Dieting is a tricky business. Even if you exercise regularly, eat salad for lunch and resist the temptation to scoff chocolate biscuits every afternoon, there are pitfalls that can leave even the most experienced calorie-counter struggling to slim down.
Here is our list of diet mistakes even the most savvy women often make.
1. You have an alcohol free night and drink flavoured mineral water all night instead
Replacing alcohol with soft drinks may not save you any kilojoules. In fact you’ll probably be having more. A standard 120ml glass of wine provides 330 kilojoules, but a glass of soft drink supplies around 430 kilojoules. Better to enjoy a glass of wine then move on to plain, soda or mineral water or a even a diet soft drink.
2. You choose a fruit muffin for a healthy snack
Although an apple and cinnamon or banana muffin sounds very healthy, it can actually be very high in fat, with a whopping 13 grams of fat in a medium sized muffin. You could eat three apples and still not match the 1180 kilojoules from one average muffin.
3. You skip breakfast after an evening of indulgence
Although you think you can save on kilojoules by skipping breakfast after over indulging at a night on the town, breakfast is the key to kick-starting your metabolism and help to burn off the excess.
4. You’re a slave to salads
A salad may sound like the healthiest option on the menu, but that’s not necessarily the case especially if it’s drowning in dressing and full of high fat ingredients. Take a Caesar salad for example — croutons, parmesan cheese, pancetta, anchovies and a creamy dressing — adds up to 16 grams of fat. That’s about half your daily requirement when you’re trying to lose weight!
5. You’ve become vegetarian
It may sound healthier, but following a vegetarian diet can put you at risk of nutritional deficiencies, unless very well balanced. Vegetarian diets can also be high in saturated fat especially if you’re a cheese lover. A lean steak, rich in protein, iron and zinc, is certainly nutritious and is not the enemy for your waistline. In fact it is very filling and may prevent you from overeating something else.
6. You give up the burger and fries and go for the Singapore noodles.
While a box of Singapore noodles has around 24g fat, 10g less than a burger and fries, the kilojoule value is a whopping 4385. That’s over 1000 calories and nearly 400 more than the burger and fries. But before you throw away the chopsticks, I have a better solution. Instead of eating the entire box of noodles which is a huge serving of 800g, share it with two of your friends!
Your say: Do you have any other diet mistakes you’ve discovered the hard way?
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