What was some mistakes you made when first dieting?

'Rewarding' myself with chocolate or pizza when I had been good on my diet. Rookie mistake! lol

Setting too aggressive calorie goals
Setting calorie goals not aggressive enough
Drinking way too much alcohol
Not eating enough green vegetables, fruit, legumes, and lean meats
Trying to do moderate-to-high intensity exercise while eating less than 50g carbs a day

I expect the exercise/carb thing is probably a little controversial. Everyone's body is a little different. I know there are people who get tons of exercise on very low carb diets. Personally, it just doesn't work for me. I enjoy exercise a lot more when I'm as fueled up on carbs as I can be within my daily calorie goal. When I'm carb-deprived, anything more intense than a brisk walk feels just awful. I figure, as long as I have a calorie deficit, I'm going to lose weight, so why not enjoy the exercise and optimize my exercise performance as much as possible?

Eating the low numbers that mfp gives you and not weighing stuff only using measuring spoons/cups etc.

Trying to lose two pounds per week when I should have had a more realistic goal of one pound per week.

Believing MFP's inflated exercise burns.

Skipping breakfast...not measuring my portions...forgetting to drink a cup of water before every meal....eating out!

Thinking that I would be done once I reached 180lbs/170lbs/165lb/150lb/140lb/130lb. I am finally done now in my 120s, but I really thought I would look great and be done at 180lbs when I first started. I am 5'5", btw.

Two big ones:

1) Trying to eat 6 meals a day even though it made me constantly hungry and miserable.

2) Eating at far to large a deficit. I started at 1450 and then dropped to 1200 which is far to low for a male, and I didn't eat bad exercise calories so likely netting 500 or so. Lost a lot of lean mass and ended up putting the weight back on rather quickly.

Not putting in enough time to set myself up for success.

For example - I would put off grocery shopping and I wouldn't buy NEARLY enough healthy choices for myself. So I would have something healthy and appropriate calories for breakfast and lunch one day, but nothing planned for dinner. Or I'd have a great dinner, but not save myself any leftovers for the next day.

I also tried doing "Lean Cuisine" dinners for a while and they were SO not filling. I felt like I was starving. For some dumb reason it didn't occur to me to supplement them with veggies. Also I really didn't have any idea how many calories I needed to be eating so I would have 1 of those tiny frozen dinners for lunch and one for dinner. I'm sure I ate too few calories and so I had no energy and I thought diets = punishing routine. I just looked up the nutrition info on one of my "favourites" from that time (Santa Fe rice and beans) and it had 290 calories. OMG. What was I thinking.

I can't believe I didn't start my diet with that very basic piece of information - how many calories do I need in a day.

Now I eat SO many veggies and I buy enough for ~ 5-6 days at a time. My refrigerator is BURSTING with veggies at any one time. Also I buy bags of frozen Chicken breasts from Costco. There is ALWAYS something in the house to eat which is a good choice for me.

The biggest mistake I would make was that I would eat above maintnance on weekends and mess up my progress and because of that I would not lose weight.

I tried to do too much all at once and ended up injured and sick. (That was what prompted me to start writing the book I'm working on about historical health-fads and diet trends.)
This time, my doctor recommended using a calorie counting site (his own system that his health group uses) and starting at the top of my TDEE and working downward, cutting out a little at a time until I was losing. I switched to MFP at the end of December, and I like it much better- it's so much easier to work with.

HStheBusyBee wrote: »

'Rewarding' myself with chocolate or pizza when I had been good on my diet. Rookie mistake! lol

Hm. I reward myself with treats when I have enough calories left over.

Eating way too much carbs + fat, and very little protein.

Gave up if I didn't lose weight every day. (which usually lead to me eating a whole pack of oreos in one sitting).

Telling myself if it wasn't a part of my meal, It didn't count (sneaking bites while cooking)

Thinking Plexus, Hydroycut, medifast, or anything other diet pill, plan, scam was going to work... and somehow I could still magically eat whatever I wanted. Like that whole pack of oreos.

Not including my family in my goals. My husband is my biggest support system now and my son loves taking walks with my. It makes this journey much easier. Even though my husband doesn't diet, or even really eat healthy..

I'm sure there is much more. but at the end of the day it's important to remember you learn from mistakes and its about a lifestyle change, so you're going to make mistakes along the way.

Lucy1771 wrote: »

I will admit my biggest mistake had nothing to do with the actual act of changing my eating habits and being mindful.

It had everything to do with the realization that...I AM WORTH THE EFFORT!

My mistake was not believing that sooner.

That's really cool!

Well, the Spiru Tein Shake diet worked for me 13 years ago when I was 13. The thing about it was that it didn't teach me how to eat properly so when I got off of it I went right back up.

Then there was a diet I went on that isn't allowed to be mentioned on here. It worked for me and I lost 25 in a month. I kept the weight off for over a year but I was still lazy 5 years ago so I relapsed and gained it all back.

Good old fashioned healthy eating is where I am at now. Been going to the gym and being active too. I've had my ups and downs. Last year I got off track and gained 17 pounds back. I then roller coastered for a while after Christmas. I'm still not back to 162 yet, but I've found my discipline again this month and I'm dropping. I'm currently at 173. Could be worse. I weigh myself every day so I can adjust stuff and know what I am doing right or wrong. The scale tells me stuff I can't guess on my own.