Comparisons | Overlooking Victories | Quick Tricks | No Game Plan

When you feel frustrated because your body is not losing weight like you expect it to, it is tempting to force your body to change by dieting harder and exercising more. However, if you push too hard, your body will push back, unleashing hard to control cravings that pull you back to your old habits. In this post, I’ll share 4 hidden dieting mistakes that may be stopping your weight loss.

4 Hidden Dieting Mistakes That Stop Weight Loss [Video]

In this video, you’ll learn…

• Mistakes that people make while trying to lose weight.
• Solutions to those mistakes!
• Additional resources in order to help you on your weight loss journey.

Running Someone Else’s Race

The first hard-to uncover mistake is what I’ll call running someone else’s race. Many people will see results when they go on a diet but get distracted by the faster progress of others. There are many factors that go into how quickly your body will lose weight.

Some of these factors are under your control, like how you feed and move your body. But other factors, like your age, health history, genetics, and metabolism, are not under your control. The reality is that you may shed four pounds in a month while your spouse sheds eight pounds eating the same foods.

The thing is that those four pounds show that your body is losing weight, and the weight is coming off at about a pound a week, which is steady and consistent progress. If you continue to run your own race by sticking with your plan, you will reach your goal. But if you get distracted because someone else is losing two pounds a week, you’ll feel frustrated and get off course.  

The solution is to put blinders on and run your own race. Health is a goal worth pursuing, and reaching a healthy weight is an important part of that goal. It might be true that some people have been genetically blessed with a speedy metabolism, but the spoils go to the one who stays in the game.

You may have a slower metabolism than someone else, but if you stay in the game, you’ll reach the finish line. To maintain that focus, you need to avoid the next hidden mistake, which is not celebrating your victories.

Not Celebrating Your Victories

We are all creatures of habit. When we set out to reach a weight loss goal, it requires us to change our habits. Change is uncomfortable, and if your only benchmark of dieting success is the number on the scale, it is easy to get distracted and frustrated. 

Whether your goal is to lose the last 10 pounds or 110 pounds, it will take time and focus. You’ll be happiest with your experience if you find ways to celebrate your progress along the way. This isn’t a new concept, but most of the time, when we think about small victories in the context of weight loss, we think of things like our clothes fitting looser. There is nothing wrong with that.

However, to tap into the motivation that keeps you going, it is helpful to think in a broader sense. One of the things that bring me joy is finding a new favorite low-carb recipe. When I do, I see it as a victory because it adds enjoyment to my diet and supports my long-term health goals. 

Another way to bring a non-scale victory into your life is by setting and reaching a short-term goal. In my Freedom weight loss program, I encourage members to set 40-day short-term goals. I’ve found that length of time works well because it is doable yet long enough to produce noticeable changes.

Some of those changes can become small victories themselves. For instance, you might celebrate the fact that you no longer snore at night or that you can now walk a mile without pain because your joints feel better. 

It also helps to set up benchmarks to show how the efforts you are making are improving your overall health. For instance, when you are just starting, ask your doctor to run an HbA1c test. This blood test indicates how well you are managing your blood sugar over about three months. Consistently eating a diet low in sugar and refined carbs can lower your A1c and, therefore, reduce your risk of developing diabetes, which is a huge victory. 

It is one thing to see a lower number on the scale, but seeing better numbers for your blood work is even better. Blood work doesn’t improve overnight. It comes about thanks to consistent effort. And, this leads us to the next hidden dieting mistake, which is trying to trick your body into changing. 

No Tricks – Consistent Effort

There is nothing wrong with looking for an edge to accelerate weight loss, and there are supplements and other things that support your dieting efforts. However, as I often say, supplements are called supplements for a reason. They supplement a healthy diet. There is no supplement or trick out there that will override a poor diet. Likewise, there is no shortcut when it comes to turning your body into a better fat-burning machine. 

If you follow my channel, you know that I teach a low-carb way of eating. Carbohydrates are a quick and easy source of energy for your body. But they are not the only energy source. Your body can also run on fat that it gets from your diet or pulls out of body fat.

When you reduce the carbohydrates in your diet, your body must switch to using fat as its primary fuel. This is what you want, but the switch from being a good carb burner to being a good fat burner does not happen overnight. If you flip-flop by eating low carb for a few days but then have a high carb day before going back to low carb, you don’t give your body time to create the enzymes and pathways it needs to run on fat efficiently.

In other words, there is no quick trick that will make your body a better fat burner, but it will happen with consistent effort. The solution is to team up with your body. Your body is not your barrier to weight loss. It is your ally. Give it what it needs, and you’ll get what you want. To do this, you need a game plan, which brings me to the next hidden dieting mistake.  

Not Having a Game Plan

Some of you have noticed home decorations in my videos, showing that I am a Nebraska Cornhusker fan. My husband grew up in Nebraska, so I became a fan through marriage. When we were first married, the coach of the football team was Tom Osbourne.

Even the Oklahoma fans from that era must admit that he produced tremendous results year after year. Part of the secret to his success was because he scripted out the first 10 to 15 plays of each game and ran them even if they were not working. In other words, he had a game plan, and he stuck with it. By doing this, he learned what worked and what didn’t. This knowledge helped him make the right coaching decisions as the game went on and ultimately made him one of the winningest coaches in college football history.

You can adopt this concept of sticking with the game plan and use it to your advantage when losing weight. When you go on a diet, you want to see the scale go down every day. However, the human body is a complex and dynamic system. You may have done everything right yesterday, yet there was no change when you stepped on the scale today.

You’ll keep yourself on track if you do like this coach and just keep going. If you have a well-formulated plan, keep following it. You might not see a weight loss every day, but if you take a step back, avoid reacting, and stay consistent, you’ll reach your goal.  

Takeaway

If you need a way to get your diet on the right track, you can download my free 0,1,2,3 strategy. More than 80,000 people have already downloaded it, and it will help you get your game plan in action. It also comes with a free 4-part video series that is not available on YouTube or any other social media platform.

That video series will show you how to set short-term goals and create an easy-to-follow, enjoyable, and effective plan. Those 3E’s are the three elements that lead to long-term weight loss success.

Thank you for reading and have a great rest of your day!

About the Author

Becky Gillaspy, DC graduated Summa Cum Laude with research honors from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1991.