Author: Diane Carbonell

“I can’t believe I ate the whole thing,” was a campaign slogan many years ago for an antacid company. The woman in the commercial was bloated, uncomfortable, and very sorry she had eaten so much. If you are trying to lose weight, you’ve probably had times when you totally regret how much you ate. If you experience regular episodes of regretful eating, consider this: You will rarely be sorry for saying, “No” to excess food. In fact, learning to turn down unnecessary or unhealthy foods is a great skill to have for long-term weight maintenance.

Regretful Eating Defined

Regretful eating is a term I came up with after I finally lost all my weight. It means being sorry, or regretful, for eating certain foods or a large amount of food.

Here are two real life examples of regretful eating:

Scenario #1:

You are sitting at home watching television at night. A commercial for ice cream comes on and you start thinking about ice cream. Instead of reminding yourself that you’re done eating for the day, you get off the couch and head for the kitchen. There’s no ice cream in the freezer but there are some cookies for your kid’s lunch.  You eat one, then another, and before you know it – you’ve had five or six. You immediately regret having cookies you didn’t even like or want.

Scenario #2:

You and a few of your friends are out for dinner after a rough day at the office. At first, you had good intentions of ordering a salad and fish but after hearing everyone else’s orders, you decide to go for the fried sampler platter and a dessert. After all, you deserve it. As you head home, you are sorry you didn’t stick to your original plan and have something that fit with your diet.

The Cure

The cure for regretful eating isn’t to internally berate yourself and make yourself feel bad for eating too much or eating foods you don’t want. That doesn’t do you any good.

              The cure is simple. You’ve got to harness the power of saying, “No.”

Regretful eating may stem from emotions, habits, or the pressure of social situations. Regardless of the cause, you can stop experiencing the regret of bad decisions by learning to say, “No.”

It’s not easy but it’s a surefire way to fix regretful eating and a skill you get better at over time.

The Application

When faced with tempting food, you have a few choices.

1. You can eat as much as you want.

2. You can turn down the food completely.

3. You can have a small portion and then walk away.

All of these choices require a decision. Number one is probably going to make you sorry later, while two and three are healthier choices.

To avoid choosing number one, tell yourself, “No, I’m not going to pig out right now. There is nothing so special about that food that it’s worth blowing my diet for.” And then if it doesn’t stick the first time, repeat that phrase to yourself again.

You’ll Rarely Be Sorry

I was much more sorry for overeating than I ever was for making healthier choices and telling myself, “No.” In fact, I can’t think of a time when I regretted making the healthier selection.

At the end of the day, food you choose to reject one day will still be there the next day. You can always have it later when you are in the mindset of making a more careful and deliberate choice.

Consistency is often the difference between success and failure. Think about it. Saving money requires consistency. Running a marathon requires consistent training and in order to lose weight, you’ve got to be consistent in your food choices. If you struggle with inconsistency in your diet, I’ve got some ideas you can apply to be more consistent in moving toward and finally reaching your weight loss goals.
What is Consistency?
The American Heritage Dictionary of English Language defines consistency as “reliability or uniformity of successive results or events.”
Consistency in weight loss is doing something in a similar way day-by-day that results in pounds and inches dropped over time.
I’ve known a lot of people who lose a little bit of weight and then begin gaining weight again. It’s not because they suddenly lost their ability to lose weight but because they stopped making the choices that initially gave them success.

1. Consistency in weight loss has five components:
2. Know what lifestyle choices bring results.
3. Accept that progress may be slow at times.
4. Be aware of situations where you make the wrong or less ideal choice.
5. Take steps to bring consistency back to your diet when you begin to falter.
6. Repeat choices that bring good results.

What Causes Inconsistency?
The answer to this question depends on the person. For me, I often became inconsistent in trying to lose weight when I became frustrated with how slowly the pounds came off. Other people lose their focus because of upheaval in their lives, holidays, criticism from other people, social events, or emotional eating.
It’s important to know when you start your diet that life will throw you some curveballs. While they are not always fun, learning to stay consistent with your diet will help you later when you are trying to maintain your loss. After all, life’s inconsistencies vary day to day and year to year.
How Consistent Do You Need to Be?
The people I know who have successfully lost their excess weight and kept it off are those who were more consistent than not. They weren’t perfect but they had an overall consistency that allowed them success.
From personal and anecdotal experience, I know being consistent with your healthy diet at least 80 percent of the time almost always allows you to lose weight. Of course, the more consistent you are and the less you cheat on your diet, the quicker your weight loss will be.
What Are Some Ways to Be More Consistent?
I get that it’s one thing to say, “Be more consistent,” and quite another to apply that principle. To that end, here are 10 ways to be more consistent in your diet.

1. Have a routine for food planning and preparation.
2. Shop for food at regular intervals such as once a week.
3. Track your calories and exercise at least five days a week.
4. Take a few minutes each day to assess how you are doing.
5. Acknowledge the life events that are playing a role in your dieting struggles.
6. Be okay with a few inconsistencies or mess-ups.
7. Be patient with yourself as you develop new routines. It takes time for new habits to stick.
8. If something isn’t working, change it.
9. If you slip back into old eating habits, get back on track as soon as possible.
10. Focus on changing a few behaviors at a time instead of changing everything in your life at once.

Salty nuts, sweet granola bars, small bites of cheese, and smoothies are all common snacks you might choose when you are dieting. But are those snacks helping you lose weight or are they killing your diet? I love a good snack as much as the next person, but I learned very quickly that too much snacking led to very little weight loss. Find out whether your snacking habits are slowly killing your diet.

The Reasoning for Snacks

Many diet gurus and nutritionists recommend adding one, two, or even three snacks per day into your diet. For example, the Mayo Clinic website says, “Well-planned, healthy snacks can complement your weight-loss plan.”

I understand the reasoning behind the recommendation of snacking.

1. Reducing your calories to a weight loss level makes you hungry and snacking takes the edge off that hunger.

2. Good, healthy snacks can add nutrients to your diet.

3. Some studies have suggested that snacking can increase your metabolism slightly, which may help with weight loss.

Even though I understand the reasoning, the results of snacking can be disastrous for some dieters. I’ve had clients who just couldn’t understand why they weren’t losing weight. In examining what they were eating, the problem wasn’t their meal choices, portion sizes, or lack of exercise, but snacks.

The Numbers

Would you be surprised if I told you that a government survey found that men took in an average of 586 calories from snacks and women took in an average of 421 calories from snacks every single day? Even I was a little bit surprised at that number because that’s a lot of calories from snacks.

To further drive the problem with snacking home, the same survey found that the average person got almost 25 percent of their total intake from snacks and 17 percent of Americans ate 40 percent of their calories from snacks.

Let’s break that down:

If you are trying to eat a 1,200 calorie diet to lose weight and fall into the typical category of eating 25 percent of your calories from snacks, that’s 300 snack calories each day. Guess how much you have left for regular meals? 900 calories. That’s not much.

The Reality

Snacking is permissible and can help some people. Eating between meals can curb your appetite but the behavior can also add unnecessary calories to your day. So many calories that you might stall any weight loss or even gain weight.

I was one of those people who easily ate 40 percent of their diet in snacks. Many of my clients were too. It’s easy to do if your snacks are high in calories like chips, smoothies, cookies, or ice cream.

But it’s also easy to eat way too many calories from healthy snacks if you aren’t careful. Take a look at this list:

1/4 cup mixed nuts                                      203 calories

1 ounce cheddar cheese                              110 calories

4 Tablespoons hummus with 5 crackers   205 calories

Avocado                                                          227 calories

3/4 cup granola cereal                                 210 calories

Protein bar                                                    230 calories

Banana with peanut butter                         285 calories

Calorie source: USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference

The Solution

Here are three possible scenarios for successfully losing weight that involve snacking.

1) Snack only when you are really hungry and pick a single snack that has about 100 calories. It’s okay to not have a snack at all and just eat three healthy meals. Don’t automatically assume you need a snack. You might not.

2) Plan to have one snack a day. The key word is plan. If you are eating 1,200 calories, your snack should only have 80 to 100 calories to leave room for meals that will fill you up. So, snack on a piece of fruit or a large serving of vegetables.

3) Count your snacks as meals if you are snacking more than once a day. Instead of thinking you are having three meals and two or three snacks each day, think about each eating session as mealtime.  Because when you are eating five or six times a day, the calories add up fast.

For almost 10 years,  my first thought when I woke up was this: “I promise myself I will not overeat. I will stick to my diet.” And by noon most days, I had already blown it. It’s a promise commonly spoken by people trying to diet and just as frequently broken as evidenced by the fact that so many people struggle with overeating. That’s why the majority of Americans are overweight or obese – they eat more than they need. If you want to break the cycle of eating too much and lose weight, you’ve got to understand why you overeat.

1. It’s There

Food is basically everywhere and its availability makes it easy to eat any time, any place, and in almost any circumstance. Make conscious, informed choices and don’t eat food from your office vending machine just because you have a dollar in your pocket.

2. You Like It

“But I like food,” is a common exclamation I hear. I like food too, but I learned to enjoy the foods I like in smaller quantities. There’s nothing wrong with loving food, but there is something wrong when too much food causes you to be overweight.

3. Habit

Some habits are good and some aren’t. Eating candy after dinner or automatically pulling through Starbucks to get your 450-calorie coffee each morning are bad habits if you want to lose weight. I made a chart of [linkbuilder id=”6510″ text=”bad food”] habits I wanted to break. It helped to see all my bad food habits written down in black and white.

4. Social Pressure

You may eat more food when you are around your friends who love to eat, and eat, and eat. If this describes your social group, tread carefully. Changing your eating habits around them can cause some friction. Be kind, but stay firm to your goals.

5. Complacency

If you’ve ever lost a few pounds and then started overeating again, you are falling into the complacency trap. As you drop pounds, don’t add more food back to your diet unless you are trying to find your maintenance point. Stay focused on your goal.

6. Frustration

I know it’s counterintuitive, but feeling frustrated with your weight loss progress can make you want to overeat. It’s almost like you are getting back at your own failure. Instead of letting frustration get you down, figure out what’s going wrong and fix it.

7. Rebellion

I used to head directly from my Weight Watchers meeting to the McDonald’s that was practically next door. I know now that I was totally rebelling against the fact that I had to diet. Of course at the end of the day, I was only hurting myself. Next time you find yourself inhaling food you know isn’t on your plan, ask yourself why. You may discover that you are rebelling against yourself.

8. Lack of Planning

If you plan and shop for your weekly meals ahead of time, you’ve always got what you need and are probably going to do pretty well at sticking to your diet. But if you don’t plan, you may overeat because you end up going out and those restaurant portions are just so big. Of course you don’t have to eat the whole portion, but it’s often what happens.

9. Emotions

No list of overeating causes would be complete without emotions. It’s probably one of the most common causes whether done from anxiety or boredom. Sometimes you can fix overeating from emotions by being more mindful of why you are overeating and sometimes a good therapist or counselor can help.

I will never forget the first time my doctor told me I was morbidly obese. Well, he didn’t actually tell me, but his nurse wrote it down on my intake form. There it was in stark black and white. “Morbidly obese.”
It wasn’t a good feeling.
So what do you do if your doctor has told you that you are dangerously overweight? It can seem overwhelming, but there is hope. You just have to have a plan, and the will to follow through.

Know What Morbid Obesity Means

When I saw in my chart that I was morbidly obese, I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, other than the fact I weighed 300 pounds. Here’s what the definition of morbid obesity is according to the National Institutes of Health:

• Being 100 pounds or more above your ideal body weight.
• Your Body Mass Index (BMI) is 40 or greater.
• Or, instead of your BMI be 40 or greater, it’s 35 or greater, and you have one or more co-morbid conditions such as diabetes.

Ask Your Doctor For Advice

The first logical step is sometimes hard to do. Many people I talk with about weight issues don’t like to ask their doctor for help with weight loss, because they’re fearful or embarrassed. But don’t let that stop you from getting the help you need.
Talk to her about what staying at your current weight may do to your health over the long term, and what she recommends. She may tell you to follow a particular diet such as Weight Watchers, get you an appointment with a nutritionist, or think about surgery.

Consider All Your Options

As hard as it is to hear, being morbidly obese puts you at risk for all sorts of health complications, from heart disease to joint issues. Because of this, you should consider all your weight-loss options, including bariatric surgery, should your doctor recommend it.
I’m frequently asked whether I considered surgery when I was 300 pounds. I did think about it, but in the end, decided to lose weight by diet and exercise.
There are pros and cons to surgical solutions to morbid obesity.
Some of the pros include feeling full quickly, relatively fast weight loss, and the potential reversal of obesity-related health issues such as high blood pressure. Some of the cons include eventual [linkbuilder id=”6877″ text=”weight regain”] surgical complications, frequent nausea, and malnutrition.
There are really no cons to losing weight using diet and exercise. Both options require a long-term commitment to changing your lifestyle and relationship with food.

Get Regular Support

Losing over 100 pounds requires a significant amount of time, an adjustment to new eating habits, and dealing with emotional issues you have surrounding food. I’d encourage you to meet with a therapist to discuss the underlying issues that caused you to overeat to the point where you are right now.
If you aren’t comfortable with a therapist or can’t afford one, find a weight-loss support group that meets regularly, either online or in person. A good support group can prop you up when you’re feeling weak and help you work through some of your cravings for food.

Follow a Comprehensive Life-Changing Plan

It doesn’t matter how you decide to lose weight. You still have to follow a weight-loss plan that’s comprehensive. What do I mean by comprehensive? I mean a plan that meets these five criteria:
1. Sustainable.
2. Realistic for your lifestyle.
3. Based around real food instead of supplements or packaged diet foods.
4. Includes exercise.
5. Has built-in accountability.
I know firsthand how overwhelming it can seem to make all the changes necessary to lose 100 pounds or more. The secret is to consider the changes you’re making as life-changing and permanent. No more temporary diets or attempts to quickly fix your morbid obesity.
Day after day, follow your plan, get support, and keep yourself accountable. Over time you’ll see the pounds come off, and your health and appearance improve.

Here’s an eye-opening statistic: Over half the foods in the average American diet are ultra-processed, meaning they’re full of chemical additives, flavorings, sugar, and highly processed ingredients.

That’s from a study published in the March edition of the journal “BMJ.” And I think it goes a long way toward explaining why the obesity problem in America is so dire—the standard American diet makes weight easy to gain and difficult to lose.

So what’s the answer? Part of the secret lies in retraining your brain to appreciate and enjoy the right foods. Whether you’re looking to lose weight or not, many people simply sigh and choose the salad over the hamburger or the fruit over the cupcake. While feeling sad or deprived is understandable, it’s essential to stop feeling sad about healthy foods and get excited about making healthy choices.

Here are four ways to retrain your brain to cut out the junk, eat more healthy foods, and yes, lose weight.

Look at Unhealthy Foods as Bad for You

The number of people who smoke has gone down in recent years, in large part to education about the health consequences of smoking and the negative public perception. Similarly, you can make the shift from loving junk food to not loving it, in part, by thinking of junk food as bad for you. When you look at a restaurant menu, cookies in the grocery store, or a fattening food on a buffet, think about what the ingredients will do to your long-term health and weight. Over time, this can help shift your thinking.

Be Willing to Try New Foods

I understand picky eaters—I have a few in my family (who shall remain unnamed). But you’ll never learn to embrace healthy foods if the only vegetable you ever eat is canned green beans. Try new foods regularly. Be willing to experiment with Brussels sprouts, different types of greens, and new whole grains.

Don’t Be Swayed

Part of learning to retrain your brain is changing how you react in social situations. If you and your friends always order the same unhealthy entrees at a restaurant, it can be hard to resist when they beg you to make the same bad selection they do. Practice saying “No thank you” in front of the mirror before you head out for an evening where you know you’ll feel tempted to eat foods not on your diet.

Find a Healthy Buddy

Keeping company with friends who live a healthy lifestyle can help retrain your brain and make your new lifestyle permanent. Find someone in your office, at the gym, in your family, or in your circle of friends who’s either living the kind of lifestyle you want or has the same desire as you to make a change. Support from friends and family can make a tremendous difference when you’re trying to change how you think of food.

Is your weight loss in trouble? If it is, you’re not alone. A lot of people struggle to get to their goal weight and have numerous stumbles along the way. One technique to move from weight-loss trouble to weight-loss success is to confess to yourself what’s been going on and find a way to reverse course. 

Here are six common weight-loss mistakes…and how to fix them.

Not Tracking Food Intake

I often hear clients confess to not keeping track of what they’re eating at all. When this happens, the calorie intake usually increases, sometimes dramatically. This is a problem that if not fixed, will guarantee weight regain.

The Solution: You don’t have to use an app or notebook if you don’t want to, although I do recommend it for consistency and so you have a written record. If you’re honest with yourself and good at math, you can keep track in your head. Just get back into the habit of tracking your food intake in some manner before your weight loss goes completely off the rails.

Self-Sabotaging

I’ve met few people who don’t fess up to some self-sabotaging behaviors when dieting. Sometimes people hide food for later, eat fast food when they swear they’ve given it up, binge on candy, or buy foods they know are hard to control themselves around.

The Solution: Eliminating self-sabotaging behaviors can be difficult. First confess to yourself what’s going on and recommit to your weight-loss program. If you find yourself engaging in self-defeating behaviors, write down the circumstances and think about what triggered the behavior. Over time, you might find (as I did) that the unhelpful behaviors decrease as your weight loss increases.

Looking For a Quick Fix

A common confession is that a dieter is just looking for something quick and easy to fix her weight issues. If this is you, it might mean you are looking to a fad diet or supplements to help you lose weight.

The Solution: Ditch the fad diet. Get rid of weight-loss supplements. Quit trying to get to your goal weight quickly. Instead, realize that weight loss is a process—and sometimes a long one. There’s no prize in life for losing weight quickly. The prize comes when you’re able to live the rest of your life at a healthy weight.

Tired of Dieting

It’s really common to confess to one of your friends or family members that you’re just tired of dieting and you feel hopeless. I get that. But you can’t give up or you will 100 percent never get to your goal weight.

The Solution: Look for non-scale victories that you’ve experienced as motivators. Are your clothes fitting better, do you get less winded when walking, or are you better able to control yourself around food? Rely on these victories as a way to re-motivate yourself; even if your progress is slow, what you’re doing is working.

Eating Just to Eat

Part of having a true lifestyle change when it comes to your weight is not eating just to eat. A lot of people who are overweight confess to eating because the food is there, is free, appeals to them right then, or that they’re just doing it out of habit.

The Solution: Practice mindful eating. Every time you sit down for a meal, think about what you are about to eat, how much you will have, and how each food item fits into your weight-loss goals.

Relying on Exercise Calories Burned

You may as well admit it: You sometimes overestimate the number of calories you burn while walking, jogging, or working out, and then justify your workout as a reason for that second piece of cake or extra helping of potatoes. That’s not a terrible thing to do every once in a while, but consistently doing this will derail your weight-loss effort.

The Solution: Don’t use exercise as an excuse to eat more. Instead, look at exercise as good for your health, your fitness, and as a strategy to lose weight a bit faster.