It is frustrating when you have been dieting for weeks but you don’t seem to have lost weight or not as much as you would have thought. What could be wrong? Maybe you have a food intolerance or maybe you haven’t been exercising as much as you thought.
More often than not the answer is a case of consuming more calories than you realise.
Below are some easy to fix mistakes that could be hindering your weight loss results.
#1: Liquid Calories
For whatever reason, many people don’t realise that liquids also contain calories. We cannot tell you the number of times our clients have ‘forgot’ to account for liquids within their daily calorie intake. In fact, drinks consumed throughout the day can account for up to 20% of your daily calorie intake.
If your goal is weight loss and you are aiming to reduce your calorie intake, then try to avoid sugary fizzy drinks, juices and steer clear of flavoured creamy coffee / lattes / mochas etc – these can contain up to 500 calories each!
Tip
Replace higher calorie drinks with water, herbal teas, black coffee, sparkling water with fresh lemon/lime.
Tip
OK so you have to have 2 cans of coke each day – you just cannot operate without them! For the next week aim to have one can per day. You have instantly saved yourself 150 plus calories per day and you still get to have your favourite drink.
#2: Large Portions
There really is no need to fill you plate so that it resembles Mount Everest, no matter how tempting it is. Most of us fail on portion control, we see an empty plate and we HAVE to fill it.
One of the easiest ways to reduce calories is to reduce your portions sizes at each meal. But what is a good portion size?
A guide to potion sizes:
- Protein at every meal & snack – size of 1.5 palms of hand
- Carbs/grains/starches – size of a cupped hand
- Fats – tip of thumb
- Veg – 2 hands full