This Week's "Change That Up" Tip... Weight Loss Standstill

Even if you haven’t heard the phrase “weight-loss plateau” before, chances are you’ve experienced one. Heck, you may be staring one in the face right now. Basically, after experiencing success, a plateau typically occurs where progress stalls or stops altogether.

The most common example is a “weight-loss” plateau, which usually occurs somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 weeks to 6 months after getting your weight-loss party started. However, progress can plateau in virtually any domain of health and fitness (such as muscle and strength gain). As a matter of fact, some of these very same lessons can apply to other areas of life.

When it comes to a weight-loss plateau, there are several contributors, and here are some of the probable suspects.

You don’t adjust. As you lose weight, you burn fewer calories. Over time, you have to adjust how much you eat and/or exercise if you want to KEEP losing weight. In other words, what got you to where you are right now may not be the “winning formula” to get you where you want to be. Arbitrarily speaking, a weight-loss program that once resulted in a 500-calorie deficit may now only be creating a 250-calorie deficit. You’d still be making progress, but it wouldn’t seem nearly as quickly.

You’re not being honest. That seems harsh, but it’s true. In fact, it’s the BIGGEST REASON why people stall out. We see this both in real-world practice and research. People under-report how much they eat, and they over-estimate how much they move. People tend to be a bit more forgiving—if not lazy—over time. A few extra bites here, a couple missed workouts there…these things all add up.

Your body is secretly working against you. There’s no question that your body will fight against even your most staunch efforts to lose weight; it’s hard-wired to do so. The science community calls it “adaptive thermogenesis”, but most of us just call it metabolic adaptation. Most people have experienced seemingly insatiable hunger and cravings; that’s part of it. What many don’t recognize, however, is that this process also increases efficiency. Even when you don’t know it, your brain is telling your body to move less spontaneously. In other words, your body fights to conserve calories while your brain drives you to eat—MORE.

The point is to raise awareness. Be aware, very aware. What are you doing—or not doing—differently now that you were (or weren’t) doing when you were having success? Pardon the pun, but is it time to change that up?