[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
Few things want to make you throw in that towel than a weight loss plateau!
You’ve been eating well and exercising sensibly. You have been gradually losing weight at a comfortable rate of speed . You’ve been humming along nicely for months now when suddenly everything seems to come to a screeching halt! …The dreaded weight loss plateau has arrived.
Your first tendency is most likely to eat less and exercise more to see if you can’t get the scale to budge. The problem with this approach is the body finds an extremes like this to be a threat. In return, it tries to protect you from yourself. To do this, it will slow down your metabolism just in case you continue to ask it to do more work with less fuel. It’s much like your car. If you put 20 gallons of gas in your car and expect it to take a road trip requiring 50 gallons of fuel, your car will certainly shut down when it is empty. The same will happen with your body. As you push and push your body to do more on less it will fight back. It feels threatened. In an effort to make your energy levels last, it will slow your metabolism to you don’t waste energy. The body doesn’t know the difference between you trying to lose weight to lose weight and a famine in the land.
Here are some things that you can do anytime you hit a weight loss plateau. Keep in mind that the key here is to work with your body rather than fight it.
Weight Loss Plateau Tip #1:
Adjust and Track Calories
I know that nobody wants to spend their life counting every single calorie, every single day however, once you know your numbers, you will get a clear picture of the adjustments you’ll need to make in order to get the improvements you want to see.
It is amazing how just a few extra calories can really hold you back from reaching your goals.
First, let’s take a look at the basic numbers of fat loss:
It takes 3500 calories to make a pound of fat. Or we can look at it like this – it takes a reduction of 3500 calories to lose a pound of fat. If you created caloric deficit of 500 calories per day you could potentially lose 1 pound per week. You can create a caloric deficit in a number of ways:
- Increase activity
- Less food intake
- A combination of the two (which I recommend).
Let’s do some math:
3500 cal = 1 pound
500 less calories per day x 7 days a week = -3500 calories = -1 pound of body weight
Remember this, we’ll be coming back to it in a moment
Here is a good rule of thumb to determine your caloric in take for fat loss:
Multiply your current body weight x 10 calories per pound
Let’s use this 200# woman as our example:
200# x 10 (calories per pound of current bodyweight) = 2000 cal per day
If this woman loses 20# her daily calorie needs will change. There is now less of her to provide energy to. This is where many people get hung up. They forget to recalculate their caloric intake for the new smaller, less demanding body they have.
Let’s recalculate for her:
180# x 10 (calories per pound of current bodyweight) = 1800 cal per day
She now requires 200 FEWER calories per day. Assuming she wants to lose more weight and she is keeping her current level of activity up, she will need to adjust her daily caloric intake to match this.
If she doesn’t she could possible gain just under ½ pound per week. Remember our equation fat loss equation above.
Let’s plug in these excess calories and see what happens:
200 extra calories per day x 7 days per week = 1400 excess calories
That’s about 4/10 of a pound per week (just under ½ pound). This will quickly add up to a 2 pound weight gain in a month’s time. Keeping in mind that she will probably freak out a little bit when the scale stalls and cut some calories here and there or throw in an extra workout on occasion. This may cause the scale to move back and forth in either direction still resulting in a weight loss plateau. Even if she doesn’t gain those 2# a month, she’s not losing anything and that is frustrating because she is doing the exact same things she did to lose the first 20#… everything except adjusting her calories!
Now, I’m not suggesting that you need to calculate every single calorie every single day. This would be quite time consuming. But, I DO recommend that you track calories for a week and then just a few days a week once you get a good picture of which meals carry how many calories. Calorie tracking is a great tool to keep you mindful of your eating habits, which can easily slip from time to time, and help you stay on top of your caloric intake
Weight Loss Plateau Tip #2
Patience for the last 10 pounds
To keep our sanity, we must remember that the body has evolved to hold extra pounds for survival purposes. In the event there is a famine in the land, or a baby on board, the body wants to have some reserve to survive on. The last 10 or 15 pounds can be difficult to lose and definitely require patience and 
sometimes kid gloves
I want to encourage you to not try to reduce calories too drastically or increasing exercise too much to lose the last 15 pounds. This may work for a short time but what happens when you hit the next stall? You can only reduce calories so far and still stay alive and healthy. A drastic reduction in calories will result in a metabolic slowdown ensuring future weight loss plateaus. Another important point to remember is that when the body feels threatened it begins to release stress hormones. These stress hormones are fat storage hormones. (I hope that was very motivating.)
I recommend starting with reducing by only 200-300 calories per day at first. If your body seems to be handling it well you can decrease a little more at a time. Too often we fall into the trap that fat loss is a math problem. Many people forget to put these important hormonal pieces into the equation.
If you have been drastically reducing calories try this to get your body back on track:
- Take a few rest days.
- Up your calories by 10% per week until you get to no more than a 300 cal per day deficit.
The most important mindset during these last 10-15 pounds is to give yourself time. The body likes subtle changes. It is so concerned about keeping the inside of your body safe and secure that it doesn’t care what the outside looks like on the outside. Think of it like this, if your lawn needs mowed but your house is on fire, you are certainly going to choose grabbing the fire extinguisher over the lawnmower keys! Your body feels the same way anytime something drastic happens. It wants to take care of your survival first and foremost.
Weight Loss Plateau Tip #3
Adjust your workout
There is a fitness concept that trainers use called the “overload principle”. This theory states that the body adapts to the loads applied to it. In order for the body to keep improving we need to constantly adjust our activities and apply new loads.
Over time, the body becomes efficient at what tasks you ask it to do. Swimming is a great example of this. When you first start swimming and your form isn’t very good, the body will have to expend a lot of energy to get you across the pool. When your strokes get better and better, the body won’t have to work as hard to get you from point A to point B. You will be eventually be burning fewer calories to get the same distance covered.
Here are they ways you can adjust your workouts to make make your body to adapt to the new loads applied to it.
Frequency – Increase the number of days you exercise.
If you have been working out 3 days a week try stepping it up to 4 days for a month and then 5 days in the month after that. Keep the changes coming but keep them gradual. Remember to listen to your body. Give it the recovery it needs. Strength happens in the recovery time.
Duration – You can also choose to adjust the duration of your exercise. I would approach this one with caution. Be careful not to increase the duration so much you’re actually causing damage. For general fitness, there really isn’t much need to do more than a 45 to 60 minute workout. If you only been jogging for 20 minutes you might try to increase your activity time by 20% more per workout each week until you hint the 45-60 minute mark (Example: Week 1: 20 minutes, Week 2: 24 minutes…) From that point you can increase the intensity of some of your workouts to continue to challenge the body
Intensity – Change up the pace or the level of difficulty of your workouts. You can do that by swapping your moderate pace cardio workouts on the elliptical trainer for shorter more intense High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workouts ( you can find some here on my You tube channel). Use a piece of exercise equipment that you find more difficult. Maybe the elliptical trainer has become fairly easy for you. You could increase the resistance, increase the ramp or even adopt a whole new machine that uses your muscles in a different way. The body will have to adapt to this new, more difficult activity, therefore burning more calories. Jumping rope is a great example of a new exercise that will challenge your body in a different way
Type – Change the type of exercises you participate in. If you are doing bodyweight exercises maybe it’s time to add some new movements to your routine. If you have been using the elliptical trainer for a year and maybe it’s time to move to the step mill or treadmill. Been swimming? Maybe it’s time to take up rowing or running. When you change up the style of your exercise the body will use muscle groups in a new way. Plus you’ll build muscles in places you haven’t been focusing on before
Shake up your weight training and cardio
When it comes to weight training you can shake up how you strength train. For a few weeks lift heavy weights with fewer repetitions, then shift to lighter weights and more repetitions.
You’ll want to consider changing the type of equipment you are using also. If you are only using bodyweight exercises right now, switch it up and add some external resistance by using resistance bands. If you have mastered resistance bands, make shift to dumbbell workouts for a few weeks. If you are using dumbbells, try barbells or even body
With respect to cardio, change machines or take new classes to get new movement and muscle groups into your routine.
Here’s a great body weight HIIT bonus workout for you to try:
But what if I am still stuck?
Now, if you have tried all of the above, you are eating well, you are not going to extremes with your nutrition and exercise, you are getting good sleep, you have reduced your stress and things still aren’t budging it may be time to consider the possibility of hormonal imbalance.
Here are a few of the potential hormonal issues you may find:
Reduced testosterone in men.
Testosterone is a muscle building, fat burning hormone. if your testosterone is declining then your ability to build lean muscle mass is reduced. Muscle is a very metabolic tissue. If your muscle mass is reduced your fat-burning abilities are reduced as well. Muscle fuels itself with your fat stores. Continually keeping muscle on your body is essential to create a healthy metabolism. Strength training can help you produce more testosterone but if you are lifting weights consistently and haven’t seen much improvement or feel muscle weakness, you may need to have your testosterone levels checked by a doctor.
Insulin resistance
Insulin resistance is a precursor to diabetes. It is a condition in which a person’s body has a lowered level of response to insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas that helps to regulate the level of sugar in the body. A constant state of high insulin, as a result of eating too many sugars and carbohydrates over time, can result in resistance. The insulin is being produced but the body isn’t using it properly. Insulin is a fat storage hormone so it may be what is causing your weight loss to stall. Again, a doctor can check this for you.
Thyroid – The thryoid plays a large role in energy levels and metabolism. A sluggish thyroid can be a culprit in slow metabolism. One thing to consider is that if you have been under a lot of stress that you have finally gotten under control but your fat loss is still stalled, a poor functioning thyroid can be playing a part.
PCOS – Polysystic Ovarian Syndrome is is a problem in which a woman’s hormones are out of balance. Often testosterone levels are out of whack. PCOS can also cause insulin resistance which as you read earlier will cause weight gain.
If you feel that hormonal imbalance may be the root of your problems, please see your doctor or naturopath to help you create a protocol that will get you back on track.
Hang in there!
If your weight loss has stalled please don’t throw your hands in the air and go back to your old ways. Try a few of these adjustments and see how they work for you.
Try not to be in a rush. Keep in mind that it will most likely take three to four weeks to see if any of these adjustments will make the difference you are looking for. I you give one a go for a month or so and you don’t see the scale move try another route.
Remember, don’t fight with your body, find ways to work with it so that it will work with you!
Do you need help boosting your calorie burn and accelerating results? Click HERE to join our Free 5 Day Metabolic Jumpstart Challenge!
[/av_textblock]
[av_social_share title=’Share this entry’ style=” buttons=” share_facebook=” share_twitter=” share_pinterest=” share_gplus=” share_reddit=” share_linkedin=” share_tumblr=” share_vk=” share_mail=”][/av_social_share]