You know what it’s like when diets don’t work. It sucks.
For the first time in human history, the majority of people are fat.
Show me a fat man telling he is happy being fat and I’ll show you a liar.
Every fat person wants to lose weight.
When I look around, I see the same fat people over and over again. Month after month. Year after year. Everybody is trying to lose weight but few people are succeeding at it.
Why is that?
A few years ago I was fat too. I tried a nuımber of methods. Most of them were either failures or temporary achievements.
I made many mistakes until I figured out the correct way to lose fat.
In this article, I will list the most common mistakes people make when they are trying to lose weight.
Avoiding the following mistakes will save you tremendous time, effort, and frustration.
By the time you finish reading this article, you will know more than 99.9% of the population.
So, let’s start:
Mistake #1) You follow bullshit weight loss advice
Getting your diet advice from televisions, newspapers, magazines and popular diet books is a surefire recipe to fail.
You should always be skeptical about popularity. The majority of the people are losers. If you join the popular you join the majority. So you join the losers.
The diet advice you get from the media is prepared by journalists. Journalists are not walkers. They are talkers.
Moreover, most journalists are spineless, lying, brown-nosed office drones that couldn’t care less about your health.
Most mainstream weight loss advice is garbage. If you follow that advice, you will get lost never to be found again.
Never take diet advice from people without seeing their bodies.
It’s best to skip that bullshit altogether.
Mistake #2) You focus on what you can get away with
The goal of dieting is to lose weight.
It’s not finding a low-calorie cream that tastes like Nutella.
When you are dieting, you will have cravings. That’s normal. Your body knows that you are not eating enough calories.
The human body evolved to survive famines.
When you don’t eat enough calories, your body alerts your brain to get calories.
It’s an insurance system fine-tuned to survive famines.
The easiest way to get calories is by eating high-calorie foods. That’s why you crave them.
Understand that it’s not the particular food that your body is craving. It’s the calories.
Let me give you an example.
During my last diet, I constantly craved chocolate cake. I was dumbfounded because chocolate cake is not my favorite food. Not even remotely. I couldn’t understand why I wanted to eat something that never even crossed my mind when I was not dieting.
I kept telling myself “After I finish this diet, I will eat lots of chocolate cake”.
After I reached my diet goals, guess how many times I ate chocolate cake?
Yes. Zero.
I craved chocolate cake because my body figured that it’s the fastest way to beat the caloric deficit.
When I returned to maintenance calories, my body got enough calories so the cravings disappeared.
Understand: When you crave certain things during your diet, your body is craving calories. Not the particular food that you are craving.
Don’t try to fool your body with low-calorie cheesecakes, low-calorie cookies, low-calorie homemade fake Nutella, etc. It will not work.
You can’t fool your body. Your body is smarter than you think.
If you don’t learn to fight your cravings, you will eventually fold and all your efforts will vanish.
Don’t do that to yourself.
Mistake #3) You believe calories don’t matter
There are too many snake oil salesmen out there who try to make you believe that calories don’t matter.
If you eat this and this, you don’t have to worry about calories.
If you eat that and that, those foods will make you fat because of glycemic index or whatever popular bullshit is currently running around.
The cold hard reality is this: Calories matter.
Don’t make your diet harder by trying to learn which foods have the lowest glycemic index or any other confusing fad bullshit.
I know many people who are avoiding fruits because they have a high glycemic index.
Glycemic index my ass. What a bunch of useless junk.
Mistake #4) You follow fad diets
Every year or decade some diets become popular.
Dukan Diet, Atkins Diet, Paleo diet, Low Fat Diet, Low Carb Diet, Glycemic-Index Diet, etc.. to name a few.
Always remember: If a diet is popular it’s probably bullshit.
There is nothing new under the sun. Calories in calories out.
If you hear about a new diet discovery, it means that they discovered a new way to get money out of people’s pockets.
Related: 10 Reasons Why Low-Carb Diets Suck
Mistake #5) You try to find a shortcut
One pound of fat contains 3500 calories.
To lose one pound of fat, you have to accumulate a caloric deficit of 3500 calories.
That will not happen overnight.
There are ways to lose weight faster but there are no shortcuts.
Make up your mind about this or you will be forever fat.
Mistake #6) You blame your genetics
The reason you are fat is not your genetics.
Blaming genetics for their failures is what losers do. Excuses are for losers.
If you think you are fat because of your genetics, I guarantee you that you are wrong.
I have a pair of identical twin cousins. One of them is obese, the other one is fit.
Blaming genetics is an escape from personal responsibility.
Escaping from personal responsibility is a surefire way to be a loser.
Don’t be a loser. Be a winner.
Mistake #7) You fear skipping meals
Lots of people fear skipping meals thinking that it will screw their metabolism.
Humans survived countless famines.
You are NOT that fragile.
You are NOT that weak.
Skipping meals is perfectly OK.
There is nothing to fear.
Mistake #8) You get lost in details
The human brain can only process so much information.
Dwelling on too many details will confuse you when you are trying to lose weight.
You will get overwhelmed with details.
I know people who get stressed about what to eat when to eat etc.
Overanalyzing is real.
In our times, there are countless food options.
I like to keep things simple.
When I am dieting, my carbs come from mostly potatoes and fruits. Because that’s what I like.
If you like rice or bread or pasta or whatever instead of potatoes, go with it. Just don’t overcomplicate things.
I eat beef, lamb, eggs, chicken, and fish for my protein. You may choose to eat turkey, pork, buffalo, etc.
I prefer butter, olive oil, and fish oil for fat. You may choose coconut oil or flaxseed oil and those will be fine too.
Find something that works for you and stick to it.
K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid).
Mistake #9) You think exercise alone is enough to lose weight
Losing weight is about eating fewer calories than you burn.
People vastly overestimate the calories they burn by exercise.
Unless you train like a professional athlete, it’s highly unlikely that exercise alone will allow you to eat whatever you want and still lose weight.
Additionally, exercise will make you hungrier.
Walking on the treadmill for 30 minutes, losing a mere 80 calories, and rewarding yourself with a 140 calorie banana is not a good idea.
It’s best to do both diet and exercise at the same time. That will maximize the caloric deficit. The more caloric you create, the more fat you will lose.
I recommend strength training instead of aerobic exercise.
Mistake #10) Not measuring your progress
What gets measured, gets done.
A scale is not necessarily enough to monitor your fat loss especially if you are engaging in strength training.
Weight-loss tools are cheap and handy. Use them to measure your progress and fine-tune your fat loss along the way.