By Why Weight Loss Suddenly Halts, And What Habits May Be Holding You Back
Stalls in fat loss are a natural part of the journey.
Unfortunately, It’s also the most frustrating time in a dieting phase. You put all that effort into clean eating, exercise and doing all the right things necessary — then the inevitable happens. The scale stops moving, You still have love handles, or your clothes are still not shrinking. You may feel bloated, sluggish and well and indeed over this “dieting thing.” It just never seems to end. I know, I’ve been there all too many times before, and I have to tell you, the reason why I kept playing out the same scenario is this (and it may surprise you too). I wasn’t as honest as I possibly could with myself. You might be scratching your head with this one, so let me go into a bit more detail without telling you the natural science about calories (because no doubt you have read it all before, and it’s just fluff. You want to get to the good, meaty and juicy info.) Most of the time, your fat loss stalls because of an error in monitoring food portions and calories.
Surprise surprise!
Most people are so quick to cut out calories, do excessive cardio or train for hours on end. The real problem here is the mismanagement of calories eaten daily (and how much that particular food contains) day in day out!
Unfortunately, the sad truth is that the following aspects of your nutrition may be hindering your weight loss potential:
One: You are eating high-density foods often, and more so in excess (think nuts, oils, anything fatty that in lot can pile on the kgs). Two: You fail to see certain foods as the potential cause because they make you feel good, and you believe it won’t hurt — or worse, they are healthy, and it doesn’t matter. Three: You may leave out snacks, as you are a nibbler, rather than a person who sits down to a meal — these can quickly become harder to track and cut you down to size when it comes to weight loss. If you are struggling to diagnose the stalled fat loss, I have good news for you. It’s conquered easily — but not quickly, unfortunately. Body composition changes can take a little while to start appearing, and one day before you know it (if you follow the correct nutrition protocol), you will see beautiful results. Let’s get into cracking how to diagnose and abolish this stalled fat loss garbage and get on with the hard work. Four questions to ask yourself if weight loss is stalling.
Are you hitting your daily move goals (minus your workout)
Usually, when you diet, your erratic movements throughout the day may start to decline. This is the bodies natural way to preserve calories — because they are not as abundant during this phase. Non-Exercise Thermogenesis (NEAT) is the energy we expend in everything we do — not related to working out. This can range from walking, yard work and even fidgeting. The natural juice factor here is that it has an accumulative effect. All this accidental movement every single day adds up to the more considerable energy expenditure.
Calories burned during one day of NEAT are as little as 100 and as high as 700.
With this method, you have the potential to burn more calories per day than exercise for the average person. Treat NEAT like gold and use it to your complete potential daily.
Are you monitoring your macros accordingly?
This isn’t only about weighing your food (as you have to be accurate if you want to get some seriously fantastic body composition results). You also have to be consistent with meals. As a former competitor, I was never as consistent as I should have been. There was a lot of force-feeding and overeating at the worst of times, which made the journey challenging. Throwing in some higher calorie days to offset the stringent compliance helps quench those dietary woes and stay the course. There is no point in making it harder to stick with a diet.
Did you take a diet break in the last 12 weeks?
Long term dieting gets hard from the 6–12 week mark. Taking a break is not only suitable for your results moving forward, but there is a benefit on your physiological state too. The 6–12 week mark is when you need to take a bit of a break — and it’s necessary if you see zero results. There may be times when you are doing everything right, but you may need to increase your cardio (step count and possibly cycling) and perhaps decrease carbs. But, don’t do that until you have exhausted all avenues — including taking a break.
Did you change your macros less than a couple of weeks ago?
When you adjust anything, it takes a decent amount of time to notice the changes. So if it’s been less than two weeks, you need to be patient and allow it a bit more time. On the other hand, if it has been more than two weeks and you don’t see any adjustments, perhaps you need a diet break. There are lots and lots of different alternatives to go through and understand what the problem is. I would recommend hitting one aspect at a time, giving it a couple of weeks and then trying another one. So hang in there -we are not linear fat loss beings, and we can’t always get it right..