1 You’re eating too many healthy carbs
You balk at the sight of a butter croissant, but you feast on a big bowl of wholemeal pasta at dinner. We all know that white versions of kitchen cupboard staples spell bad news for our waistlines, but even their brown counterparts aren't as virtuous if you're overloading on them.
Complex carbohydrates are an important macronutrient in any balanced eating plan, but a carb-heavy diet leads to weight gain by increasing blood glucose levels and making your body more resistant to insulin. This means that instead of burning carbs for energy, your body stores them as fat.
WISE UP: Pile half your plate with non-starchy veggies (like broccoli and cauliflower), one quarter with protein (pulses, lean beef or chicken), and the other quarter with complex carbs (brown rice or sweet potato) and good fats.
2 You’re being too good
You've been told a gazillion times that counting kilojoules is the key to successful weight loss. Sure, it can help in the battle against the bulge, but tallying up your daily intake isn't really sustainable in the long term. Plus, you'll find your weight will start to plateau after a certain amount of time as your body fights back by slowing your metabolism and increasing your hunger.
Emerging research suggests that if you really want to keep your metabolism ticking over nicely, you'll need to bend the weight-loss rules slightly by ditching your diet once a week. Having a cheat meal can really help you stick to a healthy diet the rest of the time and keep your willpower firing all week long.
WISE UP: Set aside one meal a week to 'slip up' and indulge guilt-free! There are a couple of golden rules to follow to ensure this doesn't foil your healthy goals, though: schedule your cheat meal earlier in the day - at lunchtime rather than dinner - and stop eating at the first sign of fullness.
3 You save your kjs for dinner
Eating smaller portions will defs help to fire up your weight loss, but if you're making the mistake
of saving up your day's kilojoule intake for the evening, the scales won't tip in your favour. Your metabolism takes a dive when you miss meals as it tries to hang onto whatever energy it can. Plus, skipping meals during the day will make you ravenous come PM, so you're also likely to overindulge. This means your body will be flooded with high levels of blood glucose, which your body will store as fat. Eek.
WISE UP: Eat at regular intervals. Your day's food intake should revolve around three meals, plus two snacks, to ensure blood glucose levels stay stable. Make sure each meal contains protein to keep you feeling full, and graze on snacks, like berries with nuts.
4 You aren't dealing with your emotions
Guilty of eating your feelings? Short-term stress or anxiety can suppress your appetite, as the release of hormones - including cortisol, CRH and adrenaline - makes us feel less hungry. However, a prolonged response over time can cause hormones, like cortisol, to signal to the body that it needs to replenish food supplies. This makes us hungrier and slows down the metabolism.
WISE UP: Next time you're stressed, swap comfort foods for a yoga sesh. Concentrating
on breathing techniques and flow sequences will help bring your body back into balance and regulate hormone levels.
5 You have selective meal memory
Even if you're watching what you eat 50 per cent of the time, if you're not careful the other half, you'll pack on unwanted kilos. It's tough to keep tabs on what you're eating when you're distracted - and when you're multitasking your brain isn't as efficient at detecting fullness.
WISE UP: Schedule time into your day to dedicate to mealtimes. Make eating an occasion that takes you away from whatever task you're doing. Eat at the dining table instead of on the sofa and make sure you chew food properly. Spend a few minutes writing a food diary of everything you've eaten and review it at the end of the week.
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