The biggest weight loss mistakes—and how to fix them
Focusing on habits, instead of diets is how you get lasting change
When it comes to weight loss, most diets get it wrong. They’re restrictive, focus on the wrong details and overlook the core habits that actually make a difference.
I don’t hand clients a meal plan or rigid rules they can’t stick with, will abandon in a few months and end up feeling like shit about themselves as a result. Instead, we focus on building sustainable habits, so they’re empowered, know what to do and don’t need to keep coming back.
Real change means you learn to trust yourself, reconnect with your body’s signals (your perfect gauge) and develop habits that stick.
As a dietitian, my job is to educate, empower and help you tackle any food-related issues, so you can confidently move forward on your own. Here’s how we do it.
The Biggest Weight Loss Mistakes—and How to Fix Them
1. Not Doing the Inner Work
Most people want to dive right into what to do (hello diet plan) when they decide to lose weight, but they skip the essential groundwork. Before focusing on what or how much to eat, you first need to understand why you eat the way you do.
Diet culture tells us that weight loss is just a matter of following rules. Yet what we think about food and believe about our bodies influence every decision we make.
If you don’t address these beliefs—like fear of hunger, guilt around eating certain foods as they’re “fattening”—you will remain stuck in the same cycle. This inner work is not easy, but it’s essential to building lasting results. Working through and freeing yourself of these beliefs will stop you from constantly chasing the next “magic bullet.”
2. Eating for the Hunger to Come
Many people overeat at meal times because they’re afraid of feeling hungry later. This mindset, rooted in diet culture, stems from a lack of trust in the body’s natural hunger signals and our ability to feed ourselves adequately. If you’ve always depended on external rules—like strict portion sizes or meal times—it’s easy to end up feeling scared of your hunger.
I help clients let go of this fear. Hunger is a normal natural signal from your body. Over time, you’ll learn to trust your body’s signals and move away from the “feast or famine” mentality, replacing it with a more flexible and intuitive approach.
3. Eating to Meet Macronutrient Rules Instead of Hunger
Every day I’m seeing clients who are overeating to meet specific macronutrient (hello protein) “requirements.” Many people feel pressured to hit their protein target in fear of not getting the results they want if they don’t. But this approach, apart from making you anxious, can lead to eating more than your body actually needs, just to meet an arbitrary target.
While guidelines can be helpful, they’re just that—guidelines. I encourage clients to prioritise balanced meals that feels right for their hunger levels rather than forcing extra food to “check off” nutrients. Meals don’t need to be “perfect” and no single meal will make or break your health. The key is balance and portion sizes that fit YOUR body’s needs. And nobody really knows that - only YOU do.
How to Build Lasting Habits and Reach a Comfortable Weight
Each of these weight loss mistakes happens when we ignore or misunderstand our body’s signals in favor of external rules. Diet culture has trained us to distrust our bodies, telling us that weight loss is simple and shaming us when we “fail.” But real change isn’t about perfection or restriction. It’s about learning to listen, trust and respond to YOUR body’s unique needs.
In my approach, we work to:
- Develop Flexibility: Life and meals aren’t predictable and that’s okay. Learning to be flexible with your eating helps you adapt without guilt or stress.
- Practice Normal Eating: There’s no “perfect” way to eat. Learning what feels good, enjoyable and sustainable for you is key to long-term health.
- Silence Negative Self-Talk: So much of diet culture is built on self-criticism. Understanding where this comes from and learning to replace it with compassionate self talk can be transformative.
- Build Trust with Your Body: YOUR body knows what it needs. Reconnecting with its signals empowers you to make choices that feel right for you, not based on someone else’s rules.
Finding Your Comfortable Weight
This approach takes time and isn’t always linear, but it’s designed to help you reach and maintain a weight that feels good for you. Unlike the “quick fixes” diet culture pushes, these habits lead to sustainable health and a balanced relationship with food.
If you’re ready to let go of restrictive dieting and start building a foundation of healthy habits, I’m here to help you navigate that path to confidence, flexibility and true nourishment.
It’s about progress, not perfection—and you don’t have to do it alone.