9 Weight Loss Mistakes to Avoid

1) Bad Carb Timing

The best way to get the most out of your carbs is to eat them at the right times – I call this strategic eating! First thing in the morning with breakfast, or immediately after your workout, when your glycogen – your muscles primary energy source is at its lowest.  Depending on your starting point will determine how much carbs – and how much fat stores you have available for the body to tap into for weight loss.  Not sure what’s happening in your body when you wake up?  Try using the lumen device which measures if you’re body is burning fat or carbs!

Women have a limited capacity for glycogen because we have smaller and less muscle than our male counterparts, so once we have tapped out this storage; it’s making a direct line to fat cells.  What’s more women also have a harder time accessing glycogen versus men, which means we tend to hold on to your stores, instead of accessing them to fuel our workouts. If you’re carrying around extra body fat, you need to cut back on carbs.  Let the body tap into your energy reserves.  For weight loss, consider eating 20% or less calories from carbs – this can be done via Keto or Carb Cycling Diet.

2) Not Enough Fat

A common weight loss mistake, some women make is  cutting the carbs, eating a little more protein and a few extra veggies and assume they’re good to go, there’s nothing else to worry about – right?  WRONG! These calories need to be replaced.  Yes! Some will come from protein, but you need fat too!  Fats have a host of benefits, they preserve your hard-earned muscle tissue for one, not to mention eating them, switches the body to use fat as fuel quicker.  A minimum of 30% of your calories should come from healthy fats like whole eggs, salmon, beef, flax oil, avocado and coconut oil, if you want to lose weight.

3) Protein is Not You’re Priority

Most women are guilty of this!  If you want to build muscle, you need to bump up that protein intake! And that doesn’t mean eating one egg for breakfast, and throwing in an extra protein shake is going to cut it. You need to eat plenty of lean, high quality protein that contains all the essential amino acids that are responsible for building muscle.

Eat at least 1 to 1.5 g of protein per pound of bodyweight each day.  If you are 120 lbs that means you should be consuming 120 g to 180 g per day, every day. And if you think that is a lot, think again. That equals only 20 to 30 g of protein for each meal, if you are eating 6 meals every day! It may seem like a lot of protein at once, but when you break down the numbers you will see it’s actually not that much.  Just 3 oz of chicken is 20 g of protein. If you want to be lean, add muscle and melt that fat off your middle, you need to eat protein to make this happen.

4) You Eat Spoonfuls of Nut Butter

Who doesn’t love nuts! I do! They are my secret little indulgence.  Particularly crunchy natural peanut butter.  All I need is a spoon. My one client likes to refers PB as the ‘Peanut Butter Devil’.  Like it was the PB Devil on her shoulder that made her eat spoonfuls of nut butter – yeah right!

The problem with PB or any nut butter for that matter it has a ton of calories, and so do all other nuts. Yes, they are full of good for you fats, and have plenty of fiber, but if you are trying to rip down your body, these calorie-dense foods have got to go. You’re better off filling up on nutritionally dense foods that don’t pack a lot of calories, like green vegetables.

If you’re dieting you need to limit your nut consumption.   About ½ tablespoon of natural peanut butter is about 50 calories, whereas 10 to 12 almonds provide the same.   I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time just eating ten almonds, without wanting to reach for more! If you are trying to get to that super lean condition, cut back on the nuts, and if you can’t avoid them, throw them out, or lockem’ up!

5) You Think Fruit is A Good Choice

I know fruit is delicious, and it has vitamins and minerals, technically – yes it is healthy but it’s full of sugar. Fruit contains fructose, which gets processed by the liver and stored in the liver as glycogen, not even in the muscles, so it is less available than other carb sources.

And once that storage capacity has reached its max, it is going directly to fat to be converted into triglycerides and stored as body-fat! If you want to get ripped, cut the fruit.  Let me tell you fitness models in their prime condition before a show, are not eating fruit!  Instead, up the vegetable consumption so you can keep your vital nutrient uptake where it needs to be.

 6) You Think Heavy Lifting is Only for the Boys

Listen up divas!  If you want to lose weight, you need to build muscle.  And one way to do that is to lift heavy and consistently. No you don’t have to start lifting like a power lifter, but you do need put down the pink dumbbells and start training like the boys!  Keep your workout lifts to mostly compound – these are the lifts that incorporate a few muscle groups, like squats, deadlifts, and presses.  Kettlebell workouts are also great for burning calories, weight loss and building muscle. Lift for 8 to 12 reps and between 4 to 5 sets.

7) You Do Too Much LISS Cardio

Excessive amounts of long intensity steady state cardio lead to overtraining and fatigue. If you want to get the most out of your cardio, tap into fat burning more efficiently, use high intensity intervals as part of your cardio routine. HIIT training will have you spending less time in the gym, is more effective for fat burning, helps preserve muscle tissue, and can even jack-up your metabolic rate.  But, you don’t want to replace all your cardio sessions with HIIT, that can be taxing on the muscles and the joints. Break up your cardio workouts with a few sessions each week.

8) You Forgot to Just Breathe

Stress increases the catabolic – muscle-wasting hormone known as cortisol!   When cortisol is high, fat burning shuts off!   Which means body fat storage can be increased.  If your workout is not providing you with a stress relief and you are still finding life is just getting the better of you, go get a massage, take a yoga class or try mediation.   I love my weight lifting workouts, but I get more stress relief benefits from my boxing and Muay Thai sessions – hitting pads takes out my stress, anger and aggression – not to mention makes be feel powerful, confident and strong!

I also enjoy shopping for sexy workout outfit, or pair of new shoes! Life is short; buy the shoes! Managing your stress, may seem like it is not that important, but even when your workout and diet are perfect you could be preventing yourself from getting into your ultimate condition.

9) Sleep Isn’t a Priority

Beauty sleep is of utmost importance when it comes to being a fitness DIVA!  When you cut that sleep short, your ability to process and store carbs decreases, your cortisol goes up, and so does hunger. Both can lead to weight gain in the long run.  When you sleep the body goes through the recovery process, rebuilding and repairing your muscles, which is extremely important when it comes to weight loss. Miss out on any sleep and you miss out on critically important growth factors and hormones that get released every night during deep sleep. If you want to lose more weight, burn off more fat and build lean muscle you have to get more sleep. More sleep improves EVERYTHING. Make it a priority.

If any of these sneaky reasons are preventing you from failing at your weight loss, preventing you from burning fat, and building muscle, then now is the time for change!  Get off your butt and start taking action toward the body you want today!

Until Next Time,

Be Fierce & Rule the World!

Lauren Jacobsen