Your body is 50-60% water so do not deprive it of its most vital nutrient! Water helps you burn fat, build muscle, stay hydrated, and feel satiated. To determine how many ounces of water you should drink, divide your bodyweight in pounds by two. For example, a 180 pound person should drink 90 ounces of water per day.
2. Late-night Snacking
Late night snacking is an absolute weight loss killer! You could eat right all day and exercise but if you eat low-quality foods right before bed, that weight will pile right back on and then some! It is best to stop eating 3 hours before you go to bed to ensure that your food will be properly digested.
3. Not progressing your fitness program
As a trainer, people ask me why they are not losing weight even though they are working out and eating right. However, when they tell me that they have been doing the same exact workout for the past 6 months they tend to realize the problem. You cannot expect to get different results from doing the same thing over and over again. You must increase the intensity, reps, weight, time etc. on your activity to ensure that you are still progressing. Doing something over and over and expecting a different result is also the definition of INSANITY!
4. No Consistency
This is probably the biggest issue for everyone. It is hard to be consistent with something that does not always progress in a timely manner, but like anything else, the more you put in, the more you get out. Many people like to use the excuse "I don't have time to work out." News flash folks: nobody HAS time, but people MAKE time for things that are a priority or important to them. If you want to be healthy and fit, you must make time to put the work in and make it a top priority!
5. Eating Too Much Sugar
One could make the argument that sugar is more detrimental to your health and fitness goals than fat. Not all sugar is bad. Take fruit for example, fruit has fructose which is a sugar that has a lower glycemic-index than most other sugar while containing vital vitamins and minerals. Where people go wrong is sweets. Too much sugar can set you back in your weight loss, make you feel tired and reluctant to workout. Limiting your sugar yields the best results!
6. Not Lifting Weights
It is not difficult to understand why people give up on lifting weight when they are trying to lose weight. On the surface, it seems counterproductive to try to gain a little muscle mass while trying to lose fat, but if you dig into the physiology of how the body works, you will find that it makes complete sense. Initially, some people do not see the scale move down when they start lifting weights and they get frustrated. Often times, what happens is that they have actually lost fat and gained muscle! You can determine this by knowing your body fat percentage. You want your body fat percentage to go down with your weight, if it does not, then you are probably losing mostly lean muscle tissue which is a bad thing.