Dieting Disasters: Why Your Current Diet Might Be Failing You

Nutritionists and weight loss experts hate the word "diet" for a number of reasons. Most people start them with a specific defined goal in mind and if they accomplish that goal quit the diet, going right back to their bad eating habits that caused them to gain weight in the first place. If you are currently on a diet but not having the success or progress that you would like to be having, there might be a number of different reasons for that. Before you completely throw in the towel and just go ahead and devour whatever you can get your greedy hands on, take a step back and make sure that you are not making some of the most common, dieting mistakes.

The two most common reasons for stalled weight loss are also the two most difficult for new dieters to break. According to nutritionists and dieticians if you are not losing weight but are sticking to a plan and exercising then you are not eating enough calories overall and not eating soon enough after waking in the morning. Any diet plan that advocates going below 1200 calories for an average sized woman is setting her up for failure. Depending on how much she currently weighs, her activity level and how fast she would like to lose weight, the average woman needs anywhere from 1600-2000 calories a day. In addition, most dieters skip breakfast thinking that it gives them more energy and will help them burn more fat during the day. In fact, the opposite is true with breakfast skippers not only consuming more calories during the day but gaining more weight in the process. Food should be consumed within an hour of waking to kick start the metabolism.

Another common issue is the vicious circle of exercising to lose weight and then rewarding yourself with food for having done so. Having a small ice cream cone after a grueling day at the gym once in a while is not a bad thing, but when you hit the fridge or the drive through after every exercise cycle you are defeating the purpose. Most people overestimate the number of calories they burned in the gym as well as underestimating the number of calories in their treats which can cause real weight loss problems.

Finally, another major problem is the people that you are friends with. In a 2010 study performed by researchers at Harvard, the chance that you will be obese increases by one half of a percentage point by every friend that you have who is also obese. Researchers blame the increase on a subconscious adaptation of each other's lifestyle, leaving you unable to resist just one more piece of cake or allowing yourself to sit out one more day from the gym.

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