Old habits are challenging to break, but they can defeat a person’s weight loss goals. It’s easy for a person to convince themselves they are doing everything right to lose the pounds, but for some reason, the weight won’t come off, and if the scale does move, it’s in the wrong direction. Even though no one is perfect, when someone sabotaging their weight loss efforts, they’re not only harming their health, but they’re not achieving the goals they set out to follow. With so much advice on the web, it’s hard to know which way to turn. Instead, check out the Body Reboot book to learn about a way to transform your health and create positive habits and learn about a few bad habits you can start breaking today.

1. Snacking

If you go on a high fat, low carb diet snacking is fine, but it’s vital to snack on keto-friendly food or healthy snacks as Ideal Shape recommends below.

Those extra bites, licks and tastes you take throughout your day tend to add up pretty quickly. It’s easy to think that one bite, lick or taste isn’t a big deal, but when you’re biting, licking and tasting all day long, you can add up to 300 extra calories a day to your diet. That’s the equivalent of inviting an extra ½ pound to your waistline every week.

One way to get rid of this bad habit is to keep a food journal. By tracking what you eat, you can avoid thoughtless snacking!

2. Using a diet only to lose weight

When you go on a diet such as the keto diet, don’t think of it just as a diet. Natural Living Ideas says you should use a “diet” as an opportunity to make positive lifestyle changes that can continue way past the diet. Whether you decide to stay on your diet after reaching your weight loss goals is up to you, but don’t go on a diet as a temporary fix to your weight problems.

Surprise! Dieting is not the way to lose weight. You can’t just temporarily restrict the amount of calories you eat for a period of time and then expect to go back to your old ways and enjoy a fit, trim body, which is why the vast majority of people who lose weight don’t keep it off for good. Not only are those hard-earned efforts put to waste, your metabolism slows every time you do it, making things worse the next time.

If you’re even thinking about going on a fad diet, please don’t do it. In a review of ten of the most popular weight loss programs in the United States conducted by the Annals of Internal Medicine, it was discovered that only one of them was actually effective at helping people lose weight and keep that weight off. That correlates with the fact that the U.S. is the most obese nation in the world, yet Americans spend as much as $2 billion every year on weight loss programs.

The bottom line is that success comes for people who prioritize making lifestyle changes rather than going on a diet, which allows you to make more realistic and sustainable changes that can be followed throughout your life, instead of going on a short term diet that calls for dramatic changes. That ultimately leads to a frustrating, unhealthy cycle of losing weight, gaining it back and then some.

3. Setting unrealistic goals

Are you setting unrealistic goals for yourself? It’s great that you’re setting goals, but don’t make them so lofty that it’s impossible to follow them. Start small and then make them bigger as time goes on, as VeryWell Fit recommends.

Dieters are often highly motivated and full of excitement at the beginning of their weight loss program. It is often during this phase that they set unrealistic goals for weight loss. But high expectations can cause weight gain when lack of progress leads to lack of motivation.

Do this instead: Learn how to set small goals that you'll actually reach. These smaller steps provide a roadmap for your weight loss journey. As you reach each small goal you get a boost of confidence and you stay motivated on the way to your ultimate goal.

4. Unhealthy rewards

Sure, it’s nice to reward yourself every once in a while, but Ideal Shape recommends staying away from unhealthy rewards, and we happen to agree. Once in a while, it’s reasonable to have some dessert, but if it becomes a regular habit, you might find yourself reverting to old habits. To stop that from happening, don’t reward yourself with too many things that are unhealthy.

It’s easy to justify poor food choices when you look at them as a reward. But just because you did something good…or even something amazing, doesn’t mean that your favorite food indulgences suddenly become healthy.

To get rid of this habit, you need to find a new reward system for yourself. Try buying new workout clothes instead.

5. Banning healthy fats

Of course, if you go on the keto diet, all fat is allowed, but Natural Living Ideas says healthier fats are always the better option. A lot of people are afraid of fat, but it turns out there are many healthy fats that not only taste good but are good for you as well! Plus, turn your body into a fat burning body instead of burning glucose, and you’ll quickly drop the pounds!

Thanks to some bad, dated dieting advice, countless people are still under the impression that eating fats automatically leads to added pounds, but that’s just not true. Still, despite the best attempts by nutrition experts to dispel that notion, most Americans are fat phobic, but it’s not doing them any good – hence, the previous reference to the country being one of the most obese in the world.

While it may sound counterproductive, eating more healthy fats can actually help you lose weight by preventing cravings, helping you stay fuller longer, and keeping your blood sugar levels balanced. In fact, keeping nuts like almonds or walnuts readily available can keep you from reaching for a less healthy snack. Research has found that people who eat nuts weigh less and eat less overall.

You also might want to exchange some of the less healthy fats you’ve been eating, like vegetable oils, for coconut oil, which is not only loaded with vitamins, minerals, and fiber, it contains healthy fats known as medium-chain fatty acids, or MCFAs, which are unique fats that include caprylic acid, lauric acid, and capric acid. These fats truly stand out when it comes to your health, as they’re metabolized differently than other fats, and have been shown in scientific studies to raise the metabolism slightly, while helping one consume fewer calories overall.

Men’s Health pipes in by also recommending implementing fat in your diet — it turns out it has many health benefits!

“Any time a food is listed as low-fat, the food manufacturers have replaced the fat with sugars or other potentially harmful chemicals and additives,” Trenteseaux says, meaning they’ll typically pack more empty calories than their full-fat counterparts. “In addition, your body needs healthy fats for a number of processes, including hormone production, brain function, and, yes, even fat loss.”

That’s because fat is a super satiating nutrient, so it will help you feel fuller, longer. It’s true, eating too much of it can contribute to weight gain (it clocks in at 9 calories per gram) — but going overboard on any food, including those heavy in carbs and protein, will pile on the pounds, too.

Try this: “The only fat you should avoid is trans fats, which are found in processed foods containing partially hydrogenated oils,” says Trenteseaux, like chips, cookies, and crackers. The FDA does not recognize trans fats as safe, since they are associated with a higher risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes, according to the American Heart Association.

Instead, focus on eating whole foods that contain healthy fats. This includes grass-fed meats, wild fish like salmon, whole eggs, raw nuts, avocados, and full-fat dairy products like raw cheese, plain Greek yogurt, kefir, and cottage cheese.

Bonus: Stop sitting all day

Guess what?! We have a bonus terrible habit that you should avoid! That’s right — it’s about getting up and moving! You don’t necessarily exercise, even though that’s always a positive thing to do. However, you should most definitely get up and move as opposed to sitting all day. If you work in an office, this means getting up to stretch your legs more regularly. What are you sitting there for? Get up and go for a quick stroll!

Non-exercise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT, is a fancy term for all of the non-exercise movement that you do every day. It can account for up to 15-30% of your total calorie burn. If you spend your day sitting at a desk or your evenings lying on the couch, the calories you burn from NEAT will be minimal.

Do this instead: Learn how to burn calories without exercise. Boost your NEAT all day long. If you have a desk job, get up every hour and walk to the restroom on a different floor, refill your water, run an errand on foot, or climb the stairs in your office building. If you like watching television at night, fold laundry or dust furniture instead of just lying on the couch.

Bad habits have serious repercussions, and it’s up to you to get serious and make positive changes going forward. You can do that by going on the keto diet and making positive health changes. We further discuss how a keto diet can help you not only lose weight but create healthy habits in the Body Reboot book. To get a free copy of our book help us cover shipping and visit this page and get your copy today!

Sources: Ideal Shape, Natural Living Ideas, Men’s Health, VeryWell Fit