Even with the best of intentions, most people who start a calories loss diet generally give it up during its early stages. They do this because they are unaware of a number of very common pitfalls that stop them from succeeding in their quest to lose weight and get healthy. Learning to spot these early so that you can avoid them or work around them is a way to make sure that you stay on your diet and reach your weight loss goals.

Making extreme changes to your daily menu is a common pitfall, especially on unreliable diets. If you start an eating program where you eat only one type of food and eliminate everything else it will be very challenging to remain committed to this diet. The modifications to your eating plan need to be introduced gradually and in a balanced way. This will mean that your diet will impact on your body in small ways and you will avoid the kinds of cravings that can tempt you to give up on your diet and fall back into unhealthy eating habits.

Aiming for unachievable outcomes happens often, particularly at the start of your diet when you lose weight at a faster rate than you will as your diet progresses. Fast weight loss at the beginning is exciting but this can lure you into a false sense of expectation because this weight loss is largely water weight. Health professionals suggest that real weight loss does not happen as quickly and that you should only expect to lose a pound or two each week. So if you expect to lose five pounds or more weekly, you are unlikely to achieve this. The sense of disillusionment that this can bring on may see you quitting your calories loss diet and returning to the lifestyle that saw you gain weight in the first place.

Using food as a reward is a real pitfall to be avoided because one of the most common ways that we all reward ourselves is food. How many times have you told yourself ‘I stuck to my calories loss diet all week so one cheeseburger will not hurt me’? Well that cheeseburger will hurt you. In the long run, it will be just more calories that you need to burn off. Instead of rewarding yourself with food for a job well done, take the same amount of money that you would have spent on a food treat and spend it on a new blouse, a new lipstick, a book, a new CD, or something else that will motivate you to keep going on your weight loss journey.