One of the biggest reasons people give up on their weight loss journey is because they hit a plateau and struggle to get past it.
We’ve all been there…You have made some impressive progress in your weight loss journey.
In the first week, you might have lost over 5 pounds and maintained an average of 2-pound loss every week.
However, after months of dieting and/or exercising, it seems like you’ve hit a plateau, and you can’t lose any more weight.
This goes on for days maybe even weeks and what happens?
Well.. Most throw in the towel and more often than not end up regaining all the weight they lost… and more!
But it doesn’t have to be that way… The key is to take a breath and look at what could be causing it and then make some changes .
So Why Do We Hit Plateau’s? What’s going on?
The reason weight loss slows down or stops is multi-factorial and could be caused by a wide range of things. There are a few however that we’ve found to be the main causes for most people.
The biggest one… They are still doing the same things they did when they get started.
Now I get it if it ain't broke don't fix it right? Well if you’re stuck in a plateau it’s likely something needs to be fixed.
The reality is that just as you have changed what you are doing has to change too!
For example if you’ve lost 15, 20 heck 50 lbs then your caloric needs have gone down as well.
Thus you can’t continue to eat the same number of calories as you did while losing that weight because you’re body doesn’t need as many calories to function. Thus if you haven’t reduced the amount of calories you’re eating and/or upped calorie burn then that is most likely what is causing the stall!
Some other ones we often see include… continuing to do a low-intensity exercise routine, overestimating your caloric expenditure during workouts, and repeatedly cheating on your diet.
Regardless of the underlying mechanism, here are some helpful tips to get you out of this plateau.
How To Lose Weight Again
Change The Intensity of Your Workouts
The body has amazing adaptive properties that allow it to undergo anatomical and physiological modifications to handle new challenges.
For this reason, you might witness massive weight loss during the first few weeks of cardio or strength training, which gradually slows down as the body adapts to the current stress. Add to it a smaller body burns less calories while working out than a larger one does.
Therefore, to avoid this pitfall, you need to up the intensity to keep constantly challenging your body during workout sessions in order to keep the muscles and cellular machinery under sufficient stress, which eventually leads to more weight loss.
Change your diet
As we said things have changed and you diet needs to change too. Sticking to the same diet after hitting the plateau is another mistake made by beginners, even if they’re doing everything else correctly.
For instance, if you've been loosing weight eating 1600-1800 calories per day for over a year and then stop losing it's a good time to try and cut a few calories (100-200) and see if that kick starts things again.
Remember though.. SMALL changes are what to do not drastic ones like so many do.
Boost your metabolism
As we age, our metabolism gradually slows down, which may hinder your weight loss journey. However, this process also occurs when you switch to a sudden caloric deficit status since the body interprets it as a state of starvation.
To counter this phenomenon, you need to maintain an active lifestyle and perhaps trying consuming some foods that can naturally boost metabolism (e.g., green tea, coffee,).
While it may seem like they may not have a drastic effect they can increase your metabolism by 50-100 calories per day which just may get you over the hump.
Takeaway message
Maintaining weight loss after a long period is more challenging than the process of burning fat itself. If you’re stuck in a plateau try making these adjustments first, they’ll almost always get you over the hump and back to losing again
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