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Plateaus.

Yep, most people who have lost weight attest to hitting a plateau at some point.  What can you do?  First, it’s important to address the mental.  At this point it’s really easy to just give up and say “Oh well I must have bad genetics” or some other excuse.  Maybe you are fine with your body at your plateau and that’s WONDERFUL start working on maintenance. Not everyone wants to look superhero-ish, much less maintain it. But if you still want to love more weight and move beyond your plateau here are a few things you can try.

Change up your workout.  Have you been doing the same workout  routine for 8 weeks or more?  Time to change it up.  I usually change my workout every 4-6 weeks, sometimes every 2 weeks and on rare occasion every day.  Our bodies are amazingly adaptable and will adapt to whatever exercise program we throw at them.  Learn some new moves or lifts.  Increase your intensity.  Switch up your cardio machines at the gym.  Try some new classes at the gym.  Pick up a new sport.  Now is as good as time as ever to pick up a racket if you have always wanted to learn to play tennis.  If you are not doing resistance training START!  This will definitely get you past your plateau.  If you are already strength training are you really challenging yourself every workout or can you take it up a notch?  Give metabolic resistance training a try if you haven’t.  HIIT cardio anyone?

Be HONEST with yourself about your diet.  Calorie counting gets a bad wrap but I have found it extremely helpful.  Try writing everything down again for a few days.  It’s easy to not count all the “extras”, the crust off your kid’s grilled cheese (ahem), cookies at the open house, soda, the sucker at the bank, ect.  The extras really do add up.  A pound of body fat is 3500 calories.  To lose a pound you need to create a deficit of 3500 using diet and exercise.  That’s 500 calories a day you need to cut out of your diet and you could easily eat the an extra 250 or more by grabbing a pastry from Starbucks.

Change up your caloric intake.  If you’ve been honest with your diet and you haven’t been doing the same Jane Fonda workout for the last 20 years then you might want to try cycling your calories.  This simply means you have lower calorie days and higher calorie days.  As an EXAMPLE, you might eat 1700 calories on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.  Tuesday you might eat 1500.  Thursday you might eat 1800 and Sunday 2000.  Again those are examples every body has a different metabolism but you get the point.  It doesn’t have to be rocket science.  It could be as simple as adding a bagel Ezekiel bread to a few breakfasts a few times a week.  The idea is to keep your body’s metabolism guessing.

Mess with your macronutrients.  This isn’t for everyone, especially for those who struggle with disordered eating, but it has worked wonders for me in the past.  I always start by having a couple of lower carb days a week.   For instance, on Tuesday and Thursday I might cut out all carbs except green veggies after 2 pm.  Or if my carb intake is already reduced I may try adding some more carbs usually in the form of fruit a few days a week.  This approach is best left for those who are really wanting to lose a few more vanity pounds or for those of us who love counting and charting.

Most importantly, be patient with yourself as you work to push pass your plateau.  I have noticed that I hit a plateau at about every 4 or 5 pounds I lose.  After a few weeks at the same weight, my body just seems to unstick itself and lose a few more until it decided it’s going to stop again.  Annoying? Yes. But my metabolism doesn’t know that there is a restaurant on every corner or grocery stores the size of small airports.  My body believes it is saving me from the next famine.

When, Brent put my October picture up and, at first, I was super critical of myself. (Imagine that) I thought about abandoning my entire blog so I didn’t have to put it up. Why?  I don’t really see much change except I’m even WHITER. (I didn’t think that was possible.) Perhaps my abs may be showing a little more definition but it’s not an obvious change like earlier photos. Honestly, it’s a little disappointing knowing how hard I’ve been workings.  But it happens.

If you have any advice on how you broke through your plateau I’d love to hear it!

Hugs and High Fives,
jenn

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