The Biggest Weight Loss Mistakes—And How to Stop Making Them (Without The Resolve of a Monk)

Let’s be clear from the start: most diets are about as useful as a chocolate teapot in a sauna.
They’re restrictive, joyless and somehow manage to be both confusing and patronising.
They’ll have you meticulously measuring your almonds while ignoring the fact that you’re emotionally unraveling at the seams.

And look, I get it. You’re not here for another lecture on calories and kale. You’ve done the detoxes. You’ve white-knuckled your way through 6pm hunger like a caffeinated monk. You’ve quit sugar, carbs, gluten, dairy, fun and hope—and still found yourself armpit-deep in a box of Coco Pops on a Tuesday.

Because here’s the kicker:
It was never about the food.

Weight loss that lasts—the kind that doesn’t turn your social life into a beige purgatory of grilled chicken and regret—doesn’t come from following some rigid food spreadsheet handed down by the gods of Clean Eating.
It comes from habits. Boring, unsexy, human-as-hell habits.

That’s what I do with clients. I don’t give them meal plans forged in the fires of nutritional puritanism.
I teach them how to build habits that stick—like melted cheese on a toasted sandwich.
Habits that work in the chaos of real life. Habits that don’t require monk-like discipline or a second mortgage at the health food store.

And if you’re wondering why you’ve tried everything and still feel like your body is an unsolvable Rubik’s cube wrapped in self-doubt and digestive issues, let’s break down the biggest mistakes people make when trying to lose weight.

1. Mistake: Skipping the Inner Work

(a.k.a. Trying to fix your body while ignoring the bit that actually runs the show: your brain)

Most people, when they decide they want to lose weight, do one of two things:

• Download a meal plan designed by someone with abs and a ring light

• Google “low carb snacks” while eating a KitKat

They jump straight to the “what should I eat” part—because that feels tangible. Actionable. Like progress.

But here’s the problem:
You can’t out-diet your beliefs.

If deep down you think things like:

• “I’m hopeless around food.”

• “I’ve always failed before, so why would this time be different?”

• “If I eat that, I’ll get fat.”

Then guess what? You’re dragging those beliefs into every choice you make.
Your brain is like a dodgy GPS—if the settings are wrong, you’ll keep ending up at the wrong bloody destination.

Until you unpack the why behind your eating—your fear of hunger, your guilt around ‘bad’ foods, your childhood belief that dessert = love—you’ll keep circling the same old roundabout.

This is the uncomfortable bit. The bit that diet culture conveniently skips in favour of protein balls and before/after shots.

But it’s the bit that actually works.

2. Mistake: Eating for the Hunger That Hasn’t Happened Yet

(a.k.a. Pre-emptive panic eating)

Ah yes, the classic “I’ll just eat a bit more now in case I get hungry later.”
Because nothing says logical like stuffing yourself at 1pm because you might feel peckish at 3.

This one is baked into diet culture.
We were taught to be terrified of hunger.
Hunger = failure. Hunger = danger. Hunger = “Oh god, I’ll binge if I don’t pre-emptively consume three protein bars and half a leftover lasagna.”

But hunger is just a feeling. It’s your body saying, “Hey love, fuel’s getting low.” It’s not a threat. It doesn’t mean you’ve stuffed up. It doesn’t need to be avoided at all costs with industrial quantities of almonds.

When you stop eating out of fear and start trusting your body, you break the feast-or-famine loop. You learn that hunger comes and then it goes—and your job isn’t to outsmart it, it’s to listen to it.

3. Mistake: Eating to Hit Macronutrient Targets, Not Hunger Cues

(a.k.a. The “protein panic” epidemic)

Let’s talk about The Great Macronutrient Obsession.
You know the one—where people are inhaling chicken breast like they’re training for the Olympics, even though they’re not actually hungry, all in the name of “hitting their numbers.”

Now, don’t get me wrong—protein’s fab. It’s filling. It’s important.
But when you’re shovelling in boiled eggs like you’re auditioning for a low-budget Rocky reboot and ignoring the fact that your body is screaming “I’m full,” we have a problem.

Eating past fullness because some app says you’re 7g short on your macros?
That’s not nutrition. That’s nutritional anxiety dressed up in activewear.

Your body is smarter than your spreadsheet.
It knows what it needs. It’ll tell you—if you stop long enough to listen.
Your hunger and fullness cues aren’t broken. They’ve just been drowned out by decades of diet noise and Fitfluencer nonsense.

So... What Actually Works?

Here’s the wild idea:
What if, instead of obeying someone else’s rules, you started tuning into your own body?

I know. Radical.

Here’s what we focus on instead:

• Flexibility Over Perfection
  Life isn’t neat. Neither is eating. Missing a workout or eating a croissant won’t derail you—unless your brain thinks it has. Flexibility is the superpower.

• Normal Eating
  Not “clean.” Not “perfect.” Not “Instagrammable.” Just meals that feel good, satisfy you and leave you without shame or indigestion. Wild, I know.

• Kicking the Self-Criticism Habit
  You don’t get healthier by hating yourself into change. You get healthier by learning to coach yourself with kindness, not a cattle prod.

• Body Trust Is Everything
  You were born knowing when to eat, what felt good and when to stop. Diet culture just trained it out of you. We bring it back.

Finding Your Comfortable Weight (No Cleanse Required)

This process isn’t glamorous. It’s not quick. It won’t get you a six-pack in six weeks.
But it will get you a relationship with food—and your body—that doesn’t require constant vigilance, guilt or spreadsheets.

It’s not linear.
It’s not Insta-worthy.
But it’s real.
And sustainable.
And bloody freeing.

So if you're sick of food rules, shame spirals and the endless Groundhog Day of “starting again on Monday,” maybe it’s time to do it differently.

Not harder.
Not stricter.
Just… smarter.

You don’t need another plan.
You need a brain that believes in a new way forward.
And if you need help getting there, that’s my jam.

Let’s make food feel normal again.
And let your body follow suit.