Today is another day where I am feeling stuck. After almost three months of seeing the same numbers, I'm starting to really wonder if I'm stuck here for good. I still have so much more to lose and I just can't seem to shake this plateau. So, off I decided to listen to a few more Fat 2 Fit podcasts and what do you know? I caught up to the one about weight loss plateaus. I thought the information may be useful to others, and as a reminder to myself. So here are my notes from the Fat 2 Fit podcast regarding breaking weight loss plateaus.
Causes of plateaus:
1. Not eating enough
2. Giving up on diet/exercise and/or not trying as hard
3. Dieting 2-3 months and body stops losing
Breaking a plateau:
1. Eat at maintenance or slightly above for at least 1 week
2. Try zig-zagging: eat more one day, lower another day (e.g. 1500 one day, 2200 the next, for avg. of 1800 per day)
3. Change your diet and exercise regime. Try eating more protein, or adding interval training.
Ways to avoid a plateau:
1. Moderate calorie restriction - never more than 500 below maintenance
2. Exercise
3. Take time off from dieting such as once a week, one meal a day, etc.
4. Don't let your body adapt to a specific workout routine - change things up by increasing intensity/speed, trying different machines, etc.
5. Eat more often throughout the day to speed up metabolism
Our bodies are designed to keep us alive through times of famine. So to avoid a plateau, we need to keep it guessing. If a plateau does sneak in, we need to show it that we aren't really in any danger by shaking things up a bit.
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