Losing fat requires patience. Diets don’t work, you can go on a starvation diet and lose five pounds in one week. You may have lost a pound or two of fat, but the additional weight loss is muscle and water. Most people regain the weight lost within six months.  But if you really feel like you’re doing all the right things, and still not seeing results, it can be a frustrating process. Here are some common mistakes you want to avoid when trying to burn fat.

Eating Too Few Calories

If you do not take in enough calories your body will use some fat and then begin using protein (muscle) for energy. A pound of muscle burns about 75 calories per day, decreasing the amount of muscle mass on your bad reduces the amount of calories your body will burn at rest. Starvation will slow metabolism down, making it easier to gain more weight when you stop dieting.

Overeating

Even if you’re eating healthier overall than you were pre-diet, too-large meals can easily push you off-track.  It can be easy to get a bit lax about portion sizes — and that’s the way those extra calories to creep back in. The No. 1 commandment of weight loss is calories in vs. calories out, right?

Binging on Weekends

Your weekends may mean time off from work, but it’s not time off from eating healthy. While we’re all for enjoying yourself on the weekends, the weekend makes up more than a quarter of the month. Take advantage of the weekend and try new healthy recipes. Remember: Stay on top of portion sizes!!!!

Improper Nutrition Before and After Workouts

Study after study has confirmed that eating a meal that contains both protein and carbohydrates helps overweight people lose weight and normal-weight people maintain weight over time. Carbs provide energy for the workout, while proteins will help repair muscles and allow us to recover more effictivly. If you’re allowing yourself to end each workout with a huge meal, you’re almost instantly eating away the calories you just burned. Keep post-workout snacks small.

Using Shakes as Meal Replacements

Protein Shakes, Meal Replacements, and many other supplements may seem like a good idea to invest in when trying to lose weight. Most are a waste of money and cause more harm than good. Many supplements include different types of chemicals that are used to enhance weight loss, muscle gain. These chemicals are hard for our bodies to process out and get stored as fat!

Weight loss comes down to more than just eating your veggies. In order to lose weight you must change your entire lifestyle, expend more calories than you consume, and increase your activity level.