Thursday, September 9, 2010

Common Mistakes That Keep You Fat

As a career Nutritionist, I meet people with weight concerns very often. I have come to discover these common mistakes that many make which makes weight gain easy.

1. Skipping Meals
Not eating does not only mess with your body's ability to control your appetite, it also destroys your willpower, which is just as damaging. Regulating yourself is a brain activity, and your brain runs on glucose. If you skip breakfast your brain will lack the energy to say no to the inevitable over eating in the next meal. Skipping a feed can turn you into glutton at night and your starving brain will lack the fuel to keep you on track monitoring your diet. Restriction leads to overeating.

2. Speed-Eating
It is very good that you are not denying yourself food, just eating it more slowly. Savoring it allow your body some time so that you don't keep eating when you're full. Slow down and enjoy your food.

3. Gorging on Salty Snacks
Sodium is insidious; it causes us to eat unconsciously. Unfortunately we consume a lot of this in popcorn, chips, peanuts and biscuits. The good news is that salt cravings can go away after a couple of weeks on a reduced-salt diet, while the bad new is that not many people can replace their favorite salty snacks with carrots or celery. Avoid adding excess salt to your meal, a slow reduction of your salt habit pays off in fewer cravings.

4. Eating in Front of the TV, Then Dozing Off
Whenever this happen, you ingest calories while burning none, and sabotage your secret weight loss weapon- sleep. Research confirms that people who eat in front of the TV consume more calories (nearly 300, in one study) than those who don't, and that the more TV they watch, the less active they are. And University of Chicago researchers found that people who lost 3 hours of sleep ate about 200 more calories the next day in snacks than those who slept eight and half hours. If you want to watch TV, be active at the same time or go work out and come back—then you can treat yourself with some TV. Sleep is a fine habit when done correctly.
It may overwhelm you if you try to break all these habits at once. But if you follow the slow and steady approach, you’ll increase your chances of sculpting a thinner, fitter physique, and keeping it for life.
I know that there could be other common mistakes. Do you have an idea of any?