As Americans, we are inundated with a wide variety of food choices with many different kinds of things to eat. Generally our common sense kicks in at some point, but usually too late after we have already committed to eating unnecessary calories. We know that chips and cake are not the best choices, but they still seem to play a major role in our every day lives. We know that overeating is bad and fast food can be even worse, so we avoid these things and do our best to eat healthy. But did you know that not eating meals, skipping meals or eating too little can make you overweight?

Not eating a proper balance of fats, proteins, or carbohydrates will send the body into "starvation mode" thus making the body hold and store fat because it thinks that it may not be fed again for some time. You hear people say "I just can’t lose any weight and I don’t eat" all the time. These are the same people that skip breakfast, eat a small salad for lunch, or one meal the whole day of chicken with rice for dinner. You may hear others say "I eat so healthy and my body still won’t drop weight". These are only two examples of how we cause our weight to remain high and our bodies to remain in constant survival mode. The following are the 6 Team Fitness America sure fire ways to stay overweight, which of course is what we don’t want to do.

Portioning food to the extreme or restricting food when we are hungry.

Portioning food beyond normal is not good or restricting food consumption when we are hungry is even worse and will only bring binge eating later in the day. Weighing and measuring everything that you consume will psychologically affect you as much as physically. When you insist on carrying your food in plastic baggies that you weighed earlier for exact amounts will leave you prone to feeling hungry and stressed. Stressing out the endocrine system will make your cortisol levels fluctuate thus making your body remain overweight. Create a balanced meal plan while including some things that you like to eat. Take on a belief that anything in moderation is not a bad thing but don’t take it beyond control and think that eating fried foods in moderation is still okay. Over obsessing by restricting yourself too much about your foods will take a toll on your psyche and you will notice that you are not losing weight.

Restricting too much food.

By not eating certain foods (avocado due to fat or bananas due to starch) you limit the vitamins and minerals that the body will obtain from food and limit the body’s ability to lose weight by restricting the vitamins it can have. Taking over the counter vitamins and minerals is a great compliment to your diet but not a substitute. There are foods like avocado and peanut butter that are often over looked for their nutritional properties because their fat contact is high. The point is that there is good fat content that your body needs to function properly and burn more fat.

Buying prepackaged meals.

Precooked and frozen meals that you buy in the grocery store have a lot of salt and preservatives. The human body will bloat and retain water from excess salt. So if you have a prepackaged breakfast, prepackaged lunch and prepackaged dinner each day you will soon feel bloated and heavy. Your body can not simply process all that salt. Even if you are counting calories, fats and carbs, you will still consume more salt in one meal with prepackaged meals than what the body needs in one day. Read your labels carefully and pick and chose premade products on a very selective level. Substitute healthy, real, fresh foods for those packaged meals. You can also prep meals at home from your own kitchen so you know what is in each meal and how much salt to add is purely up to you.

Skipping Breakfast.

Missing breakfast is like not putting any fuel in your car when your gas tank is empty and expecting your car to run perfectly. We all know that the car will simply just stop running and you will be calling for someone to help fetch gas. Your body operates the same way. Sometimes we avoid breakfast and don’t feed our bodies the proper nutrients until later in the day or we end up over eating at night or simply not getting enough food throughout the day. Your body can not run properly in that manner. It needs good clean fuels to make it go, just like the car.

Counting calories to the nanogram.

Again, if you are so obsessed with your weight that you need to cut off even one calorie and write them all down you will be over obsessing about your calorie intake and again your cortisol will fluctuate and the stress on your body will cause you to not lose weight. You could find yourself searching for comfort foods due to the stress of putting too much pressure to stick to an exact calorie amount. Come up with a good number to stay around (your fitness trainer can assist you with this for your fitness level) and do not stress if you had a few calories over the limit. A bit more exercise will burn those right off.

Eating or not eating before you workout with your personal trainer.

If you do not eat a light protein and carb balanced snack about two hours before your workout you will be lethargic and not able to perform the exercises at full ability. If you eat too much food prior to the workout you will feel nauseous and not want to workout at all. Living a true fitness experience each workout to the best of its capability requires a proper balance of proteins and cabs to maximize your true potential. If you aren’t sure what to eat or when to eat, ask your fitness specialist and they can give you a few great foods to try.

Knowing what and when to eat or what combinations of foods to eat when you workout is the key to having a continual, healthy weight loss plan.

For more information about Team Fitness America, visit http://www.teamfitnessamerica.com.