10 diet mistakes that men make & how to prevent them

Lose fat, not just weight, by learning to avoid the most common diet mistakes like eating the "wrong" healthy foods, over-restricting calories and choosing the wrong foods.

1. you ignore the obvious

Men tend to look for obscure missing components in their diet and supplementation instead of taking a step back and analyzing what the real issues might be. Many would rather google for the latest fat loss diet than come to terms with the very real possibility that their eating habits absolutely suck.

You're ignoring the possibility that it could be the 12 beers you're downing every Friday night after work during happy hour. And it couldn't possibly have been the 4 frozen pizzas you ate over the course of the week.

You read somewhere that snacks are good for you, so you nibble on salted nuts and fat-free salted pretzels all day long. "That's not the problem," you think. It must be the fact that you're not using a fat burner...

You already know what your vices are. Stop pretending they don't matter. It always fascinates me how much men know about what they should be doing in terms of their diet, but simply don't do it. You have to stop being so damn lazy. Sometimes we just need a kick in the butt to wake up and get things on track.

• The solution: Be honest with yourself. Controlling and writing down what you eat is the best way to solve this problem. You can't control what you don't write down. This will give you an overview of what you are really eating compared to what you think you are eating.

2. you are eating the "wrong" healthy foods

You have been lied to.

The main goal of big food brands in supermarkets is to sell the foods that appear to be healthy. The reason for this? It's trendy to be healthy these days. If something is considered trendy, people will spend money on it.

More often than not, these foods are packed with sugar. But these companies will never tell you that. They've gotten so clever that they even put these little sugar delights in a healthy-looking, natural package.

Go to a supermarket of your choice and take a look. Everything is labeled as natural, organic, gluten-free, fat-free, heart healthy and high in fiber. These foods are typically low in nutrients and have no substantial nutritional value.

At best, they will make you feel cozy and warm. You think you're buying a healthier version of a candy bar by replacing it with a fiber bar. Guess what? All of these foods can make you fat and have devastating effects on your diet and your body.

• The solution: Eat real food. If you're fixated on getting nutrients by buying fiber bars and whole grain cookies, we've got news for you: you can get all those nutrients without the processed junk at a fraction of the price in the form of REAL food. Ditch those "fake" health foods and focus on foods that don't contain 27 ingredients.

3. you are fixated on losing weight

When a man says he wants to lose weight, what he's really saying is that he wants to lose fat. No man wants to be frail, scrawny and weak. But with a "weight loss" mindset, that's exactly where you're headed.

Muscle is what makes your body look solid, chiseled and athletic. The problem is that if you have a "weight loss" mindset, the scale won't tell you how much of the weight you've lost is fat and how much of the weight is muscle. So you'll probably consider it good news if you lose a few pounds.

But not all weight loss is good, this is the reason men get frustrated. They lose some weight, but they still don't look any better. In some cases, they even look worse. This is because when you lose fat, you will also lose a disproportionate amount of muscle mass. Getting skinny should not be the goal. Not being fat is your goal.

• The solution: If you want to lose body fat and maintain your muscle mass or even build additional muscle mass, you need to train hard. And therefore you will need more protein than a physically inactive person. As a baseline for protein intake, you should consume at least 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.

4. you are not eating enough

A very large reduction in total calorie intake to induce fat loss is a common practice. This is a well-known problem for women, but men also make this mistake.

It is a well known concept that you will lose weight if you eat less. But remember, we're not necessarily out to lose weight. Heck, with some simple manipulation of water balance and carbohydrate restriction you can easily lose up to 5 kilos of weight. But as soon as you add water and carbohydrates back into your daily diet, you'll gain that weight right back. Although reducing your overall calorie intake is a step in the right direction, the two most common problems I see with this approach are the following:

• Calorie intake is reduced too much
• Not consuming adequate amounts of the right macronutrients

A good general rule is to start by reducing your calorie intake by 200 kcal per day. This will allow a sufficient calorie deficit to induce fat loss, while you will still have enough energy for physical activity and maintaining your lean muscle mass.

This is, of course, assuming that you are already eating enough to maintain your normal body weight. This amount is considered your daily calorie expenditure.

If we are trying to improve our body composition, we should also focus on building some lean muscle mass. As mentioned above, to achieve this you need to consume adequate amounts of protein. Two grams of protein per kilogram of body weight is the baseline for building lean muscle mass.

• The solution: Don't eat like a birdie. If you do, you will look like one. Two grams of protein per kilogram of body weight and about 20 to 25% of your daily calorie intake in the form of fat is a good starting point. The rest of your calorie intake should come from carbohydrates.

5. you drink too many caffeinated soft drinks

A few cans of soft drinks a week (a few means 2 or 3, not 14 to 15) probably won't hurt you if that's what you're in the mood for. But if you can't get through the day without drinking a few cans, then that's a red flag. A can of caffeinated soft drink contains about as much caffeine as an espresso. This caffeine will first give you a boost of energy, which will be followed by a slump in your energy that will leave you limp and more tired than before this caffeine boost.

A regular caffeine intake will have an increasingly weaker effect over time. Sooner or later you will develop a kind of addiction to caffeinated soft drinks. This will result in you drinking more and more of these drinks to achieve the same stimulating effect. However, consuming too many caffeinated soft drinks can lead to sleep disturbances and disturbed sleep is known to negatively affect hormones such as cortisol, which promote fat gain - particularly in the abdominal area.

If you consume low-calorie soft drinks, then sooner or later you risk suffering from the "Big Mac and Diet Coke phenomenon". People start drinking light drinks and this activates a mental trigger. They think that they can now eat anything they want because they are saving calories by drinking light drinks.

Countless people eat a diet high in fat and sugar while drinking light drinks. In addition to this, many start drinking light drinks when they start to put on weight as they hope this might help. However, if the lifestyle and behaviors responsible for weight gain do not change, then switching to light drinks will not help much. It's not the consumption of light drinks that makes you fat, it's the typically related behavior that people develop who make light drinks a regular part of their diet.

• The solution: Be a man and stop drinking so much of this junk. If you have a serious problem with this, limit your consumption to one can a day or choose better sources of caffeine such as organic coffee or green tea.

Keep in mind that caffeine has a non-negligible half-life in the body. If you consume 200 mg of caffeine at lunchtime, there will still be an average of 100 mg of caffeine in your body 6 to 8 hours later, depending on your sensitivity to caffeine.

6. you let the reins slip too much at the weekend

In men, alcohol can lower testosterone levels by up to 23%. In addition to this, your body's ability to burn fat drops by around 75% after 2 drinks. Your body becomes less efficient at burning carbohydrates and fat for energy, increasing the likelihood that the calories you consume will be stored as fat.

I'm not here to mother you. However, if you're serious about getting your body in shape, I can assure you that your weekly Vodka Red Bull or Jacky Cola orgies followed by burgers and pizza at 2am will be anything but conducive to your goals.

• The solution: make a decision. Carry on as before and let your hair down at the weekend or change a few parameters in your life that will help you achieve your goals. Your decision.

7. you give up vegetables

This is a much more common problem for men than for women. It is often seen as feminine to eat salad and vegetables or drink green smoothies. It's time to put this dogma to rest.

The leanest people in the world (bodybuilders, body and figure athletes) know that a diet rich in fiber-rich vegetables plays a crucial role in achieving a lean body. Even if you don't plan to go on stage, this principle applies to you.

These types of vegetables contain tons of fiber, which slows down the digestion of food and keeps you fuller for longer. This is a key factor when you are in a calorie deficit. In addition, it is often overlooked that eating vegetables helps to control inflammation.

When you train hard, you are affected by acidosis - a condition in which your body's pH shifts into the acidic range (which is caused by both the stress of training, which is unavoidable, and the foods you eat - which you can control). By incorporating large amounts of vegetables into your diet, you will simultaneously provide your body with alkalizing foods that support your recovery and energy levels and help your body avoid a state of extreme acidosis by promoting a balanced pH level in your body.

• The solution: Make it one of your goals to have a green smoothie day and also eat some vegetables with every meal.

8. you are afraid of carbohydrates

Here's the truth: carbohydrates are essential to your life. If you cut out carbs completely or follow a low-carb diet for too long, you'll go crazy (literally).

It seems like an entire industry was born out of the low-carb craze, but at the same time, we're not being taught enough about carbohydrates. The result? Carbohydrates have been demonized and branded as the bad guy that's to blame for making you fat. This is not the whole truth.

Whole foods such as rice, quinoa, buckwheat, potatoes and oats have been part of our diet for thousands of years. These foods are staples in the diets of many populations. Here's an interesting perspective to consider: ask yourself why 1.73 billion Asians who eat primarily rice and vegetables don't struggle with obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes as they do in the Western world.

In rural areas of Japan, China, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia, we see very few people suffering from the diet-related diseases that are so prevalent here. These people eat mainly carbohydrates. In rural areas of Mexico, corn, beans and squash (which are all primarily carbohydrates) make up the majority of the diet. And even these people rarely suffer from diet-related diseases.

If people in these rural areas don't have to deal with the diet-related diseases we suffer from, why do we in the West fear carbohydrates so much? It is the typical Western diet, overloaded with refined sugar and packed with unhealthy fat-making carbohydrates, that is the problem.

The types of carbohydrates that people in the rural areas mentioned live on are mainly whole, unprocessed complex carbohydrates. They contain little or no sugar and are digested much more slowly than the Oreos and chips we gorge on in the West.

The message is that carbohydrates are good for you. Bad carbs (processed carbs overloaded with sugar and fat) are the carbs that will make you fat.

• The solution: Don't eliminate carbohydrates from your diet, just put less emphasis on them. In addition to this, you should know which carbohydrates you should eat and which you should eat the most of.

9. you are not drinking enough water

About 75% of all people are dehydrated. At the same time, 85% of your brain, 80% of your blood and 70% of your muscles are made up of water, which is often painfully overlooked.

Water is essential for the basic functioning of our bodies and good health. Without these two, developing a defined body is impossible.

Nutritionist and author Chris Aceto explains it this way:

"The consensus in the bodybuilding community is that large water retention within the muscles acts as an anabolic factor. This allows the muscle to maintain a positive nitrogen balance, which directly influences muscle growth.

Just like plants, our muscles need water to grow.

• The solution: Drink at least your body weight * 30 ml in the form of water, which corresponds to 3 liters for a person weighing 100 kilos.

10. you follow someone else's formula to the letter

Bio-individuality cannot be ignored. Everyone is different.

Trainers and mentors have certain programs that they promote - typically because they have had quantifiable success with these programs in the past. However, this does not mean that these programs will work for everyone.

Generalization is good, but individualization is better. Some dietary rules are universal. They apply to everyone. But at some point, after the basics have been covered, you need to develop your own formula that works for you and your body.

Simplicity, guidelines and flexibility should be the foundation of your diet.

• The solution: When it comes to diet and nutrition, "Accept what is useful and abandon what is useless." - Bruce Lee

Source: https://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/10-mistakes-men-diet