A healthy diet doesn't always translate to quick and easy weight loss. In fact many people who adopt healthy eating habits often struggle to lose weight for months if not years until they overcome the top 7 healthy eating roadblocks that Alexander Chernev discusses in his book The Dieter's Paradox: Why Dieting Makes Us Fat including:
Classifying Food as a Vice or Virtue - The habit of labeling a food as either good or bad instead of looking at its nutritional value and calorie content i.e. cupcake = bad, low fat cookies = good.
Healthy Eating Diet Tip #1: Stop classifying foods as good or bad. All foods can be part of a healthy diet. Focus more on nutritional content and calorie/portion control instead.
Adding Healthy Food to Unhealthy Meal - The idea that adding a healthy food to an unhealthy meal reduces calories. According to various studies conducted by Chernev "participants who viewed a fast food cheeseburger rated it as having 618 calories. In contrast those shown the same cheeseburger with a green salad estimated the entire meal to have only 544 calories." According to Chernev this is only one example of how adding a healthy food to an unhealthy one causes us to think an unhealthy food is less calories. Other examples included adding a tomato to a burger, adding crackers labeled as healthy to a high calorie salad, or adding a frosted carrot to a piece of carrot cake (the carrot was 100% sugar but participants still rated that piece of cake as less caloric than the piece without the frosted carrot!).
Healthy Eating Tip #2: Do not judge a meal by its appearance. Something that looks healthy can add hundreds of calories to your daily calorie, fat, and sugar intake which often results in weight gain not weight loss.
Seeing A Meal As a Unit vs. Total Calories - The idea that your plate, cup or food container is a serving when in fact it includes multiple servings of various foods (or one food) and hundreds of calories.
Eating Healthy to Lose Weight Tip #3: Start paying attention to servings sizes and start practicing portion control for each food you have. This is especially important when eating out.
Being Influenced by Food Presentation - The mentality that if a food is labeled "healthy" "lean" "25% less fat" , low carb, organic, etc. then portions and calories don't matter. Also if the food is presented in a healthy way then it's a good weight loss food.
Eating Healthy Diet Tip #4: Look beyond the "healthy" packaging and read the nutritional content, ingredients list, and serving size. Food manufacturers are in the business of selling you food. It's your job to figure out if that food is really good for you and if so how much of it you can eat.
Making Food Choices Based on Other Available Options - When a bad choice becomes a good choice in your mind simply because it is better than the other food options available.
Eating Healthy Tip #5: Look at the food or meal choice you are making individually and determine if that meal is actually healthy vs. just the lesser evil.
Behavior That's Inconsistent with Long Term Goals - Eating and behaving in a way that you see as good or bad short term vs. looking at the long term consequences of your eating habits.
Eating Healthy to Lose Weight Tip #6: As Chernev suggests in his book "think beyond consumption episodes". Before you eat anything ask yourself if the food you are about to eat or the behavior you're about to engage in will get you closer to your long term weight loss goal or further from it.
Not Prioritizing Weight Loss Goals - Prioritizing saving money, social approval, stress, family or work over weight loss and health.
Healthy Eating Diet Tip #7: Remind yourself daily that not prioritizing weight loss and health will cost you more money and cause more problems for you in the long run (i.e. illness, missed work days, medical bills, insurance bills, divorce, or friendships based on behaviors you would rather not engage in). Prioritizing your weight loss goal often means a better quality life, more money long term, and better relationships too. Check out more helpful tips from Alexander Chernev's book The Dieter's Paradox: Why Dieting Makes Us Fat
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