When it comes to dieting, whether trying to build muscle or burn off unwanted fat, the process should be simple.
For whatever reason, we take it to extreme levels and make it waaayyy more difficult than it needs to be.
Before answering what I see as the biggest dieting mistake, I crowdsourced Twitter for some opinions from others. Originally, I planned to post a few replies directly into this article, but it generated so much amazing conversation that I couldn’t limit it to just 3-4.
Instead, here’s the original tweet. I’d encourage you to browse through the responses to see just how many dieting mistakes people identified and how the trends and similarities develop.
The biggest dieting mistake I see people make is making dramatic changes to their diet. I put dramatic in bold, because that’s the key word.
Dramatic.
Making change is good. Making a dramatic change is bad.
Quite simply, the best/most effective diet is one that you can adhere to. Rarely do dramatic changes create a diet that we can adhere to for a long period of time
You know how it goes… Let me walk you through an inner monologue you’ve probably had before…
“This year, it’s gonna be a new year, new me. I’m going to clean up my diet and get healthy. Here’s what I’ll do…
“For starters, no more sweets. I’ll eliminate all sweets from my diet. I eat too much sugar anyway.
“While I’m at it, I’ll get rid of all food after 7 p.m. That’s normally when I snack, and I typically snack on bad foods. That will solve it.
“I think I’ll skip breakfast, too. I’ve heard a lot about intermittent fasting and how much success people are having with it. I might as well jump on board!
“And you know what, I’ve heard of a lot of people having success with the keto diet as well. I’ll jump on that! No carbs for me. Not one. I’m committed. I’m dedicated. I’m going to make this happen!”
So, let’s recap.
In this scenario, a person with all the best intentions in the world has eliminated all carbs, sweets, food after 7 p.m., and breakfast entirely. They’re going from eating sun up to sun down to restricting themselves from a ton of their favorite foods and eating in a 6-8 hour window every day.
Does that sound like something this person can sustain?
No. Obviously.
This is way more common than you probably want to believe or admit. Maybe you’ve done this, or maybe it reminds you of someone you know.
Either way, it’s the absolute worst approach to dieting.
Coaching Cues
If I could recommend anything to you, it would be to take small steps with your diet. All of those ideas listed above are not bad ideas. They’re strategies proven to work for a lot of people.
Doing everything at once is the issue, so here’s what you SHOULD do…
Step No. 1: Outline the things you’d like to do, the steps you’d like to take, the goals you’d like to achieve, and put them down on paper.
Step No. 2: Decide what the most feasible and achievable item is out of what you wrote down.
Step No. 3: Put that item into action for 1-2 weeks until it becomes part of your regular lifestyle. It won’t be a habit at this point, but it will be solidified enough into your routine that you’ll continue to do it and you’ll have some evidence of whether or not it works you towards your goal.
Step. No. 4: Figure out the most sustainable item left on the list that you can add into your new routine. You’ve changed things up. You’ve got a new piece to your daily puzzle from steps No. 1-3. Things have changed a bit, and that may change how you look at your original list.
Reevaluate what you’d like to do, what steps you’d like to take, and what goals you want to achieve, and then add in a new piece.
Step No. 5: Continue to repeat this cycle for however long it takes to successfully and sustainably create a program that’s going to work for you. You may find out that your initial goals are not your goals anymore. You may discover that some parts of your diet plan that you wanted to try don’t work, but some other ones do. You may be operating on a wildly different plan than you original thought.
But you’ve got a plan. It’s sustainable. It’s working.
My Example
To map out a real-life example of this strategy in motion, I’ll describe my current lean-bulking phase for you.
My current goal is to build muscle. As much as possible, while not taking on an excessive amount of body fat (that’s been an issue in the past).
To start this process, I had the following steps I’d like to take outlined:
- Gain one pound per month of what I consider “good weight” (more lean mass, less fat mass)
- Increase the amount of weight I’m able to lift on certain movements
- Increase the amount of weekly lifting volume for certain movements
The wrong approach would have been to increase my calories significantly, increase the weights for each exercise, and add in several additional weekly sets right off the bat.
Instead, I focused first on calories. That’s it. Nothing about my training program changed. I continued to use the same amount of weight and sets as I did prior to beginning this new phase.
All I did was increase my calories.
I had just finished a dieting phase, so I increased my calories to 2,500 per day (macros roughly 180 protein, 70 fat, 300 carb). And currently, I’m in the process of evaluating that first step.
I’m about two weeks into it, and my average weight is trending in the opposite direction that I want — I’ve actually lost about a pound.
So, immediately after two weeks I know that my first step needs to be adjusted. I’ll do some math and increase my calories a touch (probably 100-150 additional calories) and give it another two weeks to see how things play out.
I could find out after another two weeks that my weight continues to drop, or maybe it’s at a standstill. That’s obviously not the progress I’m looking for, but the time and effort I’m putting in is well spent, because I know I’m taking strategic steps towards eventually achieving my goal and getting in the right groove with my training and nutrition.
This is the process you should take for yourself. It’s the process that so many people pass up in the pursuit of big goals with their diet.
If you want to lost 30 pounds, who cares if you go another four weeks without losing weight if you know you’re figuring out a plan that will absolutely work? You shouldn’t.
Application and Takeaways
Understandably, people get excited about creating change — about improving themselves, their health, and their fitness.
We’re focused on dieting in this article, and the most popular version of making this mistake is the example I outlined at the beginning — of someone wanting to lose weight and eliminating way too much, way too quickly.
These are dramatic changes.
AVOID dramatic changes.
If you change a ton of variables at once with your diet, it’s going to be increasingly difficult to understand which variables are contributing positively and negatively when things go well or poorly.
If you change one variable at a time, you’ll be able to make adjustments much more easily and effectively. You’ll also be able to slowly create a better lifestyle for yourself that you can adhere to long term, because you’ll figure things out along the way.
This is why I often try to steer people away from fad diets or elimination diets. Keto is all the rage right now, but it eliminates so many foods from day one. It makes the chances for adherence and success long term virtually impossible for most people, and there’s no exit plan when you’ve reached your goal and are done with the diet (if you even get that far).
Take small steps. Outline your goals. Be thoughtful of the process.
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If you’re interested in coaching to help improve your daily routines, or to implement a new fitness and/or nutrition plan, please contact me and let’s talk about what options might work for you! Visit my coaching page for more information on the services I offer, and fill out the coaching application form if you’d like to schedule a call.
Thanks for reading!
CGF