Overcoming the Weightloss Plateau

How annoying is it when after losing the first 14lbs, you suddenly hit a brick wall and your weight loss virtually dries up. For many dieters it is the tipping point where they stop the train and get off - but it needn't be. Let's have a look at what causes a plateau, and how you can kick start your program again. When you start a new diet or fitness plan, you usually consume fewer calories but also burn more through exercise. 'Because you're expending more energy than you take in, your body turns those few calories for energy first, then you begin to burn stored fat quicker than before, when your calorie intake was higher.

However, like a finely tuned machine, your body settles into this new pattern of outgoing and incoming calories and gradually adjusts by burning fewer calories in order to safeguard its reserves.The result? Weight loss slows down as your body tries to retain fat stores so it can use its reserves as sparingly as possible.

It's at this point that you'll notice your eating and exercise efforts aren't producing results and that you can't seem to shift the weight any more. There is no exact science to just when this will happen - everyone is different. In my experience though, this will often come after losing between 14 and 21lbs. However, it can come at any time. Many body builders reach plateaus when trying to achieve % fat levels - the last 2 or 3 % is always the hardest.

So how do you overcome the weight plateau? As with everything to do with weight loss, it comes back to two areas: Look at your eating habits and change your exercise programme in a way that challenges your body.

Eating Habits;

Keep a food diary: If you've been following a diet plan for some time, you may be bored and your motivation for staying with it may be. Keeping a food diary, or a record of what you eat each day, will help you pinpoint situations where you might be indulging more than you realise and help you get back on track

Seek Support: Social support from a partner, slimming group, friend or website can provide essential help and emotional encouragement. And statistics show that people who have a support system tend to lose weight and keep it off, as they can share their diet ups and downs with others.

Revisit your goals: Are you trying to lose too much weight or shed the pounds too quickly? If so, your goals may be unrealistic. Dieters tend to lose most of their weight in the first few weeks, although most of this is water. After losing this initial weight, people tend to lose one or two pounds a week on average, which is still considered good progress (even a few pounds a month is good). Remember, if you are following a program that includes a decent exercise routine, you will be building muscle which weighs heavier than the fat you are shedding. Don't use the scales as your only guide to success - the tape measure will almost certainly show you you are still losing inches as your body reshapes. To put matters into perspective, one pound of body fat is equivalent to 500 calories, so to lose two pounds means cutting out 1000 calories, which is no small amount. Remember, you didn't put the weight on overnight, so you can't expect to take it off instantly either.

Be prepared: Always eat breakfast so you don't start the day feeling hungry, and make sure your environment complements your diet. This might mean taking smart snacks to work with you or filling your fridge with healthy foods so you're not tempted to eat things that might sabotage your diet.

Keep it varied: Some people find it easier to follow a monotonous, structured diet as there is little room to stray. However, others need variety to stay true to a plan. If you get bored easily, try looking at websites and books for new and interesting recipe ideas so you don't feel your diet is too tedious or depriving.

Eat little and often: Eating small meals frequently can help regulate your blood sugar and appetite. Also, as your body expends energy when digesting food, eating several mini meals a day can help boost your metabolism. Drinking water can also help fill you up and regulate your appetite. It's important to be sure you are getting enough water since many people can mistake thirst for hunger

Exercise:

As you start to get your nutrition and exercise right, your body will become more efficient and therefore you will need to change something to keep the calorie deficit occurring on a daily basis.
As you reach a good level of endurance fitness, the amount of calories you burn when say running or rowing, will essentially be far less then when you first started. As we improve, we develop an energy saving technique, which is great for our running or rowing performance but not so great in terms of burning calories. So, just keep your nutrition healthy and consistent and try one or more of the following suggestions to kick start your fat-burning potential

Weight training: The most successful way to achieve long-term weight loss/control is to increase the lean muscle tissue on our bodies and this is achieved through weight training. Whether you do a program in the gym or at home, use bodyweight, resistance bands, dumbbells, barbells or machines, it doesn't matter, as long as you fatigue the muscles so they respond and strengthen.The toning effect you achieve is great but more importantly, muscle tissue is alive and requires energy (calories!) 24/7 just to be on our body. It is because of this demand that muscle tissue increases the amount of calories you burn every minute, making it much easier to achieve a calorie deficit and subsequent body fat loss! So get yourself a resistance program, you could look to do a 30-minute workout at home prior to a run or alternate weight training days and running days.

Variety: With the way you train. Quite simply, make your body do things it's not accustomed to and it has to work hard and use lots of calories. Vary the type of exercise you do, exercise DVD's, classes, cardiovascular, weight training, circuit training combinations etc. If you give your body the same type of training you will only achieve the same result and the training becomes less effective, so spice things up!

Physical activity: Capitalise on the small things. Often we think the weight loss is achieved through exercise and nutrition and often we overlook what we actually do with our bodies for the entirety of a given day. Look at your daily routines and see what tiny changes you could make that would easily allow you to burn more calories through general activities. I.e. park further away from work/gym (why do people always try to park outside the door of a health club?!), cycle or walk to work if possible. Try an evening stroll after dinner 1-2 times a week if you don't already. Pump up the volume on your favourite music while you do the dishes, housework etc and get dancing; take the stars instead of a lift/escalator. These small things really DO make the difference because generally people's lifestyles don't encourage a lot of movement and we spend too great a time in a car, at a desk or on a couch.

Train more: If you train 3 times a week then consider 4 sessions. Whatever frequency of sessions you do a week, consider upping it, even by a mini session, a 30 min express workout!
Intensity: If you are enjoying your running or rowing, you could vary the intensities of your training sessions as this too will force the body to work harder and kick start your fat-burning potential. You could work at an intensity of 70-90% (or 8-9 out of 10 on a scale of your personal effort) for a lesser time 15-35 mins (you simply won't be able to train for as long at this intensity). The higher the intensity, the more calories that are burned in the session and the longer the metabolic rate remains elevated therefore using up more fat cells! Even though your duration is shorter you can still burn as many calories and actually burn more body fat in the following days.

Interval training: Alternatively, you could combine the above with a comfortable pace in a technique called interval training. Research suggests that females achieve the best cardiovascular improvements and body fat reduction through interval training. An simple example of this for running would be:

4 mins at 6-7 our of 10 in terms of self-rated effort2 mins at 8-9 out of 10 in terms of self-rated effort4 mins at 6-7 out of 10 in terms of self-rated effort2 mins at 8-9 out of 10 in terms of self-related effort4 mins at 6-7 out of 10 in terms of self-rated effort2 mins at 8-9 out of 10 in terms of self-related effort
In basic terms, you alternate between two different work rates which allows you to achieve calorie burning through intensity AND calorie burning through duration because the lower work rate allows you to partially recover and so train for longer.

Ideally try to incorporate all of the above into your exercise plan and you are absolutely going to be maximising your fat burning potential. It will allow you to get more consistency and continue with your great fat-loss success!

In my next post we look at exercises you can do at the office or around the home if you are a busy mum.