I have read several sites over the past little while and learned very little new information. However, I decided to get it up here in some sort of organized format – perhaps then something will hit me.
Plateaus are common and should be expected when losing weight. They make sense really. They are your body’s way of protecting itself. Your body doesn’t understand that being at a high weight is unhealthy, all it sees it the diminishing weight and thinks you are starving yourself, perhaps there is a food shortage of some sort, so when it sees a dramatic weight loss, it protects itself by stopping the losses. Your BMR (basal metabolic rate) decreases so you use less energy in your daily life and your body learns to ‘need’ the calories you give it.
Another common mistake is that people forget that as they lose larger amounts of weight, their daily calorific needs are going to change as well. So eating x calories may not be the required amount to lose – in fact one should re-evaluate their calorific needs at every milestone to examine whether or not their plan needs to be changed in any way.
Now on to the standard ways to break through a plateau. Everything I had read so far is pretty consistent with this. The first thing they say to do is to stay positive, stick with it. If you are in fact recalculating your needs and eating within your limits, then keep doing so. But perhaps you think you are staying in your limits when you really aren’t. It is easy to over estimate calories burnt and underestimated calories eaten. You should check your routine for holes (are you snacking while cooking or anything of that sort?), if you find anything unusual, cut it out. If you don’t keep a food diary, start one and log EVERYTHING that goes into your mouth. One thing to remember is that someone does not need to see you eating for it to count – if it goes into your mouth, it can just as easily go to your hips.
Increased exercise is a big buster of plateaus – so get up and move your booty. Try a new exercise tape, or piece of equipment. If you are not incorporating weight training into your workouts, do so. Increasing muscle mass can increase your BMR and make it easier for you to lose weight again. It’s really just a matter of math, if you are burning more than you are eating, you will eventually lose the weight again.
Some sites talk about protein and how by replacing some carbohydrates with protein you can increase your BMR. To be honest, I don’t know too much about protein and how it helps your system, so I am using information straight from websites here:
“There is some evidence that shows that shifting fat and carbohydrate calories to protein calories may help preserve BMR during weight loss. But don't overdo it—twenty-percent of daily calories from protein is as high as you should go.” (http://www.oprah.com/health/omag/health_omag_200308_plateau.jhtml)
Doing things such as limiting your alcohol intake, watching your intake of carbohydrates and of course eating low fat foods will also assist in breaking through plateaus but one of the main things is to get enough water. You need to be drinking a proper amount of water each and every day and increasing that for when you are working out. Also, keep in mind that many times you think you are hungry, you may actually just be dehydrated. Try drinking a glass of water when you think you are hungry and waiting a little while. If you are still hungry, then eat something, if not than you were just thirsty.
Remember to eat proper amounts of every food group, look to the Canadian Food Guide (or similar source) for the proper amounts and incorporate this into your routine. Limit sodium and other non-necessities and try your best to stay away from sweets. But do remember to give yourself some breaks. It has be detemermined that allowing yourself a few break days everyonce in a while can recharge your system. It can shock your system out of a plateau even. But if nothing else, it allows you to indulge in your favourites without large amounts of guilt.
Another bit about calories – you may not be eating enough. I know it sounds weird and backwards, you are trying to lose weight therefore you need to decrease your calories, but sometimes you just aren’t eating enough and you are placing your body into a starvation mode. Calculate your needs again and find out where you sit. Increase or decrease your calories as needed and even if something sounds completely wrong and backwards, give it a shot. If the math tells you to increase your calories by a couple hundred or so, try it – it just may be the key.
When it comes down to it, breaking through a plateau is hard. It is hard on your self esteem and will power to be doing so much hard work to see absolutely no progress on the scales. If you stick with it, not only will you eventually start losing weight again, but you will have a new heightened vision of yourself – new-found self esteem that is well deserved.
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