What to Do About a Weight Loss Plateau
Whenever you’re on a weight-loss journey, there typically comes a point that you’re having trouble making noticeable progress. During the most difficult among them, known as the plateau stage, it might feel like you’re not making any progress at all, and won’t again any time soon.
While this can be frustrating, it’s important to know that this stage will come and go when you figure out the cause of it. Losing weight is scientific, so there’s likely a good reason that you stopped seeing progress, and we’ll get to the bottom of the most common issues.
These tips will serve you when you’re going through a weight loss plateau and will help you when you want to get to the other side of it.
Re-Assess Your Goals and if You’re Exerting Yourself Enough
There are several weight loss plateau causes, so make sure first off that you cross the most fixable one — your effort.
The thing about fitness is that the workout that used to be an all-out killer that left you exhausted and dripping with sweat will someday feel like a warmup. Your body is meant to get stronger and better, so you need to be making your workouts increasingly difficult to give you new challenges.
Otherwise, you’ll more or less stay the same, rather than putting on more muscle and burning less fat. If you’re doing the same workouts that you’ve been doing for a while, your heart might be in the right place, but you simply aren’t exerting yourself enough.
Figure Out if You’re Getting Enough Rest
If you’re struggling to figure out how to overcome a weight loss plateau, you also might not be getting enough rest. It’s the rest that allows your changes to set in after you have been working out consistently.
Make sure that you get about 7 or 8 hours per night so that you can restore your energy, build muscle, burn fat, and more. People that aren’t seeing tangible results might be skimping on sleep and getting in the way of their own progress.
Check Out Your Nutrition Intake and Document It
Taking care of your personal nutrition is impeccably important if you’re trying to improve your health and fitness. When you first have a lot of weight to lose, it’ll naturally melt away even if you aren’t eating as clean as you could.
There always comes a point that eating a poor diet will catch up to you and make it difficult for you to get any substantial results. Make sure that you cut out processed foods and fried foods as much as possible. A lot of these foods have filler and additives that will cause you to deal with issues.
Take the time to document every meal that you eat each day so that you aren’t overlooking problem areas that you can cut out. Instead, fill your diet with foods that are nutritious and that help you to get results out of your health and fitness.
Get the Help of a Personal Trainer
When you have a personal trainer, you’ll be more likely to push through plateaus and hit your fitness goals. No matter how overweight you are, it happened because you overlooked the importance of nutrition, had bad information, dealt with emotional trauma, or otherwise found it difficult to put in the work.
Trying to fix all of these issues by yourself can cause you to run into roadblocks. It’s difficult to see your own blind spots, but a personal trainer is a much-needed set of eyes that will help you push through to the finish line. They also give you the accountability to show up each day and work hard, especially since you are paying for their services.
Above all, a trainer has the expertise and experience to get whatever goals you have.
Add More Activity In-Between Your Workouts
Make sure that you think bigger than simply the time that you’re putting into your workouts. You burn calories in your regular life as well and should add an uptick of activity in these areas.
Take the time to walk more in your everyday life. Consider walking for errands that aren’t far from your house, and take the time to walk a half-hour once or twice each day, no matter what you have going on. Park far away from the store so that you burn more calories coming in and out.
When you’re out and about, make sure to use the stairs rather than the elevator. Become more mobile in your daily life and it’ll pay off across the board.
Manage Your Macronutrients
Make certain that you’re also breaking down every food item based on the nutrients that you’re taking in. Keep track of your macronutrients, which are fats, carbohydrates, and protein.
When you use a fitness app, it’ll log your meals and compare them to your goals, so that you know exactly how much of each macronutrient you will need to find success. It’ll also let you know which to cut out or reduce. Many people struggle with weight loss because they ingest too many carbs each day.
Make Changes to Get Through a Weight Loss Plateau
The tips above are useful if you happen to be dealing with a weight loss plateau and need answers. No matter how much weight you need to lose, these factors will serve as pillars to assist you in your journey.
Rely on us for your training and nutrition needs. Take time out to contact us and call us up at either (617) 577-1100 or (617) 945-2708.
