You have been doing everything right to get fit; working out in the gym, taking eight glasses of water a day and taking low calorie foods. Your efforts have not gone to waste since your weight has been decreasing rapidly and you like the progress you are seeing on the weight scales.
Contented and thinking that you have finally hit the self-actualization level that you always dreamt about, you start training your plump friends on how they too can lose weight. You give them your diet plan and ask them to meet you at the gym every morning and evening. Then, hell breaks loose. Your weight loss hits a plateau. An irritating screeching halt. The scales won’t budge despite the number of times you sweat it out in the gym, fast or take low calorie foods. You become depressed and wonder what could have gone wrong. Well, you need not worry. Obesity expert Caroline Cederquist says that a weight loss plateau is a normal phenomenon in a weight loss program.
Caroline Cederquist explains that when you are losing weight, you are not only shedding fatty tissues but also wasting away your lean muscles. When this happens, your metabolism goes down and therefore no more weight can be lost. However, all is not lost. You can still continue losing weight to your desired target by tweaking your daily routine a little bit.
Cheat on your diet
When you find that your weight loss plan has come to a screeching halt, you need to reassess your calorie needs and change your initial diet plan. Are you eating more calories than what you are burning? Other than eating foods with low carbs, you could maybe try to focus more on proteins. Proteins have been found to require more energy to metabolize and will therefore help you in burning out calories.
Add some lean protein to your meals
Weight loss experts have always advised that you take lots of vegetables and fruits because of their fibrous nature and the loads of vitamins that they add to your body. However, if you have been laser focused on veggies and fruits in your weight loss plan and have hit a plateau, you need to think more about lean protein. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that lean proteins such as a boiled egg diet, nuts and legumes control your appetite helping in weight loss. Your body would also require more energy in breaking up proteins thereby burning more body calories.
Adopt shorter and spaced out workouts
Six 30-minutes workout sessions are better than a whole three-hour workout session for people who want to lose weight. The thing with long workout sessions is that you come out starving and craving for food after burning so many calories. Any food that comes your way no matter how unhealthy is good for you. With shorter workouts though, you will be able to burn calories and take a boiled egg diet or fruit to replenish your energy.
Have you hit a plateau or is that your normal weight
You need to ask yourself whether you hit a weight loss plateau or whether that is your ideal weight. The human body tends to have a happy weight where it feels comfortable and any deviation from it is not welcome. To determine whether you have hit your ideal weight and not a plateau, you need to ask your doctor or dietitian to measure your body mass index since it will give a clue on what needs to be done.