9 Dieting Don'ts ...

By Jennifer

For all of the dieting do’s out there, there is an equal number of dieting don’ts, all of the things you should try your best NOT to do if you want to lose weight and feel great. What are these no-no’s, the dieting faux pas you ought to avoid? I’ll bet you already know some of them, but a few might come as a surprise. Here are 9 dieting don’ts. Let’s see how many you already know!

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1

Don’t Skip Meals

Skipping meals may actually help contribute to weight gain, and certainly it won’t help you lose weight, so it tops my list of dieting don’ts. If you want to lose weight, try eating five small meals a day, rather than one or two big ones. First of all, this will ensure that you’re never ravenously hungry, which prevents you from making hunger-related diet boo-boos. Second, it keeps your metabolism rocking, which will help you burn extra calories, even when you’re just sitting still! So remember — skipping meals is bad, eating more of them is GOOD!

2

Don’t Forget to Count…

Counting calories is a splendid way to guide you to healthy eating and weight loss. But there are a lot of calories we forget to count! For instance, if you’re eating a salad, don’t forget to count the calories in the toppings and dressing. If you’re eating scrambled eggs, don’t forget to count the calories in the ketchup. And don’t forget to count the calories in your drinks, especially your coffee drinks! A double mocha latte with whipped cream can contain more calories than a hamburger, so obviously, if you’re not counting the calories in your drinks, you might be missing a lot of them!

3

Don’t Dehydrate

It’s important to stay hydrated while you’re dieting. In fact, you might find that you’re a lot less hungry when you’re sipping on water all day long, because often, the beginning of dehydration will manifest itself as hunger, rather than thirst. Who knew?

4

Don’t Forget to Exercise

A girl can’t lose weight on diet alone. Well, I suppose she could, but then she’d be skinny but flabby, and who wants that? If you want to be toned and fit, be sure to add about half an hour of strenuous exercise five days a week. Bye-bye muffin top, hello toned tummy!

5

Don’t Delete Carbs

Fiber is a dieter’s friend — it keeps your digestive system happy, and it keeps you feeling fuller, longer. Fiber is also a carb, something a lot of fad diets force you to eliminate. But don’t fall for it! Pass on “bad” carbs, like those in overly processed baked goods and pastas, but embrace good carbs, like those in whole grain bread and fresh veggies.

Famous Quotes

Meaning is not what you start with but what you end up with.

Peter Elbow
6

Don’t Starve Yourself!

This is so dangerous! Skipping meals is bad, and counter-productive when you’re trying to lose weight, but outright starving yourself is dangerous on a whole separate level. It can, literally, kill you! If you’re skipping meals, or purging yourself after you eat, please, get help, and do it now!

7

Don’t Go It Alone

I’ll bet you know a handful of other girls who are trying to lose weight. So why go it alone? Get together with them once in a while to share recipes, advice, and encouragement. You’ll be sweetly surprised at how much easier dieting is with a little help!

8

Don’t Forget to Set Goals

It’s hard to work toward a weight loss goal if you don’t have one. For instance, saying “I’m going to lose ten pounds” means something, it has an end point, a time and place where you get to celebrate some success! But just saying “I’m going to get in shape” or “I’m going to lose some weight” isn’t solid. There’s no real goal there, so you’re a lot less likely to reach it!

9

Don’t Get Discouraged!

Whether you’ve hit a plateau or are just getting discouraged in general — it’s hard to be dieting during the holidays! — try not to give up hope the way you’ve given up cheesecake. Remember, we at AWS are here to provide a little motivation and inspiration, along with all of your real-life friends and family. You can do it, sweetie! Keep going!

Wow, that’s a lot of don’ts to keep track of, isn’t it? But no worries; most of these no-no’s are actually easy to remember, and follow… they’re actually pretty common sense! I know I was surprised about the carbs (thank you, Atkins Diet, for making poor fiber a bad guy for no reason), but which of these diet don’ts shocked you? Do you have any other tips to share?

Feedback Junction

Where Thoughts and Opinions Converge

As I was suffering from an eating disorder, my doctor accidently told me how to not gain weight by skipping meals, because she saw me cutting the calories back even further, but if you do want to lose some weight by starving yourself (which you really shouldn't), but there are times when we are tight on the clock and need to lose a few pounds for an event or something, here's the trick: take multivitamin pills every day. The reason you gain weight when skipping meals is because our bodies are still like they were in Stone age, when it's not fed, the cells are panicking and go into starvation zone, holding on to each nutritient it can get and storing it as fat, but taking the vitamins - they provide your cells with minerals and vitamins your body needs, therefore your body never goes into the starvation zone.

I love this!

Love!

Great post! so true about weight loss tips:)

Anybody know of any good diets and not to expensive any suggestions thanks!

I think the hardest is dealing with sugar addiction. I love cakes and pies and cookies. But they do not a meal make!

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