quick walk or bike ride as long as it's something to get me moving for a bit.


Don't depend on anybody else to keep on your journey with you. You have to do it yourself. And I don't mean don't have any support, like this board. I mean by relying on a work out buddy. Yea, it's nice to have someone to work out with, but if you don't have that, it doesn't mean you shouldn't work out. Do it on your own and push yourself to do it. It's your body and nobody is going to do the work for you so get mind-set to push yourself whether there's anybody there to help or not. You'll feel alot better once your done. (I've had a few work out buddies in the past that don't last for shiT!)

[Gnat]

With me it's by not taking things one day at a time. Before I know it the weeks over and I've been good all week. I also learned to not overdo it on the weekends to totally wipe out everything I've done the past week. And if I do screw up, move on don't get the f*** it attitude and totally splurge for the whole day or week or whatever.


:yeahthat: X 2 all of it!

[Inatic]

With me it's by not taking things one day at a time. Before I know it the weeks over and I've been good all week. I also learned to not overdo it on the weekends to totally wipe out everything I've done the past week. And if I do screw up, move on don't get the f*** it attitude and totally splurge for the whole day or week or whatever.

Exercise consistently whether it just a quick 30 minute work out. I was only working out 3 days a week and that's not enough for me anyway. I have to do SOMETHING 5-6 days a week. Even if it's just a quick walk or bike ride as long as it's something to get me moving for a bit.


Don't depend on anybody else to keep on your journey with you. You have to do it yourself. And I don't mean don't have any support, like this board. I mean by relying on a work out buddy. Yea, it's nice to have someone to work out with, but if you don't have that, it doesn't mean you shouldn't work out. Do it on your own and push yourself to do it. It's your body and nobody is going to do the work for you so get mind-set to push yourself whether there's anybody there to help or not. You'll feel alot better once your done. (I've had a few work out buddies in the past that don't last for shiT!)

That and consistency are the biggies.. It's all you!

Though many people havent been successful with a workout buddy. i have.. Cindy and I have been training together for 5+yrs.We dont depend on ea other to stay on track or focus but the support is always there(regardless of how ea of us doing). Perphaps we are the exception rather than the norm.

[pavermama]

Though many people havent been successful with a workout buddy. i have.. Cindy and I have been training together for 5+yrs.We dont depend on ea other to stay on track or focus but the support is always there(regardless of how ea of us doing). Perphaps we are the exception rather than the norm.

That great, and you look awesome!!! I wish I could have someone consistent but at this point I don't think I need anyone physically anymore to work out with. It used to be a HUGE motivater for me to have some one there working out with. Now I think I'd get sidetracked and way off course if I had any interuptions.