{"id":91417,"date":"2023-12-05T08:13:48","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T07:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/42krunning.com\/if-youre-starting-a-healthy-diet-on-your-own-avoid-these-10-mistakes\/"},"modified":"2023-12-05T08:13:48","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T07:13:48","slug":"if-youre-starting-a-healthy-diet-on-your-own-avoid-these-10-mistakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/42krunning.com\/en\/if-youre-starting-a-healthy-diet-on-your-own-avoid-these-10-mistakes\/","title":{"rendered":"If you’re starting a healthy diet on your own, avoid these 10 mistakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many amateur runners decide to start a supposedly healthy diet on their own and, generally, they tend to make several mistakes.<\/p>\n

Starting to take care of yourself to improve your quality of life and even to have a healthier appearance (body) is great and should be applauded. But experience has shown me that most people<\/strong> who start a healthy diet on their own end up making various mistakes<\/strong> because they lack the necessary training to know the what, how, and when of a healthy diet. <\/p>\n

Some of the mistakes often made when starting a healthy diet without the supervision or advice of a nutrition professional can be harmful to your health<\/strong> and end up interfering with the goal of improving overall health, or even failing to achieve the desired change in physical appearance.<\/p>\n

10 common mistakes when following a healthy diet without professional advice<\/h2>\n

Nowadays, social media is full of ‘nutritional influencers’, ‘nutritional coaches’, or ‘nutritional therapists’; these people, who in many cases lack the necessary qualifications, make money by generating content about nutrition, including plenty of recommendations\/tips\/advice on healthy diets (some even dare to go further by talking about “miracle diets”) that can be dangerous to health because they can cause serious nutritional imbalances.<\/p>\n

The only healthcare professional authorized to create dietary plans is the dietitian-nutritionist.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Based on my clinical experience, I’m going to list the main mistakes<\/strong> usually made by people who decide to start a healthy diet (or what they consider to be a healthy diet) without the advice or supervision of a dietitian-nutritionist<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

These would be the 10 most common mistakes<\/strong> made when starting a intended or supposed healthy diet that hasn’t been planned by a nutrition professional:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Reducing intake.<\/li>\n
  2. Decreasing social life.<\/li>\n
  3. Buying only light-type foods.<\/li>\n
  4. Excessive physical activity.<\/li>\n
  5. Lack of physical activity.<\/li>\n
  6. Performing prolonged fasts.<\/li>\n
  7. Obsession with weight.<\/li>\n
  8. Eliminating foods based on false myths.<\/li>\n
  9. Falling for “miracle diets”.<\/li>\n
  10. Not consulting a nutrition professional.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"Frequent<\/a><\/p>\n

    A healthy diet isn’t about eating less or eating only ‘light’ products<\/h3>\n

    Reducing intake<\/h4>\n

    It’s clear that you probably have to cut back a bit on quantities, but the problem isn’t ‘how much’ but ‘what’<\/strong>. Let me give you an example: a mini donut is small, but its caloric value is very high and the nutrients it provides aren’t healthy. However, a salad is a larger amount of food but with low caloric value and a great variety of nutrients. Therefore, it’s a suitable option for starting a healthy diet. <\/p>\n

    Decreasing social life
    \n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    “I’m not going to dinner with my friends because I’m on a diet”<\/em>. Mistake! In a balanced diet, there’s room for treats, of course there is. <\/p>\n

    If you have to spend 4 months losing weight and you’re not going to taste chocolate during that time, you’ll probably give up on your goal and not reach the expected results. You need to allow for 2-3 free meals a week<\/strong> for “mental health”\u2014for example, going out to dinner with your partner on Friday, a family meal on Sunday, and a lunch with coworkers\u2014but without overdoing it and compensating with good nutritional behavior the rest of the week. <\/p>\n

    Buying light-type foods
    \n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    Focus your shopping list on real foods, natural ingredients, and quality. To follow a healthy diet, you need to know how to choose the right foods at the supermarket, and for that, it’s highly recommended to know how to read labels or nutritional information; if you have doubts, you can check the article also on this blog about labeling for proper shopping<\/a>. Example: a light mayonnaise is still unhealthy, but a natural tomato and basil sauce is magnificent. <\/p>\n

    It could be said, therefore, that a healthy diet begins with the shopping we do at the supermarket<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    Healthy diet and well-planned exercise<\/h3>\n

    Excessive physical activity
    \n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    “I’m going to run for a long time, super fast, and when it’s hottest”<\/em> or “I’m going to go to the gym twice a day”<\/em>. If you’re cutting back on food and training like an elite athlete, you’ll probably hit the wall<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

    Additionally, there’s the phenomenon of overtraining<\/a><\/strong>, which in extreme cases can be chronic. Start with short walks and get in shape to gradually increase the intensity of your sessions. Ask a gym instructor for help and they’ll guide you step by step. Don’t try to run before you can walk! <\/p>\n

    \"Sport<\/a>
    Doing sport properly and without excess is part of a healthy lifestyle (photo Maratona da Europa)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Lack of physical activity
    \n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    The opposite case also happens: doing nothing and relying entirely on the diet. It works at first, but you’ll plateau<\/strong> sooner or later. The trick isn’t to keep reducing the kilocalories we consume, but to increase our caloric expenditure through physical activity<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

    Furthermore, with diet alone, you’ll probably lose muscle mass. The key to success: combining diet and exercise<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    Performing prolonged fasts
    \n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    This dangerous trend, to call it something, is not at all recommended<\/strong> in what we would understand as a healthy diet.<\/p>\n

    Performing prolonged fasts triggers the hormone cortisol and leads to protein depletion<\/strong>, which results in a loss of muscle mass and body fat<\/b>. <\/strong>Moreover, when we eat again, we’ll be very hungry, so we’re likely to overeat, which will trigger excessive secretion of the hormone insulin, which creates fatty tissue.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"Prolonged<\/a><\/p>\n

    Obsession with weight
    \n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    What the scale says isn’t the most important thing. Sometimes weighing the same isn’t a problem because you might lose 2kg of fat and have gained 2kg of muscle mass because you’ve started training. At that point you’ll get stressed,<\/strong> but your body composition is much better. Look in the mirror and check your clothes; you’ll see that your volume is much smaller! <\/p>\n

    Also, weighing yourself daily is a mistake,<\/strong> because you might see that for one or several days you don’t lose anything or even gain… don’t panic! You might need to go to the bathroom, you might have weighed yourself at different times, you might be on your period (in the case of women), and many other factors influence body weight. <\/p>\n

    Eliminating foods based on false myths
    \n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    “I’m following a healthy diet and I don’t eat bananas because I’ve been told they’re fattening”;<\/em> “water during meals is terrible”<\/em> or “bread, pasta, and rice are out, because carbs are awful”<\/em>… These are phrases frequently heard (there are many more of these popular claims circulating among amateur runners when talking about a healthy diet). There are many false myths<\/strong> regarding nutrition, let alone when it comes to talking about a healthy diet. <\/p>\n

    There’s nothing wrong with, for example, some toast with oil and salt for breakfast; there’s also no problem with having a banana for a snack or eating a plate of rice with chicken and vegetables. Please, don’t believe everything you read on social media!<\/strong> <\/p>\n

    There are too many false myths regarding what a healthy diet should be, and lately, it’s very worrying to see that many of these false myths are spreading uncontrollably.<\/p>\n

    Be very careful with miracle diets because they are the opposite of a healthy diet<\/h3>\n

    Falling for miracle diets
    \n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    “My weight has plateaued so I’m going to do the artichoke diet”<\/em> or “I’m going to live on juices and shakes for a month”<\/em>: these might seem like unrealistic atrocities, but they are crazy things done by some people who believe in the miraculous effects of certain diets (hence called ‘miracle diets’). These diets promise a large, fast weight loss without effort<\/strong>, something that some of these diets might achieve but at a very high cost to health<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

    Miracle diets are a mistake due to excessive restriction,<\/strong> so there will be significant deficiencies, but above all because the lost weight is usually regained. <\/strong>Why does this happen? Because they don’t teach you how to eat well; there’s no nutritional education, so when you’re at your goal weight, you won’t know what to do to maintain it. <\/p>\n

    Remember: any miracle diet is exactly the opposite of a healthy diet.<\/p>\n

    Not consulting a nutrition professional
    \n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    Generally, all the patients who come to my clinic have already decided to start a healthy diet on their own and either fail to reach their goals or plateau quickly. The only healthcare professional authorized to create dietary plans is the dietitian-nutritionist<\/strong>, as stated in Art. 7, paragraph g of Law 44\/2003, of November 21, on the regulation of health professions<\/strong>: <\/p>\n

    g) Dietitians-nutritionists: University graduates in Human Nutrition and Dietetics carry out activities aimed at the nutrition of individuals or groups, adapted to their physiological and, where appropriate, pathological needs, and in accordance with the principles of prevention and public health.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Nutrition is a very important aspect of health, so a poor diet<\/strong> (a bad diet) can put your health at risk<\/strong>, which is why it’s essential to trust these matters to the right healthcare professional. I’d like to finish by leaving a question for any runner to answer: when you suffer a muscle problem while running, do you go to the pharmacist for the solution? If you suffer a muscle strain, do you ask a dietitian-nutritionist for a massage? It’s strange, isn’t it? <\/p>\n

    Indeed, when you have a muscle problem you go to the physiotherapist, who has studied how to resolve or treat those problems correctly and appropriately for your health. Well, when it comes to following a healthy diet, you should put yourself in the hands of a dietitian-nutritionist and not coaches, pharmacists, trauma specialists, or physiotherapists. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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    \"To<\/a><\/p>\n