Unfortunately, losing weight is not as simple as not eating and famishing yourself. If you really want to shed those extra pounds, you will need to plan your diet and be particular about your lifestyle. A lot of people have the will to lose weight but don’t know the proper way and techniques. Here are 5 of the most common reasons behind failure to lose weight.

Lack of planning

Like everything else in life, weight loss also needs to be properly planned. Unless you set days of the week for workouts and time your meals, you will not be able to achieve measurable results.  You also need to know beforehand what you are going to be eating or what is going to be served for lunch and dinner so you can balance your food consumption.

Waiting until starvation

A lot of weight watchers hold back on food and end up eating only when they are extremely hungry and starving. While this might give you the false impression that you have burnt calories, you actually end up eating a lot more than you would if you weren’t so hungry. If it is likely that you will have to skip meals during traveling etc, you should keep a bag of snacks with you so that you don’t starve yourself by the time you get home for dinner.

No check on what you eat

If you are not keeping track of what you are eating, you are most likely to fail at your goal. People who note down their daily meals, snacks and drinks have a better perspective of what they are consuming and end up losing weight much more effectively. If you think writing everything down is too old school, you can also use some of the free applications available these days to keep track of your calories.

No support

You can’t quickly lose weight without having a potent support group. It is important to be around or stay in touch with like-minded people who have similar goals and face similar problems. There are several online groups you can join, where all the members have the same goals as you and everyone works together to achieve them.

Not doing the math

At the heart of it, the most part of weight loss is about eating less calories than you burn. If you are keeping track of what you are consuming, count the total number of calories you take every day. You will then need to assess your calorie requirements, which will depend on the kind of work you do and the level of activity you have throughout a day. At the end of the day, if you are using more calories than you are eating, you are guaranteed to lose weights.