So you’ve launched your diet. It hasn’t been easy, but you’re determined to stick with it. Yet despite all your nutritional changes and cutbacks, you step on the scale and learn you’re actually adding weight instead of shedding it like you’d hoped. What could be more frustrating than that?!
Health.com explores five reasons why your diet might be making you gain weight.
1. A diet can throw your body out of balance. For example, if your diet’s too strict, your metabolism can slooooow down as your body struggles to hang on to as many calories as it can, stockpiling them for future use. So try to pick a less extreme plan.
2. Diets don’t allow for wiggle room. Say you slip up. Suddenly you’re beating yourself up, thinking “I blew it. I’ve failed. The diet’s off.” It’s important to remember that you allow yourself imperfections in other aspects of your life, so forgive yourself for not being perfect when it comes to losing weight. Don’t abandon the plan because of one smuggled cupcake.
3. Diets forbid foods you can’t give up. Back to the cupcake problem… Or maybe your vice is potato chips or pizza. Whatever your can’t-live-without treat is, don’t abandon it! Balance and moderation are important. Don’t give yourself rules you know you’ll break.
For more reasons why your diet isn’t sailing along as smoothly as you’d planned, check out this Health.com article.