# 1

1. No Long Term Goals

Fad diets are generally designed for short term, rapid weight loss. They don’t help you make sustainable changes to your lifestyle that will not only help you lose weight, but help you keep it off.

You may lose a few pounds quickly, but chances are they’ll be back just as fast – with a few of their friends, to boot!

# 2

2. Diets Are Overly Restrictive

Most of the fad diet programs are based on incredibly restrictive diets, with long lists of foods you aren’t “allowed” to eat. Most people start out with high hopes, but their motivation soon drops off when the diet begins to feel too restrictive.

Psychologically, the fact that certain foods are prohibited can make you crave them even more! This is a big reason for “cheating” on a diet, and eventually giving up.

# 3

3. Skipped Meals

Another reason many dieters give up is because they skip meals to lose weight.

Skipping meals can cause you to eat fewer calories, and might even show you a short term weight loss. But eventually, your weight will “plateau”; skipping meals causes your metabolism to slow down, in order to conserve energy for what it perceives as a starvation.

# 4

4. Unrealistic Weight Loss Goals

When you first start a new diet, it’s very easy to be super enthusiastic, which can cause you to set unrealistic goals for yourself, both short term and long term.

If you don’t reach the goals that you think you should, you’re just setting yourself up for big disappointment. Many people get so discouraged by not making their goals that they just give up.

# 5

5. Not Exercising While You Diet

You want to know why you aren’t losing weight, even though you follow your diet religiously? It might be because you spend all day sitting at a computer and never get up to do any exercise.

Exercise helps you lose weight faster for a couple of reasons. First, it burns calories, which helps to widen your calorie deficit – that’s the difference between the number of calories you eat compared to the number of calories your body uses. The bigger the difference, the more weight you can lose.

Exercising also boosts your metabolism, and keeps your body from going into “starvation mode” – a state where the metabolism slows down and your body reserves as much fat as it can, causing a weight plateau.

Exercising also builds muscle, so you literally increase your ability to burn calories, because muscles use more energy than fat does.

# 6

6. Not Dealing With Stress Appropriately

Stress is a big reason for diet failure. Well, it’s not really the stress itself; it’s the way that people deal with it.

Many overweight people have a habit of reaching for comfort foods when they feel stressed out. Not dealing with stress appropriately can lead to binge eating, which creates guilt and causes more binge eating – a vicious cycle.

Chronic stress over the long term can also increase levels of cortisol, which can lead to reduced response from the thyroid, slower metabolism and increased fat storage – just not a healthy situation.

# 7

7. Thinking A Slip-up Means You’ve Failed

We all recognize that no one is perfect; yet so many people think that one mistake in their diet means they’ve blown the whole thing.

Even if you’ve been breezing a long doing great, eventually the day will come where you order the large fries instead of the salad; or maybe it will be the night you’re feeling low and eat a whole pint of Ben and Jerry’s.

It doesn’t mean your diet is a failure! You don’t have to let one off day blow all your hard work. Unfortunately, many people get so down on themselves, they’ll turn one little slip into a week of binge eating – almost as self-punishment.

Don’t be that person! Recognize that one meal or one pint of ice cream isn’t the end of the world, and tomorrow you’ll be right back to doing the good stuff, loving your body and taking care of it! Because that’s what it really takes to lose weight – loving yourself, and wanting to do what’s best for YOU.