All of us at some point or the other might have done really crazy things in order to shed some extra pounds quickly. While it may have seemed the right thing to do at that time, we bet you regret them now. There are definitely a lot of things that can boost weight loss (you can find them all on the Rati Beauty weight loss diet on the Rati Beauty app), there are more factors blocking melting off of extra pounds, and you would see effective results once you stop doing them. In this post, we list out 12 things to stop doing if you want to lose weight.
1. Stop Following Trendy Weight Loss Diets: Fad diets that promise fast results rarely have positive outcomes. Most of them deprive your body of a balanced diet and pave the way for nutritional and vitamin deficiencies. Our point is why resort to fad diets when you can actually lose weight by eating the right kind of food and by providing the body ample nutrition. Do check out such diets on the Rati Beauty app.
2. Picking Only Low-Fat Food: When we become “health conscious,” we often look for “low fat” labels while grocery shopping without even thinking twice. But most products that are marketed as “low fat” are not actually healthy because they have loads of sugar to improve their flavour in the absence of fat content. Stick to full-fat variants but practice moderation while consuming them. According to a study, women who consumed low fat-yogurt gained more weight compared to women who consumed full fat yogurt. So, the next time around, don’t consider full-fat products as villains, just avoid transfat.
3. Food Deprivation aka Crash Dieting: A weight loss diet should not be based on food deprivation because it can prove counterproductive. There’s no need to starve all through the day to get lean. Food deprivation is promoted by certain fad diets that only work for a short period of time and once you come off them, you tend to put on more weight. To lose weight successfully, one needs to be in calorie deficit, eating just the right amount and the right kind of food to successfully drop all the extra pounds. In fact, eat in moderation, not less to burn fat.
4. Sipping up on Detox Teas: There’s a lot of hype around “skinny” detox teas and their ability to melt away fat! But there are no studies linking burning of fat with detox teas. They can at best act as diuretics and reduce water weight. Make no mistake, the only way to lose weight is with proper diet and exercise.
5. Eating Unlimited Healthy Food: Quinoa, fruits, nuts, brown rice, etc., are no doubt healthy foods, and people often consider them “free foods,” that can be eaten in unlimited amounts without the need to portion control. But every food, even if it falls into the “healthy” category, needs moderation and portion control, without which losing weight is not possible.
6. Relying Only on Superfoods: Nutrient-dense foods that pack a lot of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants in relatively fewer calories are considered superfoods, but relying only on such foods (chia seeds, kale, blueberries, etc.) to burn fat would be a wrong move. Calorie deficit is the key and portion control is the way for successful weight loss.
7. Spending Majority of the Day Sitting at the Work Desk: Sitting is the new smoking and if you are spending a lot of time just sitting at your work desk, it would be extremely difficult to get lean and healthy even with one hour of regular exercise. An essential fat-burning enzyme, lipoprotein lipase, which catches fat from circulating blood and burns it up, switches off its function after just a few minutes of inactivity. So, get up from the sitting position every half an hour and take a stroll to keep the fat-burning enzymes active.
8. Looking for Quick Fixes: Stop look for magic pills that may help shed a few extra pounds because they would not work at all!
9. Frequent Snacking: Frequent snacking leads to frequent insulin spikes which leads to storage of excess calories as fat, particularly around the belly and hip area. Follow scheduled meal and snacking timings, to avoid building up extra calories. A few bites here and there, one or two biscuits during breaks, and a bite into a slice of pizza may not seem much, but they all do add calories. Check out the perfect meal and snack timings on Rati Beauty app to fix frequent snacking.
10. Too Much Exercise: Placing too much importance on workout to lose weight can lead to overexertion, exhaustion, and inflammation that can lead to weight gain instead of weight loss. Work on a formula of 80% diet and 20% exercise and see the extra pounds coming off of you.
11. Stop Drinking Fruit Juices: If you have been replacing meals with fresh fruit juices, stop doing that because juices without the essential fiber content can raise blood sugar and lead to insulin spikes. Insulin, as we all know, is also a hormone which facilitates storage of fat, so eat fruits in their whole form.
12. Addiction with Everything Sweet: Got a sweet tooth? Then, you would have to find ways to stop sugar addiction because sugar works in multiple ways to facilitate weight gain – by raising inflammation in the body, increase cravings and hunger pangs, supplying loads of empty calories, and also by causing sharp insulin spikes – all leading to weight gain. Want help with sugar addiction? Read “14 Ways to Cut Down Sugar For Weight Loss and Health.”
14 Ways to Cut Down Sugar For Weight Loss and Health
20 Ways to Lose Weight with Food Addiction