5 Fat Loss Mistakes!
Our goal isn’t just to talk about losing fat. Anyone can lose fat, fast. What’s more important is discussing how to lose fat permanently! And I say lose "fat" because some weight is good — we don’t encourage muscle loss, so focus on body fat and you’ll be golden. Just the other day I was on the phone with a writer for a popular fitness magazine. And the writer asked me what I thought were the top 5 fat loss mistakes that people make. He was surprised that there was barely a pause before I started rattling off the common problems I see with people who are trying to lose fat. And it’s not that I’m some incredibly brilliant genius, it’s just that after working with 1000′s of people over the years, it’s very clear where people are struggling when trying to lose belly fat.
- Portions are out of control! This image is a perfect example of portion distortion. Not that any of these are smart food options, but even if we went back to the smaller portions of each, we’d be headed in the right direction.
So what can you do about it? When at home, don’t serve family style. You’ll eat more when serving out of a larger bowl or platter. Read food labels, too, so you can see that sometimes 1 bottle, or 1 bag of a product, is often 2, 3 or even 4 servings! - Thinking all calories are created equal! A calorie isn’t a calorie. That might be in the face of science. Some say that all calories are equal, meaning as long as you cut calories, you’ll lose weight. Sure, but is your goal to lose fat or lose muscle? And don’t you want to fuel your body with all the nutrients you can? After all, slugging down a 250 calorie sugar laden soda is far from eating veggies and hummus, peanut butter and an apple for those same 250 calories. So a calorie isn’t a calorie — eat quality, don’t just focus on quantity!
- Outeating your exercise. Run 1 mile and you burn about 100 calories. Walk 1 mile and you burn about 100 calories. That means if you wanted to lose 1 lb/week through exercise only, you’d have to run or walk 5 miles every single day! That’s not realistic or a good use of your time. It’s much easier to eliminate those extra calories by replacing junk with high nutrient fuel or eliminating calories from soft drinks, for example. Exercise, yes, but you’ll get more bang for your weight loss buck by monitoring the foods you put in your body.
- Skipping breakfast as a way to "save" calories. Eat breakfast and you’ll weigh less. It’s as simple as that. Just eat the right types of foods — avoid sugary breakfast cereals and instead opt for fruit, raw nuts, yogurt, eggs and veggies, for example.
- Thinking exercise is your answer to losing fat. Exercise doesn’t work. Nutrition does. Sure, exercise needs to be a part of your fat loss routine, but even though you may exercise 1 hour/day, what happens the other 23 hours?
There you have it – the 5 most common fat loss mistakes! If you truly want to be permanently successful,avoid the mistakes above and you’ll be well on your way. Tomorrow we’ll be back with some fat fighting recipes!
July 28th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Chris, this was a great article! You’ve said it before and it has continued to resonate with me…exercise doesn’t work. Of course, it’s important – it makes such a difference for our bodies in so many ways – but when it comes to fat/weight loss, we have to make changes in our diets. I also appreciate the reminder that calories are not equal. I’m still reminding myself to grab an apple vs. the 100-calorie pack cookies!
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July 28th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
All of these are great tips! I know a lot of people struggle with those ‘other 23 hours’ because it is easy to justify an occasional treat after working so hard in the gym. The problem is those occasional treats can easily turn into a daily treat, thus negating all of your hard work.
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July 28th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
These are great tips. Another common one I see with clients is not eating enough. They restrict their calories so much, the body holds on to body fat. When we work together to increase their healthy choices they see fantastic results.
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July 28th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
I always serve our meals directly on a plate – each. A slightly larger portion for my husband, a starch for him also if it’s one of his workout evenings.
Personally I train in the morning, so I can have my starchy carb with breakfast, but usually only have one or maybe two per week; my body just likes it better that way.
I used to weigh 205 lbs (93 kilos), and my doctor told me the only way to control my cholesterol was for me to take 20mg of some drug. Even when I asked him about nutrition change, he just blew me off and insisted on the pills.
Google to the rescue, a bodybuilder diet and training program, and 6 months later this same doctor told me “keep doing what you’re doing, it’s working better than my pills” and that was the end of them!
Not to mention the end of 80+ pounds of fat (I’m at 141 lbs (64 kg) now due to having added muscle, yayy!
And doing what? Certainly not “not eating” – 5 meals a day, oatmeal with banana or blueberries twice in the morning, brown rice or whole wheat pasta with chicken or fish and a vegetable for lunch and supper (no starch at supper though) and usually a shake in the afternoon … hardly what you’d consider starving yourself; yet the fat melted off me.
True, as I said, I now have reduced the starches a lot because I like the way I feel on the inside better without so much starch, but that’s just me.
Bottom line: it does matter when, what and how you eat. And running to the pastry shop for a reward because you’ve just completed an hour of aerobics class … not too smart
yet I see many do just that.
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July 29th, 2009 at 5:43 am
Great stuff Chris. We emphasize #3 in our bootcamps all the time. I hear you Sarah – Some Members work their butts off and then stop for a coffee and donut on the way home – ouch!
#5 is another point of emphasis. Most of our members train with us 4 hours a week; that leaves 164 “other” hours! It’s all about good choices and consistency.
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July 29th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Truer words were never spoken! Good, clean, lean protein is key. Simply cutting down on portions and increasing water intake has helped me, as well as not eating dinner later than 7pm.
Lucky for me, soft drinks have never been my problem. (Somehow, when I turned 16 I got smart and gave up sodas AND cigarettes!)
I start the day with my favorite breakfast: fresh or thawed blueberries or cherries, Bear-Naked Vanilla-Almond granola and a 1/2 cup of organic plain low-fat yogurt. Sometimes I make it a snack during the day. It’s refreshing.
I love a fruit smoothie and will add whey protein powder, flax seed oil or ground golden flax seeds, vitamin c powder (or EmergenC mix), plain yogurt again and rice or soy milk. (Or sometimes I just add water if I’m really feeling like cutting calories.)
Thanks for the daily inspiration and great information!
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July 29th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Thanks for passing along such valuable information that is easy to understand and that can be put into practice! Keep it coming; it helps!
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March 6th, 2010 at 8:08 am
Why whey protein is considered one of the best protein foods for humans. The nutritional characteristics of whey protein are outstanding, but you need to be selective when choosing a whey powder.
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September 2nd, 2010 at 1:18 pm
This was a great article so true to me especially point 1. I used to be known as te human dump truck when I was “younger”; and I able to get away with eating anything everything because of the very activity level I had. Once the activity decreased and the ewating stayed the same.. well the weight went on!
Portion control is so important! The challenge is always breaking out of the habit. Now thing are much better, but from time to time things falter – we’re only human. I think the key is consistency in what you eat and the exedrcise you do.
Cheers!
mike
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