Wondering what to do when your weight loss slows or stops completely? You may feel like the weight just "fell off" initially and now you can't get the scale to budge.
This is often referred to as the "weight loss plateau," and can be a major pain point during the weight loss journey.
Weight loss is not a linear process. You will lose weight and then plateau as your body is constantly adapting to the new eating habits and activities. You didn’t become overweight overnight, it was a gradual increase over the years maybe, so your weight loss too will not happen overnight. Patience and consistency is the key.
Weight loss and gain share the same path. Your hunger levels are changing. Your body is re-calibrating your new activities.
Here are five things you may want to consider to break the weight loss plateau.
5 Proven Methods to Break Through Plateaus
1. Reverse Dieting
Reverse dieting can be helpful when you've been dieting and cutting too much calories for an extended time. Body is in a shut down or constant starvation mode as its called.
With reverse dieting, you very slowly increase your daily calorie intake to promote weight maintenance and stimulate your metabolic rate. Adding calories back too quickly can result in unwanted weight gain so this is why it's important to do it gradually.
Not only can reverse dieting help fire up your metabolism, but it can also help reduce hunger and fatigue, giving you more energy to fuel your daily activity.
2. Watch your food and water intake
Getting your macro split right can be a bit of a balancing act, especially if you’re new to tracking your macros. Out of the 5 Proven Methods to Break Through Plateaus, this is the easiest. Here are a few tips to try and be mindful about
Try Carb cycling: This is watching your carb input to match the fitness needs. Carb cycling can be a helpful way to break up the monotony.
Variety: Choose a different source of carb or protein from your regular. For example, try sweet potato over bread. Move to millets for a short period of time. If you eat eggs, try paneer. or tofu Add variety to your existing diet.
Weekly food logs: Tracking your calorie and macronutrient intakes provide accountability and help you see whether you need to make some dietary adjustments in order to begin losing weight again.
Increase fiber intake: Fiber promotes weight loss by slowing the movement of food through your digestive tract, decreasing appetite and reducing the number of calories your body absorbs from food.
Increase water intake: Drinking water, coffee or tea can help boost your metabolic rate and assist with weight loss. Small dose of Caffeine before a workout has shown to promote fat burning.
Increasing protein: Increase the intake at least 20 gram at each meal can help reverse a weight loss stall by boosting metabolism, reducing hunger and preventing muscle mass loss.
Intermittent fasting: This will help you consume fewer calories, maintain muscle mass and preserve your metabolic rate during weight loss. Try the Sunset to Sunrise fasting for a week and see the difference. Lighter stomach during bedtime also means better quality of sleep. It's good for longevity, brain health etc.
Alcohol will interfere with weight loss by providing empty calories, making it easier to overeat and increasing belly fat storage.
Vegetables are loaded with important nutrients, yet low in calories and carbs. Including them at every meal may help you reverse a weight loss plateau.
Pay attention to your salt intake and digestion. High sodium can cause water weight retention. Also check how your bowel movement has been? Eat more fibers. Get the GI tract moving.
3. Mix Up Your Fitness Routine
If you :
Struggle to find consistency with an exercise routine
Cruising through your workouts without breaking a sweat
Finding yourself dreading every workout or lacking the energy
It's time to rethink your fitness routine.
Changing your workout routine can help stimulate your metabolism and muscles in new ways, bringing new light to your weight loss efforts.
Try finding something you enjoy and look forward to doing. Signup for a dance class or free weight training, may be a new sport or choose weekend hikes. Changing up your routine is a great way to stay motivated and keep fitness fun and effective.
4. Adopt Stress Management Techniques
If you're doing everything right with your diet and exercise routine but not managing your stress you may be sabotaging your weight loss goals.
Stress can affect hormones and sleep which in turn impacts your metabolism, nutrition, and fitness.
I suggest you to manage the stressors in your life, it is a critical part of health and weight loss. Taking time for a 5-minute walk outside, meditation, at the start or end of the day, practicing mindfulness, or a phone call to a loved one can be a great start to reducing stress.
The increased cortisol production that’s associated with stress can interfere with weight loss. Stress-reduction will help promote weight loss. Here is an idea, increase your daily non-exercise physical activity. This helps boost your metabolic rate and promote weight loss.
5. Get Better Sleep
Establishing a consistent sleep schedule is important for your nutrition, fitness, and overall health. People who get stuck in a weight loss plateau don’t get enough sleep. Audit your sleep. Get some more sleep. Poor sleep affects your digestive system. You can also retain more water. Ritualizing your sleep routine can be a great way to find that consistency.
Insufficient sleep can interfere with weight loss by reducing your metabolic rate and shifting your hormone levels to promote hunger and fat storage.
There are certain practices that have been proven to positively impact sleep, including:
Creating a bedtime ritual (Warm bath, soaking feet in warm water, massaging your face with a night cream or coconut oil)
Avoiding screens and blue-light at least two hours before bedtime
Sleeping in a cool dark decluttered environment
Let me summarise this for you. Even if you are stuck, don’t lose patience. Stay consistent. The key to success is staying consistent. As I have mentioned weight loss is not a linear process but a zig zag process. Keep the big picture in mind. If you are doing the right things over weeks and months, your weight will reduce. This I can guarantee. You are not going to be stuck there forever. Your weight will reduce.
Your scale weight may not reflect a loss of body fat, especially if you work out or experience fluid retention. Evaluate how you feel, how your clothes fit and whether your measurements have changed instead. Pictures and measurement logs help. The weighing scale is just one way of measuring progress.
Here are ways to measure progress - on your exercise routine, how is your performance? How is recovery? Are you taking shorter time to recover, which is a good measure of progress. Are you getting it done with more weights? Or less time? How are your vitals performing, is the lipid profile better than that of last year? How is your blood report? Inch loss? How are the clothes fitting? When your body composition changes you may be losing fat and gaining some muscle mass. So, you may see the weight remain same. Look at your progress with a bigger lens.
Weight is one aspect. Keep the eye on the big picture.