The Don'ts Of Healthy Eating: Mistakes You Might Make When Eating Healthy

H ealthy eating can be quite a challenge, especially when it is confused with near starvation or fad diets. Often, you might fall down the rabbit hole of viral diet plans, simple meal ‘tips and tricks’, or magic ‘healthy’ drinks that swear to show results overnight. These are just some of the mistakes you might make when ‘eating healthy’. After quite a bit of trial and error, one ends up learning that healthy eating is another name for balanced eating. This raises the question, how do you achieve balanced eating? What’s stopping you from it? Let’s talk about some things you might be getting wrong when it comes to eating healthy. 

Eating Too Less 

Right off the bat, easily, the biggest misconception about eating healthy is equating it to eating less. People need about 2000-2500 calories a day to function normally. One might go into a calorie deficit of about 500 calories, which is a safe amount for losing weight. Anything less than that will not get you any result, be it weight loss or feeling better overall. Eating less might lead to quick results in the short run, but it is important to note that that is due more to water weight lost than actual dietary change. Reducing the quantity might lead to weight gain as it forces your body into starvation mode, leading it to store more fats and carbs and spending less daily, leading to fatigue, headaches, drowsiness, insomnia, and other health concerns. 

Cutting Out Fats and Carbs 

Another common mistake is to cut out ‘harmful’ food groups such as fats or carbohydrates. It is essential to realize that no food is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, it is simply fuel for your body, and all food groups serve an important role. 

Fats are a source of ‘fatty acids’ that the body cannot create on its own. Without these, your body will be unable to absorb vitamin A, D, and E, deficiencies of which can lead to several complications. On the other hand, Carbohydrates are the primary source of energy for the body that provides quick energy as well as help in the body functioning as normal. Eating these food groups less than the required amount is the exact opposite of healthy eating.

Not Having Snacks 

Having that pizza slice you’ve been craving for days is not going to ruin your plan of eating better. In fact, allowing yourself to indulge is actually a good thing! Cutting out all your favorite foods will be taking out all the fun from eating, making it a chore and leading you away from your goal in the first place. 

It will also lead to you binging on it after a long time of not having it and then feeling guilty, which might lead to an unhealthy relationship with food and be a lot more harmful than allowing yourself to eat what you want in controlled sizes. Order out not more than four times a month to keep a healthy balance in your diet. 

Forgetting About Drinks 

Forgetting about what you’re drinking might be the one thing undoing all your efforts. Drinking harmful drinks like soft drinks, alcohol, beer, or highly sugary drinks in excess might be what’s causing you unrest. Cutting them out will make you feel a lot better and healthier and lead to the overall smoother working of the body. In case you do really want to drink, opt for diet soft drinks or clear spirits rather than regular soft drinks and more harmful alcoholic drinks like vodka or liqueurs. Make sure to keep the latter to the absolute minimum. 

Repeating ‘Safe Foods’ 

Repeating only a handful of ‘healthy foods’ like chicken, leafy greens, or soups might not be the brilliant idea you think it is. Eventually, you’re bound to get bored of them, which can lead to binges that are quite troublesome to deal with. Instead, opt for a wider range of foods in your diet to keep it fresh and exciting! Who says healthy eating needs to be boring? 

These are the top five mistakes you might make when eating healthy. If you avoid these, you will absolutely be able to see much better results than you were able to before. Happy eating!

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• diet
• healthy eating
• healthy food
• diet tips