Do you ever get a full night’s sleep, but still wake up groggy, or feeling like you haven’t slept at all? That could be because you’re not getting enough deep sleep and REM sleep through the night. Sleep specialists recommend adults get around 1.5-1.8 hours of REM sleep per night, which is about 20% of your sleep total.

Deep sleep is stages 3 and 4 of your sleep cycle, where your brain waves will become very slow and blood flow will be directed toward your muscles, preparing you for REM.

REM sleep is an acronym for rapid eye movement. REM sleep is the mentally restorative part of our sleep cycle, and is very important for feeling rested the following day. This is also when we dream most vividly, because our brain is so active during this stage.

Our sleep follows a pattern, though. You move back and forth between deep sleep and REM sleep four to six times a night. Each cycle lasts around 90-120 minutes, and as the night progresses, the amount of time you spend in each stage changes. Most deep sleep occurs in the first half of the night, and then later in the night, REM sleep stages become longer.

Keeping reading to learn some tips and tricks for achieving more deep sleep and REM sleep.

Keeping A Consistent Sleep Schedule

We all know the feeling of waking up early for school or work during the week and longing to stay up late and sleep in on the weekends, but, unfortunately, that sleep pattern isn’t doing you any favors. Going to bed and waking up around the same times every day, along with consistently getting seven to nine hours, are critical steps to getting better quality sleep.

Helix’s co-founder and sleep expert, Adam Tishman, supports this, saying, “Try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day, even on weekends. Having a regular sleep schedule will help increase REM and the overall quality of your sleep.”

This is because our bodies run on a 24-hour internal clock, and they do best when we have a regular circadian rhythm. By creating routine, such as a bedtime routine, the body learns to follow it with the appropriate hormones (in this case, cortisol and melatonin), to maintain the rhythm. This means your body is more prepared to go to sleep, and therefore is more prepared for sleep cycles.

Go To Bed Earlier

This is more important than you think. Because we enter into our deep sleep and REM sleep in the later hours of our sleep cycle, it’s important to get a good head start so you have time to enter those final REM stages. And if you wake up in the middle of a REM cycle? That usually means you’ll have an extra groggy morning, or even one of those days where it feels like you never fully wake up. Stanford University reported that waking up during deep or REM sleep affected about 15.2% of the 16,000 people surveyed over a year, and that the effects could last for a while through the day.

While we all wish we could just sleep in a bit later, this usually isn’t an option. We recommend starting your bedtime adjustment by just 15 minutes each day. Get ready for bed 15 minutes earlier, so you’ll be in bed 15 minutes earlier. Add another 15 minutes every day, and by the end of the week, you’ll hopefully be heading to bed a full hour earlier, giving you more time to accomplish that precious REM.

Creating Your Best Sleep Environment

Another reason you’re lying awake in bed at night, not being able to fall asleep, is because of distractions in your sleep environment. Make sure your room is cool, dark, and quiet. If you live in a loud area, white noise machines are a great way to dull distracting noises. Adding a fan in your room or getting a cooling mattress could also help if you don’t like to sleep warm at night.

You should limit screen time by at least an hour before you plan on going to bed. “The blue light emanating from [screens] disrupts circadian rhythms,” explains Tishman. And make sure the TV in your room is completely off, too, because even a subtle glow can be disruptive. Better yet, no TVs in the bedroom, because ideally, it should be an area of the home that is dedicated to relaxation and recovery.

Also, do a quick check of your mattress. How long have you had it? Is it sagging or lumpy? Do you wake up feeling stiff and achy? How about your sheets? Are they scratchy and warm? A comfortable and accommodating mattress for your sleeper type is a critical tool for great sleep, along with your pillows and sheets, so seriously consider if it’s time to upgrade your sleep situation.

Think of it this way—you should look forward to winding down and hopping into bed each night. You might need to change a few things in your room to create your best sleep environment, but it will most likely lead to better sleep, making you more prepared for the day ahead.

Be Aware of What You Eat and Drink Before Bed

That nightcap isn’t helping you out when it comes to your sleep cycle. Tishman recommends, “no alcohol or caffeine too close to bedtime. Caffeine and alcohol interfere with your natural sleep process and having either of these too close to bedtime disrupts your natural body chemistry and can keep you awake.”

Even though alcohol may initially help you to fall asleep, it disrupts your typical sleep cycle later in the night after you metabolize the sugar, and can decrease your overall sleep quality by limiting your brain’s ability to enter deep or REM sleep. We recommend replacing your nightly cocktail with a cup of warm herbal tea instead.

Caffeine has a half-life of four hours, so half of the caffeine you consumed at 7 p.m. is still in your system by 11 p.m. Caffeine can be found in coffee, non-herbal teas, soft drinks, chocolate, and some pain relievers. Try to limit your consumption of these after 3 p.m., or better yet, try to avoid them completely if you’re particularly sensitive to the effects of caffeine.

Practice healthy habits during the day

Getting good sleep during the night can start with what you do early in the day.

Daily exercise lasting 20-30 minutes and working up a sweat is a great example. The National Sleep Foundation conducted an analysis exploring the relationship between sleep and exercise, where they found consistent results that exercise increased total sleep time and prolonged REM sleep. Just make sure that you don’t work out too close to bedtime as it can raise cortisol levels, which can keep you up. Try to workout about five to six hours before your bedtime.

Naps can impact sleep cycles, as well. Don’t get us wrong, we love a good nap as they can help with boosting alertness, mood, and productivity. But this is only in cases of short time periods, and if you didn’t get enough sleep the night before.

If you want (or need, we’ve all been there) to take a nap, consider how much time you have to dedicate. Naps of 45 minutes or less probably won’t have you drifting into deep sleep or REM sleep, which will make you better able to spring into action once you’re done. Naps that are 90 to 120 minutes will encompass all of the sleep stages, and can help to clear your mind, improve memory, and recoup from lost sleep, but may hinder you from being able to fall asleep at your regular bedtime come night, which will in turn hinder deep/REM sleep cycles. Only opt for naps that are 90 to 120 minutes long if you are sleep deprived from the night before.

Naps any longer than 120 minutes will most likely trick your body into thinking that you are going for a full night’s sleep, which means you will either wake up mid deep/REM sleep, or it might disrupt your sleep more drastically that night.

This post was written in partnership with our friends at the Slumber Yard, an independent mattress and home goods review website.

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The Right Mind Shift to Fight Cravings 

Making the right choices to opt for real, whole, unprocessed foods becomes crucial to ditch the junk food habit, but so do your emotional triggers and emotional health.

Whenever you get a strong desire for a chocolate chip cookie or other junk food, ask yourself two questions:

1. What am I feeling?
2. What do I need? What we need does not involve stuffing your face, I can assure you of that. 

We have a chance today to stop and detox, not only from junk food, but also from junk thoughts. We must de-clutter our bodies and our minds.

Breaking these addictions and rewiring your brain is easier than you might think. It doesn’t take weeks or months. These seven strategies can help: 

1. Eat real food. You need to eat fat and protein for each of your meals. Whole foods carbohydrates like veggies, legumes, nuts and seeds are perfectly healthy. Broccoli is broccoli. Processed, sugary junk foods are not real foods. They set the stage for sugar addiction and all its ugly consequences.

2. Steady blood sugar levels. Eat a nutritious breakfast with some protein like eggs, protein shakes, or nut butters. Studies repeatedly show that eating a healthy high-protein breakfast helps people maintain weight loss. Also, have smaller meals throughout the day. Eat every three to four hours and have some protein with each snack or meal (lean animal protein, nuts, seeds, beans). Avoid eating three hours before bedtime. Check out this Guide to Losing Fat to learn more.

3. Ditch sugar. Go cold turkey. If you are addicted to narcotics or alcohol you can’t simply just cut down. You have to stop for your brain to reset. You must eliminate refined sugars, sodas, fruit juices, and artificial sweeteners from your diet. These are all drugs that fuel sugar addiction.

4. Reduce stress. Stress eating and junk food go together. When you’re feeling stressed, you’re more likely to reach for that bag of chocolate chip cookies or whatever your vice might be. Learn to address the root cause of your stress and address it with something like yoga, meditation, or deep breathing.

5. Exercise smartly. The next time you get a hankering for something sweet, walk it off… Literally! Besides creating a healthy distraction to avoid nose diving into a pint of butter pecan ice cream, exercise tapers cravings and raises feel-good endorphin levels. Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned athlete, you can find an easy-to-implement exercise plan here.

6. Determine whether food sensitivities could be causing your cravings. We often crave the very foods that we have a hidden allergy to, including gluten, dairy, and sugar.

7. Sleep well. Ever notice you’re hungrier for something sugary after a terrible night’s sleep? Studies show lack of sleep increases cravings. To get eight hours of solid sleep every night, check out these 5 tips.

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Tell me if you’ve heard this story before… A person is struggling to lose weight. To save calories, they skipped breakfast and simply sipped on coffee or one of those “skinny lattes” that actually contain a good a lot of sugar.

This story is anything but unique. “I hate breakfast,” many candidly proclaim. That’s unfortunate, since studies show besides emotional resilience, eating breakfast consistently correlates with longevity and a healthy weight. Eating breakfast is just that, “breaking” the overnight “fast.”

Eating upon waking brings your blood sugar levels back to normal, kick-starts your metabolism, and sets you up to be on an even metabolic keel for the rest of the day. So break your fast every morning. It will make you healthier, give you more energy through the day, and help you lose weight.

Want to Gain Weight? Skip Breakfast

The old proverb “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and supper like a pauper” now has some scientific muscle behind it. Many of us think that if we skip breakfast we will reduce our overall calorie intake for the day and lose weight.

Unfortunately, the opposite is true. Not eating breakfast means you will eat more the rest of the day. One study among healthy lean women found skipping breakfast impairs insulin sensitivity and leads to weight gain.

If you want further proof, look at sumo wrestlers, who never eat breakfast. They wake up, and the first thing they do is start exercising vigorously. This combination of skipping breakfast and then training really hard for five hours means that by the time they get to eat, they are starving. As a consequence, they overeat.

Something very similar happens when you skip breakfast, work through lunch, and finally return home in the evening: you eat everything in sight. You feel stuffed, sick, guilty, and regret ever entering the kitchen in the first place. I see a definite pattern among patients who skip breakfast and then experience evening hunger and cravings.

A recent study found that almost 3,000 people who lost an average of 70 pounds and kept it off for six years ate breakfast regularly. Only four percent of people who never ate breakfast kept the weight off.

The only difference between the two groups was that the group who lost weight ate breakfast and the other group did not. They both consumed the same number of calories and the same types of food. It turns out that it’s not only the type of calories you consume that determines losing weight and maintaining weight loss, but the time of day you eat as well.

Why Most People Do Breakfast Wrong

Does skipping breakfast and eating a large meal just before sleep sound familiar? It should. It’s the American way.

We consume most of our daily calories shortly before bed. We rarely eat breakfast. We hardly make time to eat during the day, and by the time we get home we are literally starving, we often consume more than we need and then go to bed or sit in front of the television or computer while munching on more snacks. Then we do the one thing that guarantees to make us gain weight: we go to sleep. No wonder we are looking more and more like sumo wrestlers every day.

Equally bad are those who make breakfast dessert. If you eat empty calories from refined foods (such as doughnuts and sweet rolls) and sugars, you will tend to eat more overall. You would never eat ice cream for breakfast, but many cereals, toaster concoctions, muffins, and other things that pass as breakfast – even “healthy” choices – contain as much if not more sugar. You’re essentially eating dessert.

So eat breakfast, but do it correctly. Bypass the cereal aisle and whatever vitamin-fortified concoctions that carry a healthy halo and try to pass off as a smart breakfast.

Studies show protein-rich breakfasts can improve satiety and reduce evening snacking2. Another showed a protein-rich breakfast helps reduce your hunger hormone ghrelin2 and increase cholecystekinin, which signals your brain to stop eating. Protein-rich foods like eggs, nut butters, a protein shake, or whole grains with nuts steady blood sugar and reduce metabolic fluctuations later in the day.

A Fast, Easy, Blood-Sugar Stabilizing Breakfast

Among the countless duties that confront us in the morning, many people struggle to have time for breakfast. That has always puzzled me, since you can make a healthy omelet with plenty of colorful vegetables in minutes.

If even that seems too much, or you’re just not that hungry in the morning, try a breakfast smoothie. You can pre-prep it the night before so the whole thing takes maybe 10 minutes the following morning. Here is my favorite smoothie recipe that provides protein, healthy fats, antioxidants, and major flavor in less time than it takes to order a designer coffee.

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Eating carbohydrates makes you store belly fat.  Eating protein puts on muscle. Most people know that. But a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that when you over eat on a low protein diet; you store bad fat around your organs including the liver, kidneys and pancreas.

But if you eat a high protein diet, you add muscle and increase your resting metabolism and muscle mass.  Since muscle burns seven times as many calories as fat, that’s a good thing.

In the study, researchers admitted 25 brave volunteers to a hospital ward for 12 weeks.  They controlled everything they ate and did.  But they made them all overeat about 1,000 calories a day. The only different was where the calories came from – protein or carbs.

The low protein group (5% protein) lost 1.5 pounds of muscle, and gained 7.5 pounds of fat.  The high protein group (25% protein) gained 6.3 pounds of metabolically active muscle. They also gained fat because they were being force fed. But even though they gained more total weight, they were LESS fat than the low protein group.

This has important implications for our thinking about calories.

Bottom line: Not all calories are the same.  Some calories make you store fat, while others make you store muscle.

In a world where for the first time in history more people are overweight (2.1 billion) than underweight this has important implications.  And the world is getting bigger – over the next 30 years, the prevalence of obesity will double and mostly in countries like China and India (because how do you get twice as many fat people in a country like America where 65% are already fat)!

Here’s the take home.  Quickly absorbed carbohydrates from the bulk of the American and increasingly the world’s diet – from sugar, high fructose corn syrup and white flour, are very efficiently turned into belly fat in the body.  And that leads to obesity and diabetes, or what I call diabesity.

Another recent study found that the free fructose in high fructose corn syrup (not in fruit), led to dramatic increases in belly fat, inflammation, blood pressure, blood sugar and even pre-diabetes in adolescents.

Carbohydrates and protein trigger produce very different chemical messages in the body independent of calories.  Carbs lay down the fat, while protein lays down muscle. 

This study on protein adds to a whole slew of research that proves that higher protein diets (25%) does all sorts of obesity fighting things to your body and your brain.

1. It makes you feel more full than an equivalent amount of calories from carbs.
2. It leads to more weight loss in “free-living” humans as compared the ones who were force fed extra calories.
3. It prevents gaining weight back after you have lost weight.
4. It speeds up metabolism and builds muscle so you burn more calories all day long and even while you sleep.

Reducing belly fat and building muscle is quite simple.  And it is not just about the calories you consume. It is about where those calories come from.

Here are a few simple tips to speed up your metabolism and get rid of belly fat.

1. Skip the sugar – in all of its forms. Especially liquid calories from any source (soda, juice, alcohol) all of which store belly fat. Be on a mission to get high fructose corn syrup out of your diet, it is especially good at laying down belly fat.
2. Ditch the flour – wheat flour, especially, is just like sugar. Did you know that 2 slices of whole wheat bread raise your blood sugar more than 2 tablespoons of table sugar?
3. Start the day with protein not starch or sugar.  Try whole omega-3 eggs, a protein shake, nut butters or even kippers! Skip the bagels, muffins and donuts.
4. Have protein with every meal – try nuts like almonds, walnuts or pecans, seeds like pumpkin, chia or hemp or have beans, chicken or fish.

Somehow we are still duped by the idea that all calories are the same. They are not. Hopefully soon the practice of nutrition and medicine, and our government nutrition advice will catch up with the science. Then perhaps we can make a dent in the tsunami of obesity, diabetes and chronic disease coming right at us.

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Does sex really count as exercise?  Should you set conservative weight loss goals of 5-10 pounds instead of 50?  Does adding a little bit of exercise regularly over a long period of time really add up to significant weight loss?

A recent analysis of weight loss research by The New England Journal of Medicine, entitled Myths, Presumptions, and Facts about Obesity, attempts to answer these questions.

Some findings are surprising, some are not, and some common notions about weight loss are yet to be proven or disproven.

So what are the top myths and facts about obesity and weight loss?

Myth #1:  If you make small changes in your lifestyle over the long term you will lose weight.

Most of us have learned that if we just cut our calories by 100 calories a day, or increase our exercise a little bit over the long haul, we will lose weight.  It’s all about the calories in or the calories out.

Sorry Mr. Newton, your laws of thermodynamics don’t apply in living systems.  Biology and metabolism are more complex.  If we just go with the math and burn an extra 100 calories a day by walking one mile or consume 100 calories less in 35 days, you would lose one pound (3500 calories = 1 pound).

And over five years you would lose 50 pounds. Yet, in studies they find you would lose only 10 pounds in five years.  This occurs because of changes in your metabolism and calorie needs as you lose weight.

Bottom line:  Big changes are needed to create big weight loss.

Myth #2:  Don’t set big weight loss goals because you will become frustrated and set yourself up for failure.

The fact is that if you set your sights on big weight loss, you have a better chance of losing a significant amount of weight than if you keep your goals “realistic”.  If you want to lose 50 pounds, then set that as your goal.

Studies have shown that if you don’t expect to lose a lot of weight, then you won’t!  Common sense, it seems, but conventional wisdom is to keep people’s expectations low because weight loss is hard and people will get frustrated if they fail to achieve their goals.  The truth is that you will only lose big if you think big.

Bottom line:  Set your weight loss goals high.  Don’t be realistic. If you set 10 pounds as your goal you might succeed, but if you need to lose 50 pounds you will fail. If you want or need to lose 50 or 100 pounds then name it. Own it.  And you will lose it!

Myth #3:  Don’t lose weight too fast or you will rebound and gain it all back.    

We have been taught that if you go for the quick fix, if you go for the rapid weight loss strategy, in the long run you won’t lose as much as if you go for the slow gradual approach.

Nonsense!

Studies show that if you drop weight quickly you end up with more weight loss in the end.  Mark Twain said, “The problem with common sense is that it is not too common.”

Bottom line:  Kick-start significant weight loss with dramatic shifts in your diet.  Try things like cutting out all sugar, flour, and processed food.

Myth #4:  You have to be ready to succeed and go through the “stages of behavior change.”

The science tells us that those who attempt weight loss without feeling ready still succeed.  You can act into the feeling instead of waiting for the feeling to act.  

Bottom line: Even if you don’t feel inspired, excited, or motivated to start taking care of yourself, just start anyway.  You are just as likely to succeed as someone highly motivated.

Myth #5:  Sex is good exercise.

Somewhere we all got the idea that sex was good exercise.

A vigorous love-making episode usually lasts about six minutes and burns about 21 calories.  If you just sat and watched TV you would burn 14 calories.   So find some other way to exercise or study tantric sex and make love for an hour.

Bottom line:  So find some other way to exercise or study tantric sex and make love for an hour.

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Even the most effective diet plans can be foiled by one or two missteps, and have you wondering why isn’t my diet working?

Here are the top 12 reasons why and how to fix them:

1. You Are Losing Fat, You Just Don’t Realize it

Weight loss isn’t a linear process. If you weigh yourself every day, then there will be days where the scale goes down, other days where it goes up.

It doesn’t mean that the diet isn’t working, as long as the general trend is going downwards. Many people lose a lot of weight in the first week of low-carbing, but it is mostly water weight. Weight loss will slow down significantly after that initial phase.

Of course, losing weight is not the same as losing fat.

It is possible, especially if you’re new to weight lifting, that you are gaining muscle at the same time that you’re losing fat.

To make sure that you’re losing, use something other than just the scale (which is a big, fat liar). Use a measuring tape to measure your waist circumference and have your body fat percentage measured every month or so.

Also, take pictures. Take note of how your clothes fit. If you’re looking thinner and your clothes are looser, then you ARE losing fat no matter what the scale says.

2. You’re Not Cutting Back on Carbohydrates Enough

Some people are more carb sensitive than others. If you’re eating low-carb and your weight starts to plateau, then you may want to cut back on carbs even further.

In that case, go under 50 grams of carbs per day.

When you go under 50 grams per day then you’re going to have to eliminate most fruits from your diet, although you can have berries in small amounts. If that doesn’t work either, going under 20 grams temporarily can work… eating just protein, healthy fats and leafy green vegetables.

To make sure that you’re really eating low-carb, create a free account on a calorie tracking app and log all of your meals.

3. You’re Stressed All The Time

Unfortunately, it isn’t always enough to just eat healthy and exercise.

We need to make sure that our bodies are functioning optimally and that our hormonal environment is favorable. Being stressed all the time keeps the body in a constant state of “fight or flight” – with elevated levels of stress hormones like cortisol.

Having chronically elevated cortisol levels can increase your hunger and cravings for unhealthy foods.

4. You’re Not Eating Real Food

A low-carb diet is about more than just lowering your intake of carbs. You have to replace those carbohydrates with real, nutritious foods.

Throw away all processed low-carb products like Atkins bars, they are not real food and they are NOT good for your health.

Stick to meats, fish, eggs, vegetables and healthy fats if you need to lose weight.

Also, “treats” like paleo cookies and brownies can cause problems even though they’re made with healthy ingredients. They should be considered as occasional treats, not something you eat every day.

What is also important is to eat enough FAT. If you try to cut back on carbs AND fat, you will end up ravenously hungry and feel like crap.

Eating a diet with nothing but protein is a very bad idea. Low-carb, high-fat and moderate protein is the way to go if you want to get into ketosis, which is the optimal hormonal environment to burn body fat.

5. You’re Eating Too Many Nuts

Nuts are real foods, no doubt about that. They are also very high in fat, almonds for example having about 70% of calories as fat.

However, nuts are very easy to overeat on.

Their crunchiness and high energy density give us the ability to eat large amounts of them without feeling full. I personally can eat a bag of nuts and still not feel satisfied, even though that one bag contains more calories than a meal.

If you’re snacking on nuts every day (or worse, nut butters) then chances are that you’re just eating way too many calories.

6. You’re Not Sleeping Enough

Sleep is incredibly important for overall health and studies show that a lack of sleep correlates with weight gain and obesity.

A lack of sleep can make us feel hungrier. It will also make us tired and less motivated to exercise and eat healthy.

Sleep is one of the pillars of health. If you’re doing everything right but still not getting proper sleep, then you won’t see anywhere near the results you might expect.

If you have a sleeping disorder, see a doctor. They are often easily treatable.

Some tips to improve sleep:

Avoid caffeine after 2pm.
Sleep in complete darkness.
Avoid alcohol and physical exercise in the last few hours before sleep.
Do something relaxing before sleep, like reading.
Try to go to bed at a similar time each night.

7. You’re Eating Too Much Dairy

Another low-carb food that can cause problems for some people is dairy. Some dairy products, despite being low in carbs, are still pretty high in protein.

Protein, like carbs, can raise insulin levels, which drives energy into storage.

The amino acid composition in dairy protein makes it very potent at spiking insulin. In fact, dairy proteins can spike insulin as much as white bread.

Even though you may seem to tolerate dairy products just fine, eating them often and spiking insulin can be detrimental to the metabolic adaptation that needs to take place in order to reap the full benefits of low-carb diets.

In this case, avoid milk, cut back on the cheese, yogurt and cream. Butter is fine as it is very low in protein and lactose and therefore won’t spike insulin.

8. You’re Not Exercising Right (or at all)

You should NOT exercise with the goal of burning calories. The calories burned during exercise are usually insignificant, they can easily be negated by eating a few extra bites of food at the next meal.

However, exercise is critical for both physical and mental health.

Exercise, in the long run, can help you lose weight by improving your metabolic health, increasing your muscle mass and making you feel awesome.

But it’s important to do the right kind of exercise. Nothing but cardio on the treadmill is unlikely to give you good results and doing too much may even be detrimental.

Weight lifting – this will greatly improve your hormonal environment and increase your muscle mass, which will help you lose weight over the long term.

Interval training – doing high intensity intervals is an excellent form of cardio that improves your metabolism and raises your levels of human growth hormone.

Low intensity – being active and doing some low-intensity work like walking is a great idea. The human body was designed to move around, not sit in a chair all day.

9. You’re Eating Too Many Sweeteners

Despite some sweeteners having no calories, they can affect our appetite levels.

Several studies show that artificial sweeteners can affect appetite, either negatively or positively, in some cases making people eat more overall calories.

Additionally, consumption of artificial sweeteners is associated with weight gain in the long term.

This probably depends on the individual, but if you’re eating a lot of sweeteners and aren’t losing weight then you may want to try removing them.

10. You’re Cheating Too Often

For people who are able to control themselves, having cheat meals or days every now and then may be fine.

For others, especially those who are prone to food addiction, having cheat meals is likely to do more harm than good. If you’re cheating often… either with “small cheats” here and there or entire days where you eat nothing but junk food, then it can easily ruin your progress.

Having more than 1-2 cheat meals per week (or one cheat day) is going to be excessive.

If you just can’t seem to control yourself around unhealthy foods no matter what you try, then perhaps you have food addiction. In that case, completely removing the junk foods from your life is probably a good idea.

11. You’re Eating Too Many Calories

At the end of the day, calories do matter.

One of the main reasons low-carb diets are so effective is that they reduce appetite and make people eat less overall calories without trying.

If you’re not losing weight but are doing all the right things, then try counting calories for a while.

Again, download a calorie tracker and track your intake for a few days.

Aim for a deficit of 500 calories per day, which theoretically should make you lose 1 pound of weight per week (doesn’t always work in practice).

12. You Don’t Have Realistic Expectations

At the end of the day, weight loss takes time.

It is a marathon, not a race.

Losing 1-2 pounds per week is a realistic goal. Some people will lose weight faster than that, others slower.

But it’s also important to keep in mind that not everyone can look like a fitness model. At some point, you will reach a healthy set point weight, which may be above what you initially hoped for.

If you’re looking for a plan to lose weight the healthy way, then try the HASfit Guide to Losing Fat.

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More and more people are starting to realize that the foods they put into their bodies directly affect their health and quality of life. This causes a real problem for food manufacturers who’ve spent billions building the infrastructures needed to produce these “food-like” compounds.

Their solution is just to rebrand these foods as healthy options and hope that the public can’t tell the difference.

Here are 10 junk foods that are dressed up as healthy:

1. Fruit Juices… Which Are Basically Just Liquid Sugar

A lot of people believe fruit juices to be healthy. They must be… because they come from fruit, right?

But a lot of the fruit juice you find in the supermarket isn’t really fruit juice. Sometimes there isn’t even any actual fruit in there, just chemicals that taste like fruit. What you’re drinking is basically just fruit-flavored sugar water.

That being said, even if you’re drinking 100% quality fruit juice, it is still a bad idea. Fruit juice is like fruit, except with all the good stuff (like the fiber) taken out… the main thing left of the actual fruit is the sugar.

If you didn’t know, fruit juice actually contains a similar amount of sugar as a sugar-sweetened beverage.

2. “Heart Healthy” Whole Wheat

Most “whole wheat” products aren’t really made from whole wheat. The grains have been pulverized into very fine flour, making them raise blood sugar just as fast as their refined counterparts.

In fact, whole wheat bread can have a similar glycemic index as white bread. But even true whole wheat may be a bad idea… because modern wheat is unhealthy compared to the wheat our grandparents ate.

Around the year 1960, scientists tampered with the genes in wheat to increase the yield. Modern wheat is less nutritious and has some properties that make it much worse for people who are intolerant to gluten.

There are also studies showing that modern wheat may cause inflammation and increased cholesterol levels, at least when compared to the older varieties.

Whereas wheat may have been a relatively healthy grain back in the day, the stuff most people are eating today is best avoided.

3. Processed “Low-Fat” and “Fat-Free” Foods

The “war” on saturated fat is the biggest mistake in the history of nutrition. It was based on weak evidence, which has now been completely debunked.

When this started, processed food manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon and started removing the fat from foods. But there’s a huge problem… food tastes horrible when the fat has been removed. That’s why they added a whole bunch of sugar to compensate.

Saturated fat is harmless, but added sugar is incredibly harmful when consumed in excess.

The words “low-fat” or “fat-free” on a packaging usually mean that it is a highly processed product that is loaded with sugar.

4. Sports Drinks

Sports drinks were designed with athletes in mind. These drinks contain electrolytes (salts) and sugar, which can be useful for athletes in many cases.

However… most regular people don’t need any additional salts, and they certainly have no need for liquid sugar. Although often considered “less bad” than sugary soft drinks, there really is no fundamental difference except that the sugar content is sometimes slightly lower.

It is important to stay hydrated, especially around workouts, but most people will be better off sticking to plain water.

5. Vegetable Oils

We are often advised to eat seed- and vegetable oils. This includes soybean oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil and numerous others.

This is based on the fact that these oils have been shown to lower blood cholesterol levels, at least in the short term. However… it’s important to keep in mind that blood cholesterol is a risk factor, NOT a disease in itself.

Even though vegetable oils can improve a risk factor, there is no guarantee that they will help prevent actual hard end points like heart attacks or death, which is what really counts.

In fact, several controlled trials have shown that despite lowering cholesterol, these oils can increase the risk of death… from both heart disease and cancer.

So eat healthy, natural fats like butter, coconut oil and olive oil, but avoid processed vegetable oils as if your life depended on it (it does).

6. Most Commercial Salad Dressings

Vegetables are incredibly healthy. The problem is that they often don’t taste very good on their own.

That’s why many people use dressings to add flavour to their salads, turning these bland meals into delicious treats. But many salad dressings are actually loaded with unhealthy ingredients like sugar, vegetable oils and trans fats, along with a bunch of artificial chemicals.

Although vegetables are good for you, eating them with a dressing high in harmful ingredients will totally negate any health benefit you get from the salad.

Make sure to check the ingredients list before you use a salad dressing… or make your own using healthy ingredients.

7. Low-Carb Junk Foods

Low carb diets have been incredibly popular for many decades now.

In the past 12 years, study after study has confirmed that these diets are an effective way to lose weight and improve health. However… food manufacturers have caught up on the trend and brought various low-carb “friendly” processed foods to the market.

This includes highly processed junk foods like the Atkins bars. If you take a look at the ingredients list, you see that there is NO real food in there, just chemicals and highly refined ingredients.

These products can be consumed occasionally without compromising the metabolic adaptation that comes with low-carb eating. But they don’t really nourish your body… even though they’re technically low-carb, they’re still unhealthy.

8. Agave Nectar

Given the known harmful effects of sugar, people have been looking for alternatives. One of the more popular “natural” sweeteners is Agave nectar, also called agave syrup.

You will find this sweetener in all sorts of “health foods,” often with attractive claims on the packaging. The problem with Agave is that it is no better than sugar. In fact, it is much, much worse…

One of the main problems with sugar is that it has excessive amounts of fructose, which can cause severe metabolic problems when consumed in excess.

Whereas sugar is about 50% fructose and High Fructose Corn Syrup about 55%, Agave contains even more… up to 70-90%. Therefore, gram for gram, Agave is even worse than regular sugar.

See, “natural” doesn’t always equal healthy… and whether Agave should even be considered natural is debatable.

9. Most Processed Breakfast Cereals

The way some breakfast cereals are marketed is a disgrace. Many of them, including those that are marketed towards children, have all sorts of health claims plastered on the box.

This includes misleading things like “whole grain” or “low fat.”

But… when you actually look at the ingredients list, you see that it’s almost nothing but refined grains, sugar and artificial chemicals. The truth is, if the packaging of a food says that it is healthy, then it probably isn’t.

The truly healthy foods are those that don’t need any health claims… whole, single ingredient foods.

Real food doesn’t even need an ingredients list, because real food IS the ingredient.

10. Gluten-Free Junk Foods

According to a 2013 survey, about a third of people in the U.S. are actively trying to avoid gluten. A lot of experts think this is unnecessary… but the truth is that gluten, especially from modern wheat, can be problematic for a lot of people.

Not surprisingly, the food manufacturers have brought all sorts of gluten-free foods to the market. The problem with these foods, is that they are usually just as bad as their gluten-containing counterparts, if not worse.

These are highly processed foods that are very low in nutrients and often made with refined starches that lead to very rapid spikes in blood sugar.

So… choose foods that are naturally gluten free, like plants and animals, NOT gluten free processed foods.

Gluten-free junk food is still junk food.

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