You hit a muscle plateau when you find that you have stalled. In the first weeks or months, you may lose weight considerably. And then you hit a snag. The weight loss stops. That tells you’re in a weight-loss plateau.
This is normal as the first days you rarely lose body mass. The body gets rid of the excess water in the body. The stalling should in essence encourage you to more workouts.
Weight loss plateau happens nearly to all who try losing weight. Don’t get surprised at hitting a plateau as it is common. When it happens you may lose hope or the motivation to continue. You’re not alone as it happens to all. Do slight adjustments and you’ll start losing weight again.
What causes a weight-loss plateau?
The first weeks may have given you great hopes but then you don’t see results. The rapid drop in weight may be due to water loss.
When you’re also cutting down on calories, the body recovers energy. The energy comes from the glycogen stored as fat. That’s the right thing in losing weight. When the fat gets burned, it releases the energy and water.
Because of the water loss and glycogen, the body seems to have lost weight considerably. There are muscles damaged as you lose weight.
The effect lasts until the stored energy is wasted away. Metabolism declines with loss of water and damaged muscles. The effect is slow to burn off calories and negligent loss of weight.
When you need energy you may eat with nearly the same calories you lose. This is a plateau because you’re eating the same calories you’re burning. Truth is you’re burning calories but at the same rate as the calories you’re consuming.
By now you’ll have lost the fat you wanted to be lost. But not enough to achieve the weigh you expected. At this point, you need to change either the workouts or the diet.
The physical intensity may increase or reduce the calories you consume. It’s therefore, time to change the strategy. But be sure you’ve hit a plateau first. Ensure you’ve been consistent with physical workouts and strict on your diet.
Getting Past a Weight-Loss Plateau
How do you break through a weight-loss plateau? Well according to you, everything you’ve done is right. Don’t stress yourself, just re-evaluate your exercising and you’ll breakthrough.
If the scales remain and you understand you’ve hit a plateau, then don’t slide back. You don’t need to get discouraged. Continue with that balanced diet and drink more water. You can also try using online communities like Noom to help stay motivated. Here’s a Noom Diet Review for you to see how it works.
However, you should recognize specifically what caused a plateau. It means you’ve lost all the weight with your current diet program. You’ve lost all the weight the current workouts can support. If you’re not satisfied with the results, then re-evaluate and change accordingly.
For further loss of weight consider the following tips to overcome a plateau.
- Re-evaluate your Habits.
The plateau may have been caused by your reluctance to follow through a plan. If that is the case, then recognize where you loosened rules.
Start again to follow the rules of workouts and the diet. The consistentency will reward you eventually.
- Reduce on the calorie-intake
The current loss of calories may not support the further loss of weight. How many calories are you consuming? Cut the daily intake considerably. If you’re consuming 1500 calories a day, reduce to 1200 calories. The 1200 calories are recommended daily intake and anything above is excess and maybe stalling your efforts.
The reduction of calories will reflect on the calories lost during workouts. Suppose you’re taking 1800 calories and burning exactly 1800 calories; there’s no gain. But reducing to 1200 calories you’ll lose 600 calories. What an achievement!
- Change Your Workout Plan
How much exercise are you doing per day? If 30 minutes daily, then you’ve outgrown that level. Start to double that time to 1 hour daily. The repeated workouts achieve more with days.
You can also increase the intensity of the exercises instead. The more intense workouts, the more calories burnt. This can achieve the same results within a short time.
- Increase the activities of your day.
The scheduled workouts are good for the burning of calories but the activities outside workouts contribute to weight loss or gain. After workouts, you’ll not just sit idle. That may hamper the gains achieved. You need to be busy and active.
Increase physical activity all day long. If possible walk more, clean your house and walk up and down the stairs at work. Avoid the elevator. The activity maintains the loss achieved and brain activity. After a workout, you get more starved and you may eat more than required. To avoid this engage your mind from thinking about food. Get out and clean the yard.
How to Avoid Getting there
To maintain the gains avoid reverting to the old habits. Maintain a healthy diet as you continuously engage in workouts. The nutrition is your key to opening the weigh-loss door. Work with a nutritionist and maintain the diet.
For the case of activity, you should not reduce exercises for a few lost pounds. Continue to burn calories at the same rate. The moment you relax all gains will be lost. Remember you can hit a plateau again and again. There is no enough weight loss to stop workouts. When healthy, continue exercising to maintain fitness.
