By When you get on that weight-loss roll, and then everything stops
I don’t know one person who hasn’t experienced weight loss and muscle building plateau. First of all, you start fresh along your weight loss journey, and as the scale begins to fall, you feel great. You’re doing all the right things, and you begin to see a difference in the fitting of your clothes. Perhaps you might even see some subtle changes to particular parts of your body. Everything goes so well — and then BAM. The scales don’t move in a week, two weeks or a month. So maybe it’s gone up, then you panic! You’ve been doing all the right things, sticking to your plan of action with nutrition and food — then this happens. Weeks pass, and still nothing. So now, where to from here? This situation sounds familiar to a lot of us. But, unfortunately, it becomes very discouraging and might get us moving closer towards giving up. I know I have several times -and it’s been tough going. But let me tell you something important — plateaus are normal. You are not unique, odd or have something wrong with you. As your weight drops, your body changes, and so does your nutritional needs. Here are a few reasons why weight loss begins to stall & what to do about them.
One: During the weight loss journey, you are not only losing some body fat, but muscle disappears as well
It’s is a shame because muscle is so important in maintaining and increasing our metabolic rate. Through dieting alone, we can lose up to 25% of muscle. Stop this from happening by. The only thing you can do is lift weights and make sure you eat enough protein to support this. Weight training should be a part of your training three times a week.Fire Up Your Metabolism & Stay Lean All-Year-Round In Four WaysBuild muscle to stay lean & athletic for lifemedium.com
Two: You may have overestimated how much food you need
This is hard, especially when you are new to weight loss. You have to ingest fewer calories than you burn continuously. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to decrease your food intake — but instead make more intelligent food choices. To increase your chances of eating well but not overcompensating, make sure you eat enough protein and vegetables. Both of these sources will help you to maintain a steady flow of energy and stop you from feeling so hungry all the time! How to overcome this: My favourite foods are the following:
- Eggs
- Chicken
- Anything that’s a green veggie
- Fats like avocado.
Please include them in your meal plan as often as possible, and use herbs and spices to create a point of difference when you feel like you’re eating the same thing daily.
Three: You have reached your body set point
Our bodies work hard to maintain a particular set point in weight throughout our lifetime. The point at which the body is comfortable performing all of its primary needs without an effort. Many of us get to that point and become completely stuck. It takes some experimentation to get through this phase, but to be honest with you, this is usually the place our body stubbornly stays transfixed. It takes a mightly effort to sustain this setpoint level and may result in extreme weight gain with deviation. I’m not new to this phase because I mastered the lowest setpoint as I competed in bodybuilding shows. However, as soon as you waver, the weight gain comes about. Sometimes it can become an even more significant challenge losing that weight gain. How to overcome this: My advice is to ask yourself if it’s the weight you need and want to be at. If the answer is yes, you must be willing to push through this phase and make some high-level changes to your nutrition. I can’t tell you what that would be, as it’s dependent on the individual. But, if you are willing to live your life like this, then keep doing it. Having a competitive body all year round without some genetic advantage is hard going — but not impossible. Overall, one significant factor I’d like to point out (because it’s happened to me) is that we can sometimes let our guard down a bit throughout our weight loss phase. One day turns into weeks of overeating or indulging in those naughty treats. Eating more than you need to will result in weight gain; therefore, we need to be somewhat careful not to get too comfortable. Weight gain can creep up months down the track if we don’t monitor our portion control or eat a whole food diet (not to mention skipping training sessions). Four Simple Tips to Help You Lose Weight That Little Bit FasterIt’s the simple things that are often the most effectivemedium.com It’s natural to experience all of these transitional weight loss periods — the best thing to ride the tide with your diary in hand and be completely honest with yourself. So please sit down and commit to prioritising this and doing whatever it takes to get there (within reason, of course). With that attitude, I guaranty you will become unstoppable.
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