The weight loss plateau - it is perhaps the most dreaded phrase for the dieter to hear but when you understand what causes it and what you can do to break it you will no longer fear hitting one.
This article shares the most common reason people hit a plateau and also give you the best strategy for breaking out of it and preventing it from happening again.
The Weight Loss Plateau What causes it? The most common reason your loss stalls is because your body adapts to what you are doing.
When you reduce your calorie intake for instance, your body adapts and responses to this lower level by slamming the brakes on your metabolism.
Now this is a problem because your metabolism is what runs your ability to burn fat so a slow metabolism means slow (or non-existent) weight loss.
What to do about it? There are different ways to break a weight loss plateau but I like to recommend the 25% rule.
Let's say your weight loss stops even though you have not changed your eating.
What you want to do is up your calorie intake by 25%.
For instance, if you normally eat 1,200 calories a day up that to 1,500.
This should not take more than one or two day to break the plateau.
On these same days up your exercise by 25% or enough to cover the increase in calories.
You can do this in one of two ways, either increase the amount of time you spend exercising or increase the intensity.
This strategy will break you out of a plateau but you can take it one step farther and use this same strategy one day out of every dieting week to prevent a plateau from coming on.
The weight loss plateau does not have to be something you fear, use this strategy to keep the weight coming off on a consistent basis.