The dieting shop of horrors….

How to mess up your diet- part 1.

The summer months are fast approaching and it’s time for everyone to get in shape.

Whether you are getting ready for a Bodybuilding competition, or simply shedding a few pounds for the beach, it’s essential that you get the most rewards for all the painstaking effort.

The problem with many of the best laid fat-loss plans are that they are irreversibly flawed from the outset. Wrong advice from supposed “qualified” individuals sets yourself up for unavoidable heartache and misery when it all goes wrong, which it inevitably will in the long-run.

We Bodybuilders tend to pride ourselves upon having the greatest knowledge of how to get in shape. We view the regular dieting industry, led by such farcical programmes as Slim-fast, with disdain and believe that we know so much more than the rest.

The truth is, we Bodybuilders make almost as many mistakes as the regular Joe, especially considering that we should know better.

Anyway, for all you serious dieters out there looking to achieve your best-ever shape in the coming months, take note of the following list and avoid the mistakes like the plague…

1) Relying too much on fat-burners

I know loads of Bodybuilders who simply feel that they can compensate for a poor diet and exercise plan by cramming their face full of thermogenics. This is a bad mistake. Thermogenics exist to aid in the fat-loss plan once every other aspect of your diet is nailed. Products like Therma-Slim 6 are fantastic additions to your diet, but only To believe that fat-loss agents can cloud over a dodgy diet, lazy training plan and lack of discipline is a huge mistake and a lazy man’s syndrome. Sure a good thermogenic compound can work wonders on leg days and as a general “pick-me-up” when the low-calories get tough-going, but to make them the number-one part of your attempted success is a bad-idea. To put it simply, if discipline, commitment and a hard work ethic aren’t in your mental locker, forget about getting in top shape.

2) Following someone else’s diet.

Of course I’m not talking about those diets we see regular people follow, we know better than that, however to copy someone else’s diet may prove to be a huge error.

Following the diet of “the latest pro” is sure to set you up for failure and weeks of unnecessary torture. If you’ve dieted a few times and been successful, why would you switch your whole approach around just because, someone else looked great doing so?

Structuring your own diet takes years of practise and depends mainly on genetic factors. For example, somebody who naturally carries a large percentage of body fat will differ greatly from someone with a lightening metabolism and naturally low body-fat in their chosen nutritional plan.

If you lose fat easily why follow a crazily low-carb, ketogenic diet? Similarly if you find it hard to lose more than a few pound per month, eating bucket loads of carbs is not the answer. What works for one guy, may not work for anyone else, it’s simple trial and error, but at least make your own mistakes to find your answer.

3) The dreaded “cheat day”

I always laugh when guys at the gym tell me that they eat clean through the week, then have a few cheats over the weekend. These are always the guys who complain they cannot get lean enough.

Through years of fevered “gym chat” the mythical cheat day has given everyone salvation. We now know that it’s ok, in fact often beneficial (both mentally and physically) to set aside one day where you include a few “bad meals”. However what is often lost in translation is the word “day”. Just because a cheat day won’t harm the fat-loss process, certain individuals feel vindicated to turn that day into a competition to see if they can beat the world record for calorie consumption. Rather than having a few small meals and one large cheat meal, the day simply turns into an “all you can eat Chinese, Italian and cake-fest”. Not only that but because one day is Ok, then what harm would another day during the week do? It’s easy this dieting lark right? Wrong!

Cheat meals on one day of the week are Ok, just don’t turn into a calorie-deprived madman and eat everything that isn’t nailed down.

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