7 Worst Weight Loss Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

Making mistakes when it comes to weight loss can slow your progress or halt it completely. Here’s a list of the worst weight loss mistakes and how to avoid them.

Fit woman with thumbs up to avoid weight loss mistakes

You’ve probably asked the question before: “Why can’t I lose weight?”

Have you ever stopped and wondered why you have been working so hard and still haven’t lost any more fat off of your belly?

There may be some things that you are unconsciously doing that are sabotaging your fat loss progress.

In this article, we’re going to take a look at 7 ways that you may be keeping your progress at a halt. We’ll also provide you with useful action steps that you can take to start your way to your ideal body fat percentage.

1. Being Inconsistent

When it comes to making progress at anything, whether at losing weight or building muscle, consistency in your efforts is the name of the game.

This means that you need to make sure that you are sticking to a well-balanced diet chock with fat-burning foods as well as getting to the gym and exercising on a regular basis.

You cannot expect great results at anything if you are not doing your part and putting in 100% of the effort that is required to get the job completed successfully.

Even for someone who has above average genetics, they will still need to put some effort to reach their weight loss goals.

You cannot rely on your own metabolism to do all the hard work, because it obviously can’t handle the load or you would lose weight while still eating everything you wanted.

So make sure that you are following your program consistently and not skipping any days with your diet and training sessions.

ACTION: Keep a daily chart of everything you are supposed to do on your program. This means every meal should be charted along with your training at the gym. If you track your progress you will soon maintain the consistency needed to tackle your goal with ease.

2. Doing The Same Routine Over And Over Again

Monitoring your consistency is a great way to make sure that you are making progress but when it comes to your personal routine; change is good.

But if you are doing the same workout over and over, again and again, every time that you work out, your body will adapt to the system and will not have any reason to make improvements.

This means that you will hit a plateau and stop losing weight.

You need to challenge your body in order to make progress.

So every time you work out, set higher and higher standards for yourself to meet. This will help to push your body to the level that it needs to make the progress you want to see.

ACTION: If you are doing cardio training on the treadmill, elliptical trainer or some other form of cross-training routine at the gym, try staying on for 2 extra minutes this time. Or if you are performing your weight training routine, try grabbing weights that are 5lbs heavier than you lifted last time you were there. This small effort will ensure that you continue to make the gains that you are after and avoid any type of plateau.

3. Skipping Important Meals

One way that you may be sabotaging your weight loss is by skipping important meals that are crucial to boosting your metabolism and keeping it going.

Breakfast is one of those meals that you don’t want to skip.

Actually, this is one of, if not the, most important meals of the day.

Skipping breakfast will not only slow down your metabolism, but it will wreak havoc on your hunger.

When you don’t fuel up in the morning, you will start to crave anything that resembles food because you are so hungry.

You’ll literally find yourself grabbing the first thing that you see and start eating it without even thinking if what you are putting into your mouth is a good choice.

And even if you are able to hold off your hunger pangs for a while, you will most definitely have the tendency to overeat on your next meal.

So, while your metabolism has slowed down and you have eaten more than what you should have in that meal, instead of losing weight, this will help you to go in the opposite direction and gain pounds.

ACTION: Make sure that you start your day out on the right track. Fuel up in the morning with a meal that will give you the energy that you need to get through the day and one that will kill your hunger and cravings. Fitness experts recommend eating a meal that is high in protein and moderate in healthy fats in order to build lean muscle and curb your hunger at the same time.

4. Only Doing Cardio Exercises

This is one bad weight loss habit that you can see at the gym every day.

And the results speak for themselves.

So many people waste so much time on the treadmill and elliptical, only to see absolutely no change in their body fat percentage after months of struggle.

So aside from doing cardio exercises, you also need to so do some strength training.

You will need to build and strengthen your muscles so that your body could burn more calories.

More muscle mass equals a higher caloric requirement for the day so the more muscle mass that you have, the more you will be burning fat for fuel.

ACTION: This is a simple fix. You just need to add some strength training exercises, three days per week, in order to increase your overall muscle mass and to get stronger. This little tweak in your program will help to optimize your fat-burning abilities and will lead you to your fat loss goals.

5. Neglecting to Bump Up Your Weights

Okay, so maybe you are one of the smart ones who have been pumping iron in order to trim your waistline.

This is great because resistance strength training is among the most effective way of burning fat while at the same time gaining muscle tone.

But the problem is that most people get lax with their training and stop making the gains that they should.

This is why progress will come to a halt, in both strength and fat loss.

You need to keep slowly progressing with your weight training poundage and volume of training.

Increasing your poundage will help to stimulate more muscle gain for an increase in both muscle tone and metabolic response to help burn more fat.

ACTION: For the ultimate fat burning effect, it is better to lift more moderate weights with fewer repetitions than lifting lighter weights despite having more repetitions. Your muscles need to be stimulated consistently with enough added resistance so you could build up more muscle mass and stoke your metabolism for even faster fat loss.

6. Rolling Solo at the Gym

No matter what level you are at, there are going to be those times when you are feeling a bit lazy and unmotivated.

The real fix to this is to always have a training partner that keeps you motivated and who holds you accountable.

When there is someone who has the same goals as you and who wants to see you succeed as much as you do, you will be more inspired to stay on track with your diet and training.

Training with a partner also helps to bring some fun into an activity that can tend to be brutal at times.

ACTION: Make it a point to find a gym buddy who has the same or at least similar weight-loss objectives as you do. This way, you can make your workouts a lot more challenging and exciting by having a little friendly competition, trying to outdo each other. You will also be held accountable to show up at the gym on those days when you really don’t want to.

7. Judging Your Progress by the Scale

Let’s get this straight once and for all: the numbers on the scale are nothing but arbitrary numbers.

The truth is that when you start to put more muscle on your frame, you may or may not lose any weight per se.

But even if you don’t see the numbers go down on the scale, it definitely does not mean that you are not losing fat.

On the contrary; you probably lost some fat and gained some muscle.

Remember that muscle is much denser than fat and takes up less volume.

So if you lose a pound of fat and gain a pound of muscle, the scale won’t change but your clothes size definitely will.

ACTION: Start measuring your progress with more accurate and quantifiable methods such as your clothes size and even better yet pictures. Taking a before picture and then taking pictures at intervals throughout your journey will let you compare where you are now with where you started. This will give you the most accurate measure of your current progress that you cannot deny. So stay off the scale!
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About Nichole Arne, BS, CSCS

Nichole Arne is the Founder & Editorial Director here at GeoLeaders.com. She holds a Bachelor’s in Nutrition Science along with over 17 years experience providing training, nutritional coaching, and consulting for athletes, executives, and figure competitors. Nichole leverages her expertise in rapid fat loss, body transformations, clinical nutrition, lifestyle design, and competition preparation to help clients achieve their full fitness potential.