You’ve been going at this weight loss thing for a little while now. Day to day your weight fluctuates up and down but that doesn’t bother you because you know that’s normal.
Over this short period of time your overall weight has gone down and you feel damn good about It. From the start you set up your calories to be sure you are in a calorie deficit (which clearly you are because you lost weight), and made sure to set your protein target up at a good spot (1 gram per pound of goal bodyweight).
All is good!
But then It’s your first speed bump, you’ve hit a plateau.
What do you do?
The first thing you want to do is panic. It’s also good to realize that all your hard work so far is now a waste and everything sucks.
I feel stupid having to write this, but that was a joke.
When you’ve hit a plateau and you think nothing is progressing, just take a big deep breath and know that this is normal. Your weight isn’t going to just go down in a perfectly straight line to your goal weight.
This process is hard! It takes work, consistency, and a lot of mental power to be able to navigate everything that goes into It. So first thing is first, breathe and know this is NORMAL!
Once you’ve calmed down and stopped working yourself up, we will dig up all the information you’ve gathered thus far. The three most important things right now will be:
- Calorie and protein intake
- Weigh-ins
- Workout logs
I sure as hell hope you have these things at your disposal, they make the weight loss process much easier to navigate. Especially when things get hard, you know, like a plateau.
Is this really a plateau?
Get all your weigh-ins in front of you.
- How much weight have you lost since starting?
- How long has this process been
- How long have you been in a “plateau”
If you’ve been at this for 3 months and lost 15 pounds but haven’t seen the scale move in 10 days, you’re fine. You have been on pace for over a pound per week. Most of that probably came at the beginning of the process. It happened in a quick rush and you were excited. Not only were you excited, but you also expected that same weight loss pace to keep up.
Even with no weight loss for 10 days, your pace is AMAZING. Your body is mostly likely catching up from those early stages. And that means you are still doing the right things so don’t change anything just yet!
Now, if we had another example where everything was the same but you haven’t lost weight in 30 days, well then you are probably dealing with a bit of a plateau.
But to figure out if this is something to take action on, figure out your average weight loss per week. If you are still around or above ½ a pound lost per week, you are a-okay and just need to keep chugging along.
What if this is a real plateau?
If you have done your average weekly weight loss and seem to be stuck in this certain point beyond 4-5 weeks, you might be in a small sticking point. This doesn’t mean that you are doomed, it means that something needs to be adjusted.
This is where all the information that you have been gathering day in and day out is going to pay off. I like to put everything in an excel spreadsheet–> weigh-ins, calories, protein, steps, workout days. Everything is laid out on that spreadsheet.
From there, it is easy for me to decipher what the hell is going on. I see trends with my weight loss compared to every other factor on that spreadsheet.
- How has your calorie intake been?
- How has your protein intake been?
- How many steps have you been taking?
- How has your workout schedule been?
Granted, there can be a lot more to the story than just these numbers, which we will get into later, but this is a strong place to start.
As I have said in many other articles and posts in the past:
Weight loss comes from being in a calorie deficit
There is no secret to that. You can be in a calorie deficit from moving more or eating less, that is why we don’t just track food but we also track movement. Now how much protein you eat as well as your consistency with your workouts also play a big role in the effectiveness along the way. But if you look at all your numbers from the past 3-6 weeks, is there anything there that sticks out to you why you might NOT be in a calorie deficit anymore?
Food Tracking
If you have been tracking your calories for any amount of time, you realize that we cannot be 100% accurate with what is going into our bodies. Everything is an estimate. You may not have control over exactly the numbers from certain meals but you do have the ability to be as diligent with your food tracking as possible.
Just being slightly off on every meal adds up to quite a bit of calories over time.
One of the main things you can do to make sure that doesn’t happen is to use a food scale. You might realize that your estimation of 4oz of chicken ended up being 2oz while your 60 grams of rice was more like 100 grams.
The more you can control the better.
Building off of that, another thing you can do to tighten things up is to limit how many meals out you are having each week. It’s hard to get anywhere near an estimation from food at restaurants. If you have ever been to Chipotle you already know that some people have a MUCH heavier hand than others. Those calories add up!
More Activity
In most people’s minds, the first thing they want to do when the scale doesn’t move for a few weeks is cut back even farther on their calories. This is not the cycle you want to get into. There are only so few calories you can eat before negative effects start to take over.
You want to be eating as many calories as you possibly can while still losing weight at a sustainable rate. The food is what is fueling you to work hard every day. Your movement, workouts, job, and anything else you need to do rely on that fuel.
So instead of dropping your calories even further, let’s have you start moving more. If you are tracking your steps, great, you can work off those numbers. I would say bump up your daily steps anywhere from 15-25% depending on where you are starting from.
A good rule of thumb would be to aim for 7,500 to 10,000 steps per day.
Now, if you aren’t tracking your steps you can track your walks. I try to have people walk at some point every single day for a minimum of 5 minutes-NO MATTER WHAT. If you are already doing this GREAT, but it’s time to ramp it up. Make your 5 minute walks, 10 minute walks. If you go for longer walks on certain days, add 5 minutes to those walks as well.
If you aren’t doing your daily walks, here’s your sign to start.
Check Elsewhere…
Following any or all of the things we just discussed, for most people, will work. I’m guessing if you are still reading up until this point, either you really like my shit OR it just hasn’t worked for you yet.
Don’t worry, there are still things you can do.
It’s time to start looking away from the obvious. The next three things I have people dive into are their:
- Sleep (quality, quantity, consistency)
- Stress
- Water intake
Any one of these three can have an impact on your weight loss, for a lot of people it’s a combination of 2 or even all 3 of them. Let’s start with your sleep.
Sleep:
If your sleep sucks you are going to suffer in more ways than one. You won’t be able to do as much quality work, thus making your workouts less effective. Your body will be craving crappier food because it’s not working optimally. And your stress levels will be higher, again due to your body not being in an optimal state. Track the quantity (how many hours), quality (deep or not), and the consistency of how you sleep.
You are looking to get 7-9 hours of GREAT sleep every single night.
Stress:
Yes, sleep does affect stress levels, but stress goes much beyond that. I am not a professional on stress and what It does to your body. But being stressed will change the makeup of your hormonal levels and will also have an affect on your food/cravings.
In many cases, being in a high state of stress can cause shitty sleep or vice versa.
The goal is to have your body and mind in a less stressful state for most of the day. It’s hard to avoid stressful things if they are a part of your livelihood. Things like your job, kids, or even bills. But being conscious of what things cause you the most amount of stress gives you the ability to get a better handle on those things, hopefully lowering your level of stress toward them.
Water Intake:
This one is big. It’s been beaten over the head so much that I think we don’t take It seriously anymore. JUST GET YOUR DAMN WATER IN!
Drink a lot of It.
Drink It often.
Drink It consistently.
How Far Along Are You?
How far into this process you are also plays a big role on the rate the scale will be going down. It is a lot harder to lose weight, the lower you allow your weight to go. Take someone weighing 200 pounds for example. Their goal is to lose 50 pounds. The first 25 will be a hell of a lot easier than the last 25.
This is especially true if you are doing things in a way where you care more about losing primarily fat and preserving as much muscle as possible in the process.
So remember, if you are far along in this process, the rate at which you lose weight WILL SLOW DOWN. This doesn’t mean cut your calories more or go run a marathon, this means that you need to be even more patient than before.
If you were losing 1 pound per week for the first half of the process, things might slow down to a ½ pound lost per week, or even less.
When you continually lose weight at a rapid rate deep into the process, there is a possibility you are losing a good amount of muscle as well. Muscle is hard to gain and pretty easy to lose. If you are attempting to change the way your body looks by losing weight, you want to preserve that muscle!
Be patient
Lose fat
Preserve muscle
Plateaus suck, but how you handle them can be a big turning point in your process. Take a step back and analyze what you are doing. You should be able to scope out a potential area to work on to get the ball rolling again!
In good health,
Jeff
