Diet Like A Pro - Avoid These Diet Mistakes

Introduction

In this week’s article, we’re diving into the most common and overlooked dieting mistakes that can hold you back. And we’re not just talking about food choices or tracking errors—we’re talking about the internal patterns that shape your success. That’s why I’ve broken these mistakes into two key categories: mentality mistakes and physical mistakes. Understanding both is the key to building a sustainable, results-driven lifestyle.

When it comes to dieting, most people think the biggest mistakes are physical—like miscounting calories or skipping workouts. But in reality, the most damaging setbacks often come from the mental side of the journey. Your mindset, beliefs, and expectations can quietly sabotage progress, even when your habits seem “on track.”

Category : Mentality Mistakes

Marathon vs. Race

Most people step into the gym with a short-term goal in mind—whether it’s to drop a few pounds, get into decent shape, or build some muscle for overall health and longevity. And truthfully, those goals can be achieved fairly quickly. A few months of consistent healthy eating and regular workouts can lead to noticeable results. The problem isn’t the progress—it’s what happens after.

If you return to the same habits that led you to want change in the first place, you’ll eventually find yourself right back where you started. Eating clean and training hard works, but only if you understand that real transformation requires a long-term mindset. If you don’t accept that this is a lifestyle shift—not just a temporary fix—you’ll keep cycling through the same pattern of starting over.

That’s why it’s crucial to view your goals as a marathon, not a sprint. Yes, you can make impressive changes in a short time, but what matters more is your ability to keep those changes. The habits that helped you reach your goals are the same ones that will help you maintain them.

Approaching your health with the mindset of sustainability is what leads to lasting results. A fit lifestyle isn’t rigid—it evolves with you. Once you hit your initial goals, they’ll shift and grow. You won’t need to diet or train as intensely forever, but you will need to stay intentional. You’ll adjust your habits to support new goals, new seasons, and a new version of yourself.

This is a lifelong journey—not a quick fix. Real change happens when you commit to becoming someone new, not just doing something new. As your journey unfolds, so will you—and so will the routine that supports you. Losing a few pounds becomes maintaining a body you feel confident in. Meal prepping for fat loss or muscle gain becomes eating for health and balance. And while it’s okay to revisit old habits occasionally, the truth is this: the person who maintains the results you want lives like the person you’re still becoming.

Restricting Too Much

Contrary to popular belief, extreme restriction isn’t the key to success—it’s often the reason people give up. When your diet feels like punishment, it creates stress, resentment, and eventually burnout. That’s not sustainable, and it’s not necessary.

Instead of forcing yourself to eat foods you don’t enjoy, or creating an ultra- restrictive plan to follow, focus on building a meal plan around what you do love. When you learn how to log foods correctly, you’ll discover that your favorites can fit into your goals. It’s not about perfection—it’s about balance.

Over-restriction also tends to come with eating too few calories or overtraining. This combination leads to intense hunger, irritability, and exhaustion. And while it might feel “disciplined” in the short term, it’s nearly impossible to maintain long term.

I wrote a full article on how to create a meal plan that works for you—you can check it out [here].

If your plan includes foods you enjoy it feels manageable, it stops being a burden and starts becoming a lifestyle. You can reframe your mindset: this isn’t punishment for where you are—it’s a choice to move toward where you want to be. A well-designed meal plan should feel like nourishment, not restriction. It should support your goals while honoring your life.

Diet Cycling

If over-restriction is the spark, diet cycling is the wildfire that follows.

Here’s how it usually goes: you start a new diet with high hopes and strict rules. Maybe it’s low carb, maybe it’s no sugar, maybe it’s just way too little food. At first, you feel in control. But soon, the plan becomes exhausting. You’re hungry, irritable, and mentally drained. Eventually, you fall off—because no one can thrive on willpower alone.

Then comes the guilt. The “I failed again” feeling. So, you double down, either restarting the same plan or jumping into another one just as extreme. And the cycle repeats: restrict, crash, regain, restart.

This isn’t discipline—its dysfunction disguised as effort.

Diet cycling doesn’t just mess with your metabolism. It chips away at your confidence, your relationship with food, and your belief that lasting change is even possible. It keeps you stuck in survival mode, never building the habits that actually lead to success.

To break the cycle, you need a plan that’s built for real life. One that includes foods you enjoy, allows flexibility, and supports your body—not punishes it. When your nutrition feels like a lifestyle, not a sentence, you stop starting over. You start moving forward.

Category : Physical Mistakes

Weighing Food Improperly

When you're tracking macros and calories, it's important to weigh your food at the right stage of preparation—otherwise, you could be eating more or less than you think. For example, meat should always be weighed raw because cooking draws out water and significantly reduces its weight. If you weigh cooked meat instead, you might log 4 ounces when it actually started as 8 ounces raw meaning you could be consuming nearly double the calories you intended. On the other hand, dry goods like rice or pasta should typically be weighed after cooking, since they absorb water and expand. One cup of dry rice usually becomes about two to three cups cooked, so weighing it dry and then eating the cooked portion could lead to overestimating your intake. But if you're using an entry for dry rice, then you should weigh it dry. The key is to match the food's state to the database entry you're using. As a general rule, weigh foods at the point when they contain the most water: raw for meats, cooked for dry goods. Getting this wrong can throw off your calorie count enough to impact your progress over time. Some calorie tracking apps offer options for both cooked and uncooked entries but being aware of how food changes during cooking is key to staying accurate and reaching your goals.

Hidden Calories

You would be surprised by how a seemingly harmless addition of your favorite dressing, seasoning, oil can seriously impact your calories. A healthy salad on its’ own can be very macro friendly and support your goals but with the addition of things like dressings can easily add on 300 calories. A tablespoon of olive oil is 90 - 100 calories. And that’s for a very small portion. Most people will end up using multiple tablespoons for a simple dish, increasing the calories by several hundred.

In addition, most people will consider drinks to be calorie free and ignore the impact they can have on total calories. Consuming carbonated beverages may seem harmless; however they can discretely be adding several hundred calories.

Volume For Weight Loss

Losing weight requires one non-negotiable: being in a caloric deficit. That means your body must burn more calories than it takes in. This deficit can be created by eating less, moving more, or—most effectively—a combination of both.

However, when you reduce your calorie intake, it’s common to experience increased hunger. And while cutting calories is essential, that doesn’t mean you have to suffer through constant discomfort. With smart meal planning and strategic food choices, you can minimize—or even eliminate—those hunger pangs altogether.

One of the most effective ways to do this is through volume eating. This means choosing foods that are naturally filling due to their volume, fiber, and nutrient density. Whole foods like vegetables, potatoes, rice, and lean proteins are excellent options. For example, a candy bar might contain 300 calories, but it digests quickly, spikes your blood sugar, and leaves you feeling hungrier—not to mention it offers little nutritional value.

Instead, imagine a meal built around lean protein, roasted potatoes, and a generous serving of vegetables. You’ll get the same amount of calories—or even less—but with far more food on your plate. You’ll feel fuller, more satisfied, and still stay within your deficit.

Many of my clients report that once they switch to this style of eating, their hunger disappears. In fact, they often feel more satisfied than they did before they started dieting. That’s the power of eating smart—not just less.

Overestimating A Caloric Surplus

If your goal is to build muscle, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that more food equals more growth. I’ve been there myself—eating way more than necessary in hopes of speeding up progress. But the truth is, this often leads to unwanted fat gain, sluggish performance, and slower recovery.

The human body is incredibly adaptive. It’s built for survival, not excess. It doesn’t need a massive surplus of calories to build muscle. In fact, there’s a natural limit to how much muscle your body can put on at any given time. Eating far beyond what’s required won’t accelerate growth—it just leads to storing that extra energy as body fat.

The smarter approach is to eat just slightly above your maintenance level—typically a few hundred calories more per day. This allows your body to grow at its optimal rate while keeping fat gain to a minimum. It’s about precision, not overload.

By fueling your body strategically, you’ll support lean muscle development, improve recovery, and maintain a physique you feel confident in—not one you’ll have to cut down later. Building muscle is a long game, and dialing in your nutrition is what keeps you progressing without backtracking.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, dieting isn’t just about hitting a goal—it’s about building a lifestyle you can maintain and thrive in. Mistakes along the way are normal. They’re part of the learning process. I wrote this article to help you skip a few of the common ones, so you can move forward with more clarity and confidence.

No matter your goals, and no matter where you're starting from, I want you to know it’s possible. Real change is within reach.

If you’re looking for guidance from someone who believes in sustainable results—someone who will help you build a lifestyle that works for you—I’d love to support you. I offer coaching that’s built around your life, your values, and most importantly, your long-term success.

If that sounds like what you’ve been searching for, you can apply for coaching [here].