Are Your Diet Strategies Making You Fat?
Well, here are the most common ways people blow their diet, courtesy of Eat, Drink and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating:
- First: 30 percent of dieters are perfect all week then go wild on the weekends. The problem with this is that you can take in enough calories during a 2-day weekend pig-out to prevent weight loss. In fact, most people whether they're on a diet or not eat more on the weekends. And the extra weekend calories are enough to pack on 5 pounds a year. Plus, a sudden overload of fat and sugar can cause heartburn, bloating, and nausea. Instead, rethink your weekdays. Don't starve yourself. If you eat at least 15-hundred calories a day, you'll keep hunger in check, and curb the weekend binges, naturally.
- The second biggest mistake people make when dieting is the Diet Flip-Flop - and 27 percent of people do this. It's Atkins one week, South Beach the next, and the week after that, it's the Zone. They're not seeing results, or the diet doesn't fit into their lifestyle, so they try something else. But it can take two weeks before the weight starts to come off. Your body needs time to adjust to a new eating style. So don't give up or switch tactics - get a diet buddy instead. Studies show that people who pair up online, with a friend, or at a Weight Watcher's meeting are more likely to stick with a diet and lose weight.
- Finally, the third biggest diet mistake people make is The exercise excuse. You exercise so you think you can eat more - and 19% of dieters are guilty of this. I hate to tell you, but exercise alone will not take off the pounds and it definitely isn't license to eat more. You have to watch what you eat and exercise. And think about this: it takes a strenuous hour on a stationary bike to burn off two scoops of rocky road ice cream.
