It’s what everyone dreads in the early stages of a diet. The weight loss stalls and you feel like giving up. It can be frustrating when you’re making great progress and then suddenly hit a brick wall with your weight loss.
Here are some tips for preventing, or breaking through the plateau.
Understand Your Body
You’ve just made a major diet change, and your body is pretty surprised. Even though you may have lost a good amount of weight in the first few weeks of your diet, your body is still adjusting. As long as you’re not gaining weight, and you are just stuck at the same weight, it’s usually a normal part of the process.
They key here is to not give up. What many people do is get so discouraged and eventually quit altogether. Stay on your plan and don’t give up. Most likely your body is just getting used to your new lifestyle.
Double Check Your Plan
While a plateau can be a normal part of the process while losing weight, it can also be a reaction to a bad diet. By bad diet, we are referring to a diet that is not balanced in macronutrients and is restrictive in calories. That type of diet will send your body into survival mode, and stalling weight loss is part of the protection strategy.
Make sure you are on a plan that is specific to your metabolic type. Don’t know yours yet? Click here to take the short quiz and find out!
Make Small Changes
While it’s best to stick with what you have been doing to lose the first few pounds, it may also be a good idea to make small changes. The key word here is small. Don’t make the mistake of drastically lowering your calories or pushing yourself 5 times harder in the gym. These huge changes will send your body into shock, making you store more fat.
Small changes that may help are tweaking your exercise program and adjusting your meal plan. Are you mainly lifting weights? Try adding in 10 minutes of cardio at the gym. Are you only doing cardio? Include some weight lifting, or even body weight exercises like squats and push-ups.
As far as your meal plan, you can slightly adjust your calories and your macronutrients. Losing weight is not a one size fits all approach. While you may think decreasing your calories is the way to go, increasing your food intake might boost your metabolism even more.
Hydrate
You may have been committed to drinking your recommended ounces of water every day in the early weeks of your diet, but have you fallen off? Drinking lots of water takes dedication, and it can be one of the first things people start to slack on. Make hitting your water goal just as important as your food goals.
Reflect
It can be easy to get comfortable on a diet after a few weeks, and maybe we slip up a bit. Look back on those weeks that you were losing inches and pounds consistently. Now compare them to the current week. Notice anything different?
Were you consistently meal prepping, following an exercise routine, getting support from others, less stressed? All of these things can make a major difference in your weight loss results. Start fresh, as if it was your first week. Remember that you are making a huge life change and it will only get easier!
If you’re struggling with a weight loss plateau and you need more support and guidance, we have a plan just for that. Managed Plans is a program that gives you access to your own personal nutritionist. With weekly appointments, you’ll get the nutrition advice and support you need to reach your goals! Click the button below to book your initial consultation.
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