7 Unhealthy Ways to Lose Weight

Whenever you feel anxiety about eating, calm it with a piece of fruit, water, or yogurt.

Weight loss is a challenge that involves changing many habits, a lot of discipline, and willpower. While a balanced diet and certain foods do promote weight loss, it is important to consider other factors that greatly influence this process and that complement a healthy diet to lead to the desired results. In general, when going on a diet, we should avoid unhealthy ways to lose weight, which you’ll find out about in this article.

If you’re the kind of person who spends all their time in the gym and eats healthy, but still haven’t managed to reach your target weight, you’re probably doing something wrong in the weight loss process, and that’s why your scale isn’t giving you the numbers you want to see. Next up, we’ll show you the 7 worst ways to go about losing weight; if you recognize any of them, that might be where your mistake is and you can start to correct it.

Not drinking enough water

Water plays a very important role in our bodies because in addition to keeping us hydrated, it facilitates some processes like metabolismregulation and the removal of toxins and wastes that the body doesn’t need. When we don’t drink enough water, the body will be less efficient at burning calories and won’t promote removal of fat for weight loss. It’s recommended to drink at least 2 liters of water a day.

Skipping breakfast

This is one of the most common unhealthy ways to lose weight.Fortunately, many diets recommend eating certain types of foods in the mornings to kick start the metabolism and promote the weight loss process. However, some people make the mistake of skipping breakfast in exchange for some other type of weight-loss food. It’s very important to eat breakfast because that meal promotes metabolism, provides energy, and helps you start your day off right.

Reducing the number of meals

When it comes to losing weight, reducing the number of meals eaten per day is a big mistake. Eating only two or three meals a day slows down the metabolism and you’ll see poor results. Ideally, you should divide meals into smaller portions that are eaten 4 to 6 times a day. Obviously you should chose healthy foods, and avoid sugars, salty foods, and foods that are high in bad fats.

Getting limited exercise

It should be obvious that in order to lose weight, a good exercise routine that promotes metabolism and helps the body eliminate waste is essential. Some people get a lot of exercise, but because they’re doing it incorrectly they aren’t losing weight. Their mistake is usually limiting themselves to only aerobic exercise like running, walking, cycling, and others. In order to obtain the desired results, it’s important to combine cardiovascular exercise with strength training.

Eating too quickly

When you don’t take the time to chew your food carefully, you feel less full and are going to want to eat more as a result. This bad habit prevents the body from digesting food completely, and will make it more difficult to lose weight. It’s also not recommended to eat in front of the TV or other digital devices, to have poor posture, or eat while engaging in some other type of distraction.

Not resting well

People who don’t get enough sleep, or don’t sleep well, tend to suffer from more anxiety and gain weight more easily. Sleepless nights alter hormone production, which regulates the appetite and can make people want to eat more. It’s important to sleep for at least 8 hours straight and without interruption.

Stress

Stressful situations are the greatest enemies in the process of wanting to lose weight. Such situations usually generate anxiety and as a result you want to eat more than normal, making it almost impossible to maintain a healthy diet. Studies have shown that high levels of stress increase the production of cortisol, which causes the body to store fats instead of burning them. It’s very important to learn to control stress as well as the anxiety it can cause. If for some reason such a situation is unavoidable, calm your anxiety with a healthy snack like a bottle of water, some fruit, or yogurt.