Anyone who dares to embark on a weight loss journey needs to understand one very important fact, your body is going to fight you at nearly every step. The fact is many of us may be able to lose quite a lot of weight in the beginning – many times without much effort. However, weight loss will inevitably slowdown in the long run, and in the short run, you will experience bouts of time where your weight loss will stop all together for a while.
This is the point where most people throw in the towel thinking that their plan isn’t working any longer. This article was put together to help you understand what may be happening, and will also include some helpful tips on how to break through those dreaded but inevitable plateau periods that many of you weight loss seekers will experience.
1. You’re Losing Without Realizing it
If you think you are experiencing a weight loss plateau, please don’t start worrying too quickly and think your efforts aren’t working any longer. The fact is its incredibly common for the scale not to budge for a few days or even weeks at a time. This in no way means you’ve stopped losing body fat.
Body weight actually tends to fluctuate by several pounds even within the same day. This can depend on several factors including the type and amount of foods you’ve consumed as well as hormonal balance, which can have a major effect on how much water your body is retaining (especially in women).
Additionally, it is possible that you may be experiencing muscle gain at the same time as you’re losing fat. This is particularly common for individuals who have recently started some type of exercise regimen.
This is actually quite advantageous due to the fact that muscle is metabolically active tissue meaning it’s the physical place where calories and fat are burned for energy, and it is also 25 percent more dense than fat which means you can actually weigh more yet fit into smaller size clothes.
This is a major reason why it’s a good idea to use something other than the scale to gauge your progress. For example, keeping track of your waist circumference and getting your body fat percentage measured periodically are excellent alternative measures of your progress. Also, how well your clothes fit and how you look in the mirror can be very telling signs as well.
So, unless your weight has been stuck at the same point for 3 or more weeks you probably don’t have anything to worry about.
2. You’re Not Eating Enough Protein
Many of us don’t realize it, but protein is the single most important nutrient when it comes to losing weight. In fact, eating 30% of your daily caloric intake from protein has been scientifically proven to boost your metabolism by as much as 100 calories per day while also making you “automatically” eat several hundred fewer calories per day due to its satiating effect. It can also drastically reduce cravings and desire for snacking. (1, 2, 3)
A high protein intake also helps prevent metabolic slowdown and weight regain, two very common side effects of losing weight – especially while restricting your calories. (4, 5)
3. You’re Still Drinking Sugar
Sugar laden beverages are among the most fattening items we can consume. Our brains don’t compensate for the calories in them by making us eat less of other foods. (6)
This isn’t only true of soda; it equally applies to the so called “healthier beverages” like sports drinks and vitamin waters – which are also loaded with a lot of sugar. Yes, even fruit juices are seriously problematic, and should not be consumed in large amounts. In fact, a single glass of many of the fruit juices on the market today can contain a similar amount of sugar as soda! (7)
4. You’re Not Cutting Back on Carbs
If you are a person who is battling with major weight issues and/or if you are struggling with a metabolic abnormality like insulin resistance or type II diabetes, then you may want to consider severely reducing your carbohydrate consumption.
Many short-term studies conducted reveal that by reducing your carbohydrate consumption or using a typical low carb diet to help lose weight causes up to 3 times as much weight loss as the standard “low-fat” or “restrictive calorie” diets that are often recommended. (8)
In fact, it’s also proven that low-carb eating can also lead to improvements in many metabolic markers, such as triglycerides, HDL cholesterol and blood sugar, to name a few. (9, 10, 11)
5. You’re Not Drinking Enough Water
As I am sure most of us are aware, proper water consumption is highly beneficial to many of our body’s metabolic processes including weight loss.
In fact, in one twelve week weight loss study, people who drank a half liter or (17oz) of water 30 minutes before meals lost 44 percent more weight than those who didn’t. (12)
Studies also reveal that drinking water has also been shown to boost the amount of calories the body burns by as much as 30 percent over a one to two hour period. (13, 14)
6. You’re Drinking Too Much Alcohol
Alcohol consumption is as prominent in our social settings as eating. However, when you’re trying to lose weight it can wind up being an enemy. If you’re on a weight loss journey then it may be best to limit your alcoholic beverages to just one or two cocktails a few times per week.
Additionally, stick to spirits (like vodka) mixed with a non-caloric beverage (like seltzer). Beer, wine and sugary alcoholic beverages are very high in additional empty calories.
Also keep in mind that alcohol itself is very calorie dense at 7 calories per gram. In addition to its high caloric content, alcohol supplies no nutrients to the body, therefore it’s referred to as “empty calories.”
In studies conducted on alcohol and weight, there is conclusive evidence that more than moderate consumption has been linked to weight gain. (15)
7. You’ve Starved Your Body For Too Long
Dieting is a bad idea all together, especially if you are trying to restrict your calories for too long. In fact, if you’ve been dieting and losing weight for an extended period of time and have recently hit a plateau, perhaps it’s time to just take a break.
It may be a good idea to up your calorie intake by a few hundred calories per day while eating healthy foods. In addition to this it may be time to include a workout regimen into the mix as well. Set a goal of getting stronger and gaining a bit of muscle. In addition to that, aim to maintain your existing body fat level for about one month before you resume trying to lose again.
8. Your Expectations May Be Unrealistic
Weight loss is generally a much slower process than most people want. And although it is often possible to lose weight fast in the beginning, very few people can continue to lose weight at a rate of more than 1 or 2 pounds per week.
Another major problem is that many people have unrealistic expectations of what is achievable with a healthy diet and exercise. The truth is, very few people even have the genetic potential to look like a fitness model or bodybuilder no matter what their diet or training regimen is. Additionally, most of the photos you see in magazines and other places are often enhanced using Photoshop – so the reality is, even the people in those pictures don’t look like that.
If you have already lost some weight and you feel good about yourself, but the scale doesn’t seem to want to budge any further, then perhaps you should start working on accepting your body the way it is. The reality is, at some point, your weight is going to reach a healthy set point where your body feels comfortable. Trying to go beyond that point may not be worth the effort, and may even be impossible for you.
9. You’re Too Focused on “Dieting”
Diets are proven to almost never work, especially in the long term. In fact, studies actually show that nearly 80 percent of all the people who “diet” gain more weight over time (16)
Instead of approaching this from a dieting mindset, make it your primary goal to just become a healthier, happier, more vibrant person. Key your focus on nourishing your body instead of depriving it, and let weight loss follow as a natural side effect. If you take this approach you find it to be a permanent solution to having the body you want without ever having to diet again.
