The 3 Nutrition Mistakes Killing Your Progress (Even When You Think You're Eating Well)

Published: 3 June 2026 · By Bruno Dalledone

Almost every client I work with at the start of our programme describes their diet as "pretty good". And almost every one of them is making at least two of the three mistakes below.

Mistake 1: Protein is inconsistent across the week, not just the day

Muscle protein synthesis is stimulated by protein intake and then returns to baseline within a few hours. For body recomposition goals, consistent protein across 3–4 eating occasions per day matters as much as the daily total. Weekly consistency is equally critical — a week with three high-protein days and four low-protein days will not produce the same outcome as a week averaging steady intake every day.

Mistake 2: Treating restaurant meals as caloric unknowns

Restaurant meals are typically 30–50% higher in calories than they appear. Over four or five restaurant meals a week — not unusual in a City role — that gap compounds significantly. The fix is learning what a high-protein, reasonable-calorie option looks like at your most common venues and building a small mental shortlist of reliable defaults.

Mistake 3: Compensatory eating after a hard training session

Exercise suppresses appetite acutely, then dramatically increases hunger several hours later. For morning trainers, this creates a pattern: train early, feel fine through the morning, then arrive at dinner extremely hungry and overeat. Post-workout nutrition within an hour of training significantly blunts the appetite spike that otherwise arrives at 8pm.