Hit a Weight Loss Plateau? Here’s How To Break Through It

I’ve tried a lot of short-term and long-term, successful and unsuccessful diets in my life. What feature unites all of these endeavors? I’ve reached a weight reduction plateau in each and every one of those initiatives after a given amount of time. The way I handled the weight reduction stall influenced whether or not the diet was bearing fruit.

You will discover how to deal with these inevitable obstacles on your trip and how to bounce back in this post.

Why You Stop Losing Weight?

Our bodies dislike releasing their stored energy.

It’s quite improbable that we had an ancestor that was joyfully exerting himself in a setting with limited food supplies. Instead, the ancestors of modern humans who hunt and gather avoided energy loss.

Even for the most experienced athletes, the initial few minutes of exercise are usually difficult. Former Navy Seal David Goggins, who has completed many nonstop 100-mile marathons, said the following regarding running:

With that comprehensive statement, Mr. Goggins is letting us know that anyone who uses too much energy for no obvious reason other than survival will experience bad emotions.

The key idea here is that reaching a plateau is common. It’s excellent that our genomes have evolved to store energy rather than use it inefficiently.

However, we must first determine whether we have actually reached a plateau or whether our minds are deceiving us into thinking we have.

Is It Really a Weight Loss Plateau?

A young, ambitious man once complained to me about his lack of weight reduction success at the gym I oversee.

He followed a tight and sustainable diet for two months, but the scale only indicated a modest loss of 4 pounds. He adhered to his trainers’ instructions to the letter but was unable to achieve the desired outcomes. He even requested a refund since he felt duped.

I immediately asked if the scale was the sole method he assessed his development, and he confirmed that it was. This indicates that he wasn’t accounting for weight gained through gaining muscle.

As it turned out, the regular gym goer did have success. He also received praises from his friends and family because of how happy he was with what he saw in the mirror. However, he primarily focused his achievement on the loss of body weight, which means he measured his contentment by an unimportant figure.

This is not how you should go about it, and it is certainly not how you should determine whether you have reached a weight loss plateau.

How to Move Past a Weight Loss Stall

Following confirmation that you have, in fact, reached a plateau, use the following steps to overcome it:

1. Take a Look at Your Goals

This old phrase rings especially true in the modern world. To be on the proper route, you must know where to go. You must therefore set your goals in writing before beginning this weight-loss quest.

If not, this would be a good time to start. Reevaluate your goals and motivations. Since we are rational beings, we require a motivational factor in order to keep working toward our goals.

Action:

Take at least 10 minutes out of your day to complete this step. Sit quietly in a corner with a pen and paper. This is the simplest step and is most likely the one that will significantly alter your life.

2. Modify Your Behavior

If we stick to a diet long enough, we frequently allow our behaviors to deteriorate without even realizing it. Unconsciously, we increase the size of our portions, exert less effort at the gym, and purchase unhealthier meals.

I recently went on a diet in preparation for a quick trip to Italy, but I struck a weight loss plateau. I had a hard time figuring out the cause until I realized that I had began eating two breakfasts every morning instead of the customary one. One before and one after the morning workout.

This happens frequently during dieting. We are deluding ourselves before we excuse our actions. We excuse it by saying that it was an isolated incident or that “I’ve earned that donut; it’s the way I treat myself.”

Our brains are excellent at deviating from our intended course because losing weight goes against our deeply entrenched habit. We must therefore reevaluate our objectives and modify our behavior as necessary.

Action:

Take pictures of every meal and beverage you consume during the day. Are these in line with your objectives? Are you satisfied with the foods you consume?

Be sincere with yourself because if we don’t support our goals with the appropriate behavior, they cease to exist.

3. Exhibit urgent patience

Your odds of already overcoming the weight loss plateau are fairly good once you’ve adjusted your eating and exercise routines.

You must exercise extreme patience right now. When referring to the business world, Gary Vaynerchuk[1] uses this expression. It implies that while acting patiently on a larger scale, you must act quickly on a minute-by-minute basis.

Action:

Give it your best shot and stick to the tried-and-true methods mentioned above for at least two weeks. Reevaluate your behaviors and goals in step 1 if you’ve noticed a change. Go to step 4 if you haven’t noticed a difference.

4. Include caffeine

Studies on the benefits of green tea for health and weight loss abound.

Green tea is an antioxidant-rich beverage that has been found to delay aging, but it can also reduce satiety and speed up weight reduction in general.

Use two cups of green tea every day to overcome the plateau.

5. Consume This Calorie-Rich Food

Despite having a high caloric content, nuts have been demonstrated to accelerate weight loss by increasing calorie expenditure.

In fact, nuts have been demonstrated to have a long-term negative correlation with weight growth in addition to their dietary fiber.

To boost your satiety throughout the day, including some nuts in your breakfast.

6. Make Your Heart Pump

One of the simplest methods to break through a weight loss plateau is to increase your caloric expenditure by increasing your workload and reinvigorating your exercise regimen, but it’s also one of the trickiest.

This can give you more energy and cut down on the amount of time it takes you to recuperate in addition to helping you break through weight-loss plateaus. This lesson had to be hard-earned for me.

To speed up weight loss, include 30 minutes of low-intensity aerobics twice a week. Check out Lifehack’s Simple Cardio Home Workout Plan to accomplish this, which will help you lose weight and burn more calories each day.

7. Greater Accountability Boosts Progress

We are social creatures, and a lot of what we do every day is to improve our standing in the tribe in which we reside.

Make use of this truth to your benefit. Posting your progress photos on Facebook or in a thread with family and friends is one of the simplest ways to take advantage of this instinctive human behavior.

Train with a friend or hire a personal trainer for 3 months to jump-start your weight loss results and increase your level of accountability.

8. Reduce Foods That Cause Obesity

The consumption of animal products has been linked to weight growth. Do vegetarians consume more veggies or less meat, though?

In a 2012 study that included over 3900 men and women, it was discovered that the group that consumed more meat gained weight more frequently, even when other factors such as fruit, vegetable, grain, physical activity, and even calorie intake were adjusted for in both groups.

The meat most closely associated with obesity was chicken. Reduce your consumption of animal products by replacing three meals each week that feature chicken with beans or lentils.

9. Take the Stairs

You must change your habits if you want to lose weight permanently and prevent the Yo-Yo effect.

Include some little exercise in your day. Try to use the stairs rather than the elevator in the morning even though you don’t have to run a marathon. Rather than driving, take a stroll to the grocery store.

Try it out by forgoing the elevator for the next seven days to see how it goes.

To sum it up

When trying to lose weight and get in the greatest shape of your life, hitting a weight-loss plateau is common. What matters is how you handle these obstacles on your journey.

First, we must confirm that we have indeed reached a weight-loss plateau and that our minds are not deceiving us. To accomplish that, we must reevaluate our objectives and modify our behaviors as necessary. Then, we may put certain plans into action to overcome obstacles and advance our objectives.

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