Weight Loss Plateau

Ugh

The dreaded Weight Loss Plateau.

Some people believe it's a myth. I personally don't. It's when you are doing you best, busting your butt. And the scale doesn't budge.

Some of it could be attributed to water weight. Carrying around a bunch of that can really halt your progress and cause your scale not to budge. Or even go up.

But I think a lot of it can be attributed to our bodies amazing ability to evolve and adapt constantly. If you do the same thing every day, eat the same foods and the same amount of calories, then your body is going to know exactly what it needs to maintain your current weight. And it will adjust your metabolism accordingly. I talk a little bit about this in my BMR and Starvation post.

I remember last May when I went to visit my sisters in California. My sister Jill who is an extremely active ultra runner, cyclist, and endurance athlete decided to go for a run while my little sister and I went to Yoga for 90 minutes. When she came back, I asked her how far she ran. She said, "10 miles". And I was floored. Not only would 10 miles be extremely difficult for me, it would probably burn 3000+ calories. And I said something to that affect and she said, "Well 10 miles for me isn't the same as 10 miles for you."

When I thought about it, she's right. My body is not used to running 10 miles and would take more effort, energy, and calories for me to do it. Her body has adapted to her running and exercising long distances so 10 miles does not require her to eat 3000+ calories a day. She probably can eat more than the average women, but doesn't need a ton more.

So how can we break through weight loss plateaus??

What worked for me is changing it up. Eating different foods, trying different exercises, eating a different number of calories. Try to keep your body, and metabolism guessing.

First, make sure you are not eating under your BMR and wrecking your metabolism. If that is the case, you may want to try reverse dieting and eating your maintenance TDEE for awhile to repair your metabolism. You may actually gain some weight at first, but you will be helping your body regulate it's metabolism, and then the weight will start to come off again.

Try eating fruits and vegetables that are in season. This is always a really good option as they taste better when they are harvested when they are supposed to be, as well as being on sale in the store. You can choose your favorites and go to town. Then switch it up every few weeks. Try new recipes, new foods, different percentage of Macro's (protein, carbohydrates, fats). Just mix it up.

If you run 5 miles every day your body will adapt to it. But lets say you really like running. That is fine, keep running. But switch it up every once in awhile with some Yoga, or Circuit Training, or Biking. Lift heavy weights 2 times a week. If you go to the gym and always do elliptical, try a zumba class. Don't give up what you love, but just add some variety to your workout routine. It will keep it interesting, and keep your body guessing.

Another option would be to try calorie cycling or carb cycling. I just recently started looking into this option so I don't know a ton about it. But basically for calorie cycling it is eating a different number of calories a day.

For example, lets say my TDEE -15% (lose about 0.5-1 lb's a week) was 2000 calories. 2000 x 7 = 14,000 calories a week. So I need to eat around 14,000 calories a week to meet my goal. So one day I eat 1600, one day I eat 2400, one day I eat 2000, one day I eat 1900, One day I eat 2600, one day I eat 1700, and one day I eat 1800. Then it still totals 14,000 calories for the week and met my goal for weight loss, but I ate a different amount of calories a day that kept my metabolism guessing. And I got 2 days where I could eat a lot more calories than I usually do for cheat meals or a dessert or something. You can do this and still lose weight!

These are some of the many ways to help break a weight loss plateau. But my best suggestion is to not get discouraged, and just wait it out. If you keep with your health goals, and stay within a healthy calorie restriction, you will lose weight. Just offer yourself some variety as well.

And keep referring back to those before pictures and progress pictures along the way. It will help you keep motivated to keep going when time gets tough.