The 5 Biggest Dieting Mistakes Every Dad Must Know
By Stefano Chiriaco | Categories: NUTRITION | No Comments on The 5 Biggest Dieting Mistakes Every Dad Must Know
The 5 Biggest Dieting Mistakes Every Dad Must Know
When starting a new diet, it seems pretty easy in theory and the equation usually goes like this; eat less + move more, but as you probably already know… it’s not that simple! With all of the conflicting advice on the internet with many different approaches, it’s easy to be misinformed.
Hitting the weight loss plateau and sabotaging your own success without even realising it is common… here are 5 of the biggest dieting mistakes any Dad can make when starting out.
#1 You are consuming too much fruit because you believe it’s ‘healthy’
Fruit is good for you from a nutritional stand point but it’s also very high in sugar which can be a big issue when trying to control your blood glucose, the 5 a day campaign promoted by the government has not been that helpful in the fight against belly fat as excess sugar causes insulin to spike and that shuttles away the sugar to your fat cells leaving you feeling tired too.
The same can be said for fruit juices since you are consuming the fruit without the fibre plus a glass of juice can contain more than 5 pieces of fruit which you wouldn’t actually consume in it’s whole form.
#2 You are eating low fat products because you believe ‘fat’ is fattening
The belief of eating low fat is healthy comes from all of the marketing messages from food production companies and couldn’t be further from the truth! When fat is removed from a food source, this has to be replaced with something else and it’s usually added sugars, harmful sweeteners and chemicals which will not do you any favours.
In fact, fat free products leave you feeling less satisfied than the real thing which makes it harder to stick to the plan since you will still be hungry, the less processed and packaged you eat, the better the quality of the food you will consume and the healthier you will be as a result.
#3 You aren’t eating regular meals or snacks because you are ‘too busy’
When you are missing meals during the day, you run the risk of putting your body into starvation mode which happens after 4 hours (on average) and this encourages the body to store food as fat rather than use it as fuel. Skipping meals also lowers your average metabolic rate which is the predominant influencer of the calories you’ll burn throughout the day, in fact it accounts for 80% of it!
You’ll also run the risk of being over hungry and having larger portion sizes than normal which can really set you back on the diet front, especially when it’s late at night.
#4 You aren’t eating enough quality protein from good sources
Protein isn’t only essential for muscle growth and maintenance, but it’s vital to increasing your metabolic rate further due to the ‘thermic effect’ of food which accounts
for 10% of your daily calories burned. Protein requires more energy to be digested than carbohydrate or fat which naturally leads to weight loss, providing the other two are lowered to account for the increase in protein with each meal throughout the day.
Protein also has a massive impact on blood sugars also so it will help to stabilise insulin levels as a result and even assists in fat burning since your body can’t burnfat without it.
#5 You do not plan ahead for success and end up blowing it all
You can have the best intentions in the world to stick to your plan but sometimes you are a victim of your environment, when there isn’t anything around to consume that is ‘on plan’ and you grab whatever is available, you are really giving up control of what you put inside your body.
Also, not planning meal times and letting that project, meeting or task go overdue without eating means you are more likely to grab something for convenience since you are over hungry, don’t get caught with your trousers down next time and make sure you plan for success to achieve your goals.