9 Worst Weight Loss Tactics

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Full Episode Transcript:

9 Worst Weight Loss Tactics

Hello, my lovely career woman. I’m glad you could join me today, because this episode is going to be so useful to you in your weight loss journey and will help save you time, frustration and energy.

Today I’m sharing 9 worst weight loss tactics, so you can be sure to avoid these ahead of time in your weight loss efforts. Or, if you are doing some of these, to give you awareness of why they aren’t great ways to lose weight, so you can save yourself that time, energy and any negative emotions that will come with these 9 worst weight loss tactics.

Alright, so the first of the 9 worst weight loss tactics is fast weight loss. Fast weight loss in my opinion is the worst tactic. I didn’t put the rest of these in any sort of order as far as level of “worstness.” I’m pretty sure that’s not a word, but it seemed appropriate. I would say that number 9 is the second worst, but the rest are tough to rank.

Anyway, fast weight loss is the worst weight loss tactic because your brain and body are not able to sustain the efforts required to lose weight really quickly. Your brain and body are being pushed to the max with fast weight loss. Meaning, your brain has use a lot of energy, or willpower, to make these drastic changes. Your brain likes to (and was created to) conserve energy for survival purposes.

So yes, you might be super motivated to make these changes and use all your willpower, but your brain is going to slip back to its natural tendency to want to conserve energy and that willpower will run out. In fact, there is a term for that and it’s called “willpower depletion.”

Also, to have fast or quick weight loss, your body must make lots of adjustments. To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume. It’s simple math. To lose weight quickly, you must burn way more calories than you consume, so you can shed those pounds in a short period of time. This takes a toll on your physical body.

Your body likes to remain in a state of stability and has adjusted its metabolism to remain relatively stable. This is all part of being in homeostasis and it’s an extremely useful way to do things.

So, when you burn A LOT more calories than you consume all of a sudden, your body isn’t going to like that change very much. Initially, you may or may not feel physical symptoms. Common ones initially will include over-hunger, which can make it likely you just give in, because no one likes how over-hunger feels. Myself included. Also, headaches, maybe even stomach pain or nausea.

Even if you only get some physical symptoms for the first few days, then they improve, the longer you go with severely limiting your calories, the more likely you will start feeling physical effects of fatigue and weakness. You may even experience a decrease in your ability to think, to focus. That’s because your brain needs calories too. In fact, it uses a very large percentage of the calories you consume on a daily basis.

Okay, so the second worst weight loss tactic is really important and that’s not having supportive thoughts or a supportive mindset.

Okay, so what do I mean by supportive thoughts or a supportive mindset? Supportive meaning believing you can have the results you desire, encouraging yourself along the way, especially when you might “mess up.” That’s really when you need it the most. If you don’t have supportive thoughts, challenges and mistakes will get to you.

They’ll discourage you, and that will cause either inaction, or will cause you to sabotage your efforts by eating more of the food you’re trying to control, just to try to make that negative emotion go away.

Aright, so number 3 is a big one when it comes to the 9 worst weight loss tactics. That is, not weighing yourself frequently enough. Often, women who are trying to lose weight are afraid of the scale, so they won’t get on it often enough. They’re afraid that the number the scale will show, will disappoint them or cause some other negative emotion.

If that’s you, listen. It’s not the scale that causes that negative emotion. It’s only your judgement about the number on the scale that causes the negative emotion. It’s only your thought about how far along you should be. And honestly, that thought is typically just a guess, right? You make a guess in your mind about what that number should be, and if it’s not a correct guess, it can be upsetting or disappointing, right?

Well, please understand this. When you barely ever step on the scale out of fear, you won’t have much data. You won’t know what is working and what isn’t working for you. The more data you have, the more you can make small changes with what you’re doing. Data in the case of weight loss, includes numbers. That can include measurements with a tape measure, but oftentimes, it at least includes the number on the scale.

So, if you have lots of numbers, that means lots of useful data. So just remember, the scale doesn’t upset you, it’s your thoughts about the number on the scale that create the negative feeling.

Okay, moving onto #4.  Eating foods you really don’t like is definitely one of the worst weight loss tactics. This one is quite simple. If you are eating foods you really don’t like, how do you think you’ll be able to sustain that weight loss, if you feel you have to eat foods you don’t like? It’s going to be tough.

Also, if you aren’t enjoying the process, it’ll be more likely to give up on the process. If you don’t like a lot of the foods along the way, that’s just going to result in loss of motivation. Because just thinking about that end goal won’t quite be enough. The process can’t be painful, right?

Now, I did come across some research, and I apologize because I don’t recall who led the research, but it suggested that foods people don’t particularly like, can become foods they end up liking after just a few times of eating them. I believe the research was on children though, but I imagine that could translate over to adults.

I mean, you’ve probably experienced changes in your taste buds over the years, so quite possibly, you can have a change in taste over just a few experiences with a food.

I’ve become this way with cole slaw actually. I didn’t like it for years, and all of a sudden I find it really enjoyable. I don’t think I’ll ever develop the taste for baked beans though. My husband, Paul, thinks they’re delicious and I still cringe when I try them.

Moving onto the next worst weight loss tactics and this one goes along with the one I just discussed, and it’s giving up all your favorite foods. Did you know that you can eat donuts and potato chips and still lose weight? It goes back to the simple math of burning more calories than you’re consuming.

So, if you eat 1,600 calories worth of donuts and potato chips every day (which I must mention, won’t be very filling or nutritious), and burn 2,200 calories every day, you’ll lose weight on a diet consisting of donuts and potato chips.

The problem with this of course is that your body is going to be starved for nutrients and that will actually increase your hunger signals, making it difficult to stick with the 1,600 calories. Also, many other negative effects on your health will occur if you aren’t getting many nutrients.

My point is though, you can have your sweets and treats and comfort foods, but ideally, getting most of your calories from higher nutrient foods and then a small portion of your calories from the treats, is the way to go. You get the best of both worlds. You get the nutrients you need, your body feels more satisfied, and your brain is satisfied with being able to still eat some foods you absolutely love.

Plus, another reason why avoiding all those foods you really enjoy is not a great weight loss tactic, goes back to that same reason I discussed previously, which is that it makes your weight loss journey less enjoyable.

Also, if you’re not allowing yourself any treats, you might even start thinking about that food even more and your cravings or desire for that food can increase. Same thing if you’re on a diet of donuts and potato chips too, that also has an effect on your desire for those foods. So, a happy medium is best. Having control over the food.

This next one, number 6, is something I teach inside the Weight Loss Habits course in the Bonus Section inside Food Freedom. And that is wanting to lose weight out of hate or dislike for your body. This reason is not a good one, and I won’t get into too much of the why, because that would spoil the Weight Loss Habits course. Many women want to lose weight for reasons of hate or dislike, rather than for more positive and motivating reasons.

And I will say this, your reason doesn’t even have to be anything more than thinking it might be fun to try, right? Positive reasons and fun reasons make the process more enjoyable and make it less likely you’ll quit. That’s because there won’t be this massive pressure on you to try to lose weight to like your body more.

When you try to lose weight because you look forward to the potential positive outcomes like improved health and potentially even a prolonged life, more energy to do what you love, more agility and physical ability, it’s going to be more of a fun process for you. If the process is more enjoyable or fun, the more likely you’ll stick with it, reaching your goals.

Or like I mentioned, just wanting to set a weight loss goal to see if you can challenge yourself to reach that goal and stay there. As a career woman, I’m guess that you like challenging yourself. You get that dopamine hit, right?

And if you challenge yourself, you will have growth, as I’m sure you’ve seen in other ways where you may have challenged yourself before. The growth includes improvements in your thoughts and habits along the way, which are going to be beneficial regardless, right? Regardless of if you hit that goal or hit it within a certain time period.

If you’re losing weight in a safe, enjoyable, and more natural way, you’re developing life-long habits that you wouldn’t have otherwise necessarily. You win regardless and that’s why I do what I do to help career women break their “bad” eating habits and form new ones that they love.

Alright, so the seventh worst weight loss tactic is using only exercise to lose weight. Don’t get me wrong, I love exercise and know there are many benefits, but do you know how much you’d have to exercise to lose the weight you want to? More than you think, and unfortunately, if you’re using exercise equipment and trackers, they are almost all overestimating how many calories you’ve burned.

Plus, there are going to be times when you can’t exercise or don’t feel like it, so if you were relying solely on that for weight loss, you’re going to have a more difficult time.

If you mix in some exercise with changes to your eating habits, you’re way more likely to lose weight and keep it off, or at least not fluctuate very much. Because if you have some periods of time where you can’t exercise due to an injury, medical condition, increased work hours, a family issue, or any other things that may come up, you at least have those better eating habits to fall back on.

Also, if you are relying purely on exercise to lose weight and you’re exercising say anywhere from 1-2 hours a day, what do you think will happen to your hunger levels? They’re going to increase, naturally making it more difficult to not consume more calories. Your body is going to be screaming, “hey, I need more calories if you’re going to force me to do more physical work.”

I ran one marathon in my lifetime, and that was back in my late twenties. During training, I didn’t lose any weight at all. I weighed the exact same weight at the start of training and the end. My body increased the hunger signals as my training increased and so I ate more calories. My eating habits weren’t great then, so I ate a lot of pasta and breads.

Even with keeping up with the calories, I was still physically tired from all the running, plus just the normal demand from my job, so I can’t even imagine how I would’ve felt if I was trying to ignore those hunger signals. I wouldn’t have had the energy to run those long runs, that’s for sure.

After marathon training though, is when I lost weight. I got back into my normal exercise routine, but started eating salads with steak, chicken, or seafood on top for dinner, instead of pasta. I started bringing my lunch to work every day, rather than just a couple days a week. Only when I changed my eating habits, did I see weight loss. I didn’t see weight loss with the super strenuous exercise of marathon training, which was burning a ton of calories.

Okay, number 8 of the 9 worst weight loss tactics is taking pills, potions and powders that promise weight loss. Companies that sell these are really great at knowing exactly what to say and promise to get you to buy and they don’t necessarily have your health in their best interest. In fact, some of these may even be unsafe.

I would certainly question the efficacy, and also how long they would even work for you. Just as your body can get used to some medications, so that they are no longer effective, can’t they also potentially get used to the pills, potions, and powders too? I used to prescribe anti-inflammatory medications, muscle relaxers, and even anti-convulsants for patients with neuropathic pain, oftentimes from a spine condition. I can’t even tell you how many times a medication was effective for someone for say a few months, then it started to lose efficacy, and we would have to try a new one.

I imagine that same can occur with weight loss pills, whether they are naturopathic or prescribed. And even weight loss powders and whatnot.

Now, onto last of the worst weight loss tactics and like I mentioned earlier in the podcast episode, this one is right up there at the top, along with the fast weight loss. I do realize that this isn’t really a tactic, but more of a mistake I would say, but it’s super important. This one is thinking that food is your pleasure. I’ll expand on this a bit of course.

So, one of the biggest reasons for “bad” eating habits leading to weight gain, is looking to food to provide pleasure and to help avoid discomfort. Unfortunately, even though it can provide pleasure to your tastebuds and give you that dopamine hit, it’s not long-lasting.

When you end up relying on it to provide pleasure, you get into that bad eating habit cycle. You’ll constantly feel like you need the really tasty, high-calorie food to give you that dopamine hit.

If you have other pleasures in life and don’t look to food to provide pleasure, you will have a much better relationship with food and a much easier time with weight loss. You will be able to separate the two and not feed into that dopamine rise and fall cycle.

Plus, adding more pleasure into your life via other ways beside food is such a win-win!

Okay, so that’s all I have for you the 9 worst weight loss tactics.

Thanks so much for listening, take care and I’ll talk with you soon.