Eating too quickly, not enough sleep and counting calories: The ten hidden reasons your diet isn't working... and how to fix them

•  Personal trainer James Staring reveals exclusive advice on dieting
• Says there are 10 key reasons why most healthy eating regimes fail
• Reavls counting calories, drinking alcohol prevent us from losing weight

By Jo Rhodes For Mailonline

Published: 04:49 EST, 10 July 2015 | Updated: 06:42 EST, 10 July 2015

Many women have put themselves through a punishing diet, only to step on the scales and find their weight has not budged - or worse - it's crept up.

There are a whole of things that could be slipping us up, many of which may come as a complete surprise.

James Staring, personal trainer for Fit To Last, shares with FEMAIL the ten question we should be asking ourselves - and reveals his top tips for achieving the body we are striving for.

Scroll down for video 

James Staring, personal trainer, shares the ten question we should be asking ourselves when dieting

1. Are you drinking enough water?

While water may not be a magic potion to help you lose weight, it is an effective tool to help stave off hunger and stop you overeating. 

Many people often mistake thirst for hunger and turning to the tap rather than the fridge could fend off that initial craving.

The next time you crave a snack between meals, try having a glass of water first. If you still feel hungry after 30 minutes, dive into something nutritious.

Top tip: to determine how much water you should be consuming every day, here’s a great formula to follow: 

i. Measure your weight in pounds

ii. Divide that figure in half

iii. Take that number and multiply it by 0.028

iv. That’s the number of litres of water you should be drinking every day. i.e. 130 pounds = 65 ounces, or 1.8 litres of water per day.

v. If you are exercising regularly; make sure you are hydrating daily via the formula above, and weigh yourself at the start, and the end, of your next workout. This gives you an indication of how much water you have lost during your training session, and therefore how much you need to top up in addition to the daily amount of water you are drinking.

According to James, your body is most capable of absorbing carbohydrates within 90 minutes of training

2. Do you control your portions consistently?

Conscious portion control is crucial to weight loss, as without this process you will have no way of tracing what you are consuming. 

Please note than when we talk about portion control we mean for all required macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates and good fats like olive oil and avocado), not eliminating staple items as per the latest craze (i.e. do people on ‘zero-carb’ diets ever seem happy to you…don’t fall into that trap).

So what’s an effective and simple way to control portions?

Using your hands as a guide is a very simple way to determine how much of each macronutrient (protein, healthy fats and carbohydrate) you should be consuming at each meal. 

And this doesn’t mean that you have to spoon out mash potatoes with your hands at your next buffet (just use your hands as a general guideline). It also means that you won’t need to walk around with a scale and measuring cups.

3. Do you know how much of each macronutrient (protein, fats and carbohydrates) to consume at each meal?

This can be a bit tricky to determine, as it depends on your body type, activity level and goals. It’s important for weight loss because if you are missing out on important nutrients or not timing your eating correctly, you will not be in the best position for the body transformation you want.

There are however some general guidelines that you can follow to assist you.

I. Consistency at every feeding: each time you eat (main meal or snack), look at your plate and make sure you have protein, good fats (i.e. avocado, nuts as examples) and fruit/veg (as per the portion control guide above). 

This will ensure that you are always balancing out your macronutrients, which in turn will mean you are not short-changing yourself on things you need.

II. Nutrient timing: try to bank your carbohydrates so you have them within 1–1.5 hours of training. 

According to Dr. John Berardi of Precision Nutrition, your body is most capable of absorbing carbohydrates within 90 minutes of training, so by banking your carbohydrate intake to within 90 minutes of your training session, you will be much more inclined to absorb carbohydrate than to store it (most likely as fat).

Water is an effective tool to help stave off hunger

III. Listen to your body: daily energy levels are a great way to gauge your blood sugar levels without going to the pharmacist for a blood test. 

For the next seven days when you finish each meal, set your phone alarm for two hours. When the alarm goes off, ask yourself how you feel. If your energy levels are dropping and peaking throughout the day, then your blood sugar level is peaking and troughing, meaning you need to examine what you are eating to make sure your energy levels (and blood sugar) are consistent.

4. Do you diet only, or do you diet and exercise?

The scale is often viewed as the great oracle of progress in the battle of the bulge. If your scale tells you a lower number than the previous time you weighed in, you are making progress.

But relying on the scale as the sole measure of progress is not a sustainable proposition, as you are not addressing body fat loss. This is where exercise becomes so important, and it’s why you need to include exercise in any regime to lose weight.

Exercise is so important to weight loss because when you diet only, you potentially sacrifice muscle mass.

This works against you because the more lean muscle mass you have the more effective your body will be at metabolising fat. Exercise is so crucial to losing weight, as when you exercise you retain and build lean muscle mass that assists the process of shifting body fat.

If however, you follow a regular exercise routine you will retain and increase your lean muscle mass, which makes you more metabolically active, and you will burn more calories, full stop. As your body becomes a calorie-burning furnace, you will continue to burn calories more efficiently even when you aren’t exercising, and this is a sustainable approach to losing weight and keeping it off.

So, are you exercising regularly? This can include everything from swimming to walking to running to weight training, but the important thing is to have a regular routine. If you are not exercising on a regular basis, then it’s time to consider blocking the time out and starting an exercise programme.

NB: if you want a reliable gauge of your own progress, look at how your clothing fits. If you are training on a regular basis, you should notice a different in how your clothes fit you, and what once was snug should fit more like it did when you bought it!

5. Do you take Omega 3 (fish oil, or algae if you are vegetarian)?

While water may not be the magic elixir to weight loss, omega 3 comes pretty close. This is because omega 3, besides numerous other benefits outside the scope of this article, keeps your cells ‘fluid’[ii]. What this means is that when cells are more fluid, they are more sensitive to insulin. 

James describes alcohol as a 'hurdle' to losing weight

This means that the cell wall is more likely to release fat for disposal than store it in the cellular tissue. 

Therefore, if you are supplementing your diet with omega 3 (or making sure you are having 2-3 portions of oily fish per week i.e. mackerel or fresh salmon) at the cellular level your body will be less inclined to store the fat you are trying to get rid of. Algae is a great alternative for vegetarians.

6. How much time do you spend eating?

Are you a fast eater? Do you seeing chewing as an unnecessary barrier to inhaling what’s on your plate? If this is you, here are two reasons why you should reconsider and slow down.

It takes your stomach approximately 20 minutes to release the hormone that tells your brain that you are full. 

If you eat very quickly, you are more likely to consume more than you need because you haven’t allowed enough time for your body to identify the quantity of food that you’ve consumed.

Set your phone alarm for 20 minutes and teach yourself to take that long to consume your main meals. You will enjoy your food and actually taste it, with the added benefit that your stomach will inform your brain how much food you have consumed, thus helping you become more conscious about overeating.

7. Are you consuming a balance of good fats in your diet?

‘Fats’ has been a four-letter word for a long time, but people are finally wising up to the value and importance of including good fats in their diet.

Among the numerous benefits of actively including fats in your diet (ie avocado, nuts, and various oils including flax seed oil and olive oil) is that fats help manufacture and balance hormones[iii].

The hormones leptin and insulin control body fat distribution, carbohydrate regulation and metabolism of fat (not to mention appetite), so a balance of good fats in the diet is crucial to keeping these hormones and hence your weight in check. 

Follow the rule of thirds when it comes to fat consumption: 1/3 saturated (i.e. animal fat), 1/3 monounsaturated (i.e. olive oil), and 1/3 polyunsaturated (i.e. omega 3 fish oil), to maintain optimal health and function.

8. Do you count calories, or do you make every calorie count?

Counting calories is a common approach to attempt weight loss. But it’s important to understand where the term ‘calorie’ comes from. Calorie is a unit of measure required to increase 1L of water by 1°C[iv].

What’s deceptive about calorie counting is that calorie content is determined through a bomb calorimeter, and does not account for the digestive process. The point is that the number you are relying on to determine your daily intake may not be accurate, so you are making decisions based on an inaccurate measuring tool.

As opposed to relying solely on calories to determine your food choices, actively seek out nutrient dense foods (ie whole foods close to their natural source), and consider this in addition when making choices. 

Combined with the portion control guide mentioned in point 2, you will have the best opportunity for getting the most out of your diet in terms of nutrients, while at the same time ensuring that your portions are in line with your requirements.

Exercise is so important to weight loss because when you diet only, you potentially sacrifice muscle mass, James, who is a personal trainer, reveals to FEMAIL

How many calories in your food? There's an app for that (related)

9. Do you drink alcohol?

Alcohol (beer specifically) often gets the blame for the spare tyre around the midriff, also known as the beer belly. But according to research from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition[v], it’s what alcohol changes into upon consumption that causes the difficulties.

The body uses whatever fuel is available to it, whether it’s fat, carbohydrate or protein. When you consume alcohol, as opposed to being stored as fat your liver converts the majority of alcohol into acetate, which is then released into your blood stream.

Acetate effectively pushes fat to the back of the queue, presenting itself as a viable source of fuel in the bloodstream. As a result, your body will burn acetate instead of fat.

I’m not saying that you should abstain from alcohol for the rest of your life (I know I won’t), but just remember that when you consume alcohol you are introducing yet another hurdle to burning the fat that you want to get rid of.

10. How much sleep are you getting?

The amount of sleep you get every night can affect your body’s ability to control your diet. According to Michael Breus, PhD, author of Beauty Sleep[vi], sleep amount and quality effects the abundance of ghrelin and leptin, two hormones that control your appetite control.

When you are sleep deprived you have more ghrelin (the hormone that tells you to eat) and less leptin (the hormone that tells you to stop eating). This, combined with a slower metabolism when you are sleep deprived, equals weight gain.

If your diet isn’t working, spend two weeks keeping track of the number of hours of sleep you get every night, as well as how you feel when you wake up (are you rested, or do you feel tired). 

Besides the volume of sleep its also important to make sure you are getting quality sleep every night.

So if you wake up tired every morning, start thinking about why you aren’t getting quality sleep every night, as this may be the reason why your current eating plan isn’t doing the trick.

About the author: James Staring is a certified fitness professional with experience training endurance runners, triathletes, low back pain sufferers, and weekend warriors of all ability levels. 

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