12 Diet Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Diet Mistakes Can Influence Weight

Simple diet mistakes can derail your best efforts to get back into that favorite pair of jeans. If the scale seems stuck, or your weight drops off only to bounce back up, there’s a chance you could be making one of these 12 weight loss blunders.

Relying on Crash Diets

Determined to lose 10 pounds fast, you turn to a crash diet. Perhaps your plan calls for nothing but grapefruit or cabbage soup each day. You slash your daily calories to fewer than 1,000 -- and sure enough, the pounds melt away. But when you eat so few calories, you train your metabolism to slow down. Once the diet is over, you have a body that burns calories more slowly -- and gains weight more quickly -- than ever before.

Skipping Breakfast

Skipping breakfast seems like a simple way to cut calories, but the result can be insatiable hunger the rest of the day. This may lead to unplanned snacking at the office and eating a super-size portion at lunch, making calorie counts soars. But breakfasts that are high in protein and fiber can reduce hunger throughout the day. In fact, studies show people who eat breakfast every morning are more likely to maintain a healthy weight.

Losing Track of Your Snacks

Maybe you count calories meticulously at every meal, but what about all those nibbles in between? There’s the bag of pretzels at your desk, the little slice of cake at an office party, the taste of your son’s ice cream cone. All of this mindless munching adds up and could sabotage an otherwise well-planned diet. If you’re serious about counting calories, you may want to use a notebook to keep track of each bite.