5 diet habits that are working against you

Make sure your dieting habits are supporting -- not sabotaging -- your health and weight loss goals!Credit: sxc.hu/ikbenasha, ikbenasha

Whether you're low-carbing or sticking with a six-mini-meals-a-day plan, some diet practices could actually be working against you and preventing you from reaching your weight loss goals. Your probably already know that drastically cutting calories will set you up for failure and could put you on an endless cycle of yo-yo dieting. Some other eating habits could be standing in the way of success with your diet plan. There's no one-size-fits all plan when it comes to losing weight or maintaining a healthy weight, but there are some pitfalls to avoid.

These diet habits could be sabotaging your efforts to maintain a healthy weight and be working against you:

1. Eliminating carbs completely. Your mind and body need carbohydrates for energy. The key to diet success is to eat the right type of carbs. Complex carbohydrates, like oatmeal, brown rice and sweet potatoes, are excellent sources of healthy carbohydrates. If you're watching your weight, eat these earlier in the day and stick with a high-protein dinner.
2. Starving yourself to reduce daily calorie intake. Extremely restrictive diets of any kind might work for a few months, but they will leave you feeling tired, irritable and also make you lose much-needed muscle. Starvation diets will also make you feel deprived, and this state of deprivation puts you at risk for binge eating. Stick with a plan that isn't so restrictive so that you're feeding your body properly.
3. Counting on diet pills to burn fat. Fat burners and thermogenic pills are designed to be supplements -- not a quick-fix solution for unhealthy eating habits. If you're counting on diet pills of any kind to do the hard work for you, you're out of luck. Most diet pills will deplete your body of nutrients, minerals and vitamins because they contain caffeine and ingredients that act as diuretics. If you're not eating enough calories and taking diet pills to lose weight, you could be causing irreversible damage to your body and even become addicted to some of the ingredients. Be very careful about using supplements like these when you're trying to manage your weight. There are plenty of natural, simpler and non-destructive ways to maintain a healthy weight.
4. Eating high-carb foods late in the evening. Unless you're an endurance athlete preparing for a marathon in the morning, just say no to carbs in the late afternoon and evening. Even if they're healthy carbohydrates, eating a carbohydrate-rich meal later in the day can prevent you from shedding body fat. Tweak your daily meals so that you're eating most of your carbs as early in the day as possible (see #1). Remember that successful diet programs aren't so much about restriction than they are about the types of foods you eat over the course of the day.
5. Snacking late into the night. If you can't seem to go to bed without a late-night snack, you could be setting yourself up for diet failure. Dr. Bill Misner, Ph.D., points out that fasting at least three hours before bed time is actually the best way to allow your body to release human growth hormone (HGH). Human growth hormone is needed for mobilizing fat so that you don't end up storing it. Let your body do its work by eating your meals as early in the day as possible.