Can you say FRUSTRATING? After your initial weight loss, your progress slows down and may even seem to eventually stop, even though your exercise and food intake is consistent. Believe it or not, the very efforts you made to burn more calories when you began may eventually be slowing it down now that you’ve been at it awhile. Check out these 5 questions you should ask yourself when you’re trying to BUST through a plateau:
# 1. Are you lowering your calories too much?
There are 3500 calories in a pound of stored body fat. Every 3500-calorie deficit equals the loss of one pound. The calorie deficit can be created through diet, exercise, or preferably both. Cutting calories too much slows down the metabolic rate, decreases thyroid output and causes loss of lean mass, so the question is how much of a deficit do you need? The most common guideline for calorie deficits for fat loss is to reduce your calories by at least 500, but not more than 1000 below your maintenance level. For some, especially lighter people, 1000 calories may be too much of a deficit. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that calorie levels never drop below 1200 calories per day for women or 1800 per day for men. You can also check out one of the many caloric intake calculators online, like this one from Livestrong.com.
# 2. Are you losing your lean body mass? Next to the organs and the brain, your muscle mass is one of the biggest consumers of energy in the body, and the more you have, the better your fat loss. Lean body mass uses five times the calories as fat mass, so, if you lose it, your metabolism drops and your weight loss stops. Make sure your exercise program is combined with a fully nourished body, as well as some weight training, so you build muscle while losing fat.
# 3. As you drop the pounds, are you challenging the “new you”? When you weigh less, it takes fewer calories to move your smaller self, so you need to maintain your weight routine, and not just rely on cardio, cardio, and more cardio. Starting (or continuing) a weight routine/program will help increase lean body mass, which can help compensate for the loss of calories. The body is smart, though, so beware…make sure you constantly change it up or you won't be challenged, and your results will slow down. A program like P90X is perfect for this, as it builds in “muscle confusion” for this exact purpose.
# 4. Is the Honeymoon ('Adaptation' Phase) Over?
When you start a new exercise program, your body responds because it is required to make numerous changes to adjust to different workloads. So, your muscles are rebuilding themselves and this consumes all kinds of calories. But, at some point your body will stop adapting to the new workload and, as a result, you burn less calories for the same activity level. You can combat this by not allowing your body to get used to the exercise. Maintain your body's adaptation period by changing the intensity, duration, frequency and/or the mode of exercise and include interval training, if necessary. The HIIT (high intensity interval training) in Turbo Fire was designed with this target in mind.
# 5: Are you “boring” your body? The more you do something, the better you get at it. As your body becomes better at performing your exercises, it can actually use fewer calories during the exercise. Think of it this way: trained athletes often use fewer calories than untrained athletes with similar body types and workouts. So, if this describes you, consider yourself a trained athlete and read on!
The solution to this is the same as for Question #4; don't get used to the exercise. Concentrate on more dramatic changes such as trying brand new activities. For example, if you use the treadmill for two weeks, switch to something different like the rowing machine or the bike. Don't forget to make changes in your weight training routine as well!
With these tips in mind, you’ll be able to get back on that weight loss train and see the plateau finally BUST through! Good luck and good health!
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