Losing weight and dieting sucks, there’s no other way to describe it, it just sucks. When trying to lose weight, you are constantly reminded of how great unhealthy food tastes, temptation will be all around you, and chances are your energy and motivational levels will be at rock bottom because your caloric intakes will be so low. On paper, losing weight is simply a matter of eating fewer calories, eating healthy foods, and becoming more active. In reality however, it takes much more than simply chugging down weight loss shakes and exercising until you feel sick, to lose weight. In fact, if you aren’t careful, you could actually be doing more harm than good. Here’s a look at 4 things you should not do when trying to lose weight. Diet – As controversial and hypocritical as this may sound, if you are trying to lose weight, experts recommend that you do not diet. You see, diets are no good for your mind or your body. When you diet, you will probably end up on a very low calorie diet which will leave you constantly feeling hungry, not to mention feeling tired and irritable. Diets are quick fixes, and weight loss should not be a quick fix at all. Rather than dieting, experts recommend that you instead change your lifestyle and find a much more sustainable approach to stripping away your body fat. Skip meals – Another thing you should never do when trying to lose weight, is to skip meals. People think that skipping meals, or perhaps drinking weight loss shakes in place of whole food sources will speed up their fat loss, when in reality it will slow things down. When you skip meals you are depriving your metabolism of the calories it needs to fuel your body. This means that your metabolism actually slows down, making it harder for you to lose weight, and leaving you with less energy to get through the day. One of the keys to weight loss, is to eat relatively small and healthy meals every three hours or so, as this will keep your metabolism firing on all cylinders. Not follow structured weight loss programs – Weight loss programs can be incredibly useful when they’ve been created by experts who know what they’re doing. If it is weight loss that you seek, then rather than trying to do things all by yourself, why not follow professional weight loss programs instead? These programs have been designed to tell you what you can and cannot eat, and when, and what you should and should not do in terms of exercise and physical activity. Perform exercise you hate – If the thought of going to the gym and running on a treadmill is making you miserable then why are you doing it in the first place? We all know that exercise is very important when it comes to losing weight, but if you hate treadmills and you hate gyms even more, why not find a form of exercise that you enjoy? If you’re miserable, your workouts will drag, your motivation will decrease rapidly, and eventually you’ll throw in the towel. On the opposite side of the spectrum, if you’re looking forward to exercising and you perform exercise you enjoy, you’ll work harder, and your head will be in the game in the process.