HOW TO BREAKTHROUGH WEIGHT LOSS PLATEAU ?

04 Nov HOW TO BREAKTHROUGH WEIGHT LOSS PLATEAU ?

Why your weight loss suddenly stops and how you can overcome it .

Everything is going well .
Your weight is reducing , you are happy and then you hit this weight loss plateau .

Weight loss plateau is a point in the weight loss journey where whatever you have done till this
point did the trick , but no more .

The reason for this plateau is simple and i will shortly break it down .
What is more important though is for you to get that it is NORMAL to hit this point and it doesn’t mean you should stop.

You simply need to adjust .

Why does the weight loss plateau ?

The reason to why weight loss suddenly stops and the scale doesn’t go down , like i said is simple and it is based on
the intake / expenditure principle and the adaptation principle .

The intake / expenditure principle

This principle is the baseline of every weight loss process : you need to get to a caloric deficit .
In a deficit, your body forced to use its own energy storages and use fat as fuel ( if done correctly ) .
Which means that if you are at a plateau and your weight is not moving down, you are probably in an equilibrium point.
At this point – your intake and expenditure is roughly the same .

The adaptation principle

The adaptation principle is based on the fact that your body is changing its process in order to adapt to new conditions .
So for example : If you will repeatedly over time will run 2 KM for 10 minutes , you will see that at some point you will do the same distance in 9 minutes .
If you are lifting 10 Kg’s of weight repeatedly for some time – at some point it will become easy and you will need more weight .
The reason is – your body becomes more efficient at what it does .
This is both a good news and a bad news.

The good news – you are getting stronger and can perform better
The bad news – is that because your body gets efficient – it will use less energy for the same amount of work ?

So following both those principles , your weight is plateauing because your intake of calories equals your expenditure and because your body already got used to whatever you are doing – so it uses less energy for the same work .

How to breakthrough the plateau

So now , when we know what is the problem – it is very easy to find a solution .
Initially it is important to understand another principle – which is the principle of change .

The change principal means that change can’t happen in a balanced state .
In order for a change to happen you MUST shake out the equation.

Which means : that if you got to a point where things are not moving forward : you have to change something !

Which are the areas to look at for change ?

Obviously when it comes to physical change , you have to look at the areas impacting it the most : Nutrition and movement .
( The other areas should be looked as well but we will focus on those 2 ) .

Nutrition

As discussed discussed earlier : if you are not losing weight then there is a good chance that your intake equals your expenditure
If that is the case then you MIGHT need to do a change in the diet .
There are few factors to consider when it comes to changing the diet .
1. Current intake and is it within a healthy range ( going bellow certain number of calories will put the body in starvation mode )
2. Are you getting all the nutrients , vitamins and minerals from your food
3. Is the current strategy sustainable for the long run ( at least few month ) with your current lifestyle

Movement

Once again going back to the principles : If you are at plateau – you have to outbalance the equation.
That means you need to either further intensify what you are currently doing OR changing the way you train .
So for example if you are a runner and running was helping you till that point , maybe you should add some weight lifting or change your running
to swimming or cycling .
If you are always lifting weights , maybe it is time to introduce some martial arts like boxing , Muay Thai or jiu jitsu to your workouts .
Not only that those types of martial arts are physically challenging, but every session is different and changing intensity which keeps the body guessing.
If the body keeps on guessing , it can’t adapt .
And if it can’t adapt – it will always use more energy in each class .

In our Fitness and Martial arts studio we always recommend our client to combine different disciplines in order to achieve the most effective weight loss WITHOUT hitting a plateau .
Simply because one day the can do bootcamp style conditioning class another day they can do Muay Thai and on the weekend they can stretch and relax practicing Yoga.

That is the reason why we packed our schedule with classes so our members can train in verity of modalities in one place and even if they get to plateau the can change their disciplines accordingly .

To check our full schedule visit our services page and if you need more in depth personal consultation feel free to schedule consultation .