Weight loss plateau? 5 tips that will help right now

Weight loss plateau? 5 tips that will help right now

By Susan Bowerman, March 23, 2013

Have you reached a weight loss plateau? If your weight loss has stalled, take a look at my top 5 tips to get help you avoid a weight loss plateau and achieve your dream weight.

 

One of the more frustrating parts of weight loss is the inevitable weight loss plateau.  Everything seems to be going along fine, and then all of a sudden – no matter what you do – you find that the scale just doesn’t budge.  When you find that your weekly weight loss has stalled that’s often known as a ‘weight loss plateau’ and many dieters find the sudden lack of progress deeply frustrating. Let me help you understand why your weight may plateau and give you some ideas to make sure you continue to meet your goals so that your weight will start moving again.

When you cut back on your calories, your body reacts as if there’s no more food coming its way.  So it does what it’s programmed to do – it hangs onto stored up calories by slowing down the rate at which you burn them.  Your resting metabolic rate – the calories you burn every day just to keep your body functioning – goes down a little bit. The drop isn’t huge – maybe 10% at most – but it’s often enough to put your weight loss on hold and suddenly you’re on the dreaded weight loss plateau.  Since your resting metabolic rate is determined by your body size and accounts for most of the calories you burn each day, it makes sense that as your weight drops, your metabolic rate goes down, too.

What that means is that as you lose weight, your calorie needs go down a bit.  So, to keep losing at the same rate, you need to either cut your intake further, or exercise more – or accept that your rate of weight loss will be slower as you approach your goal. 

Top tips to circumvent a weight loss plateau:

1. Try using a food diary to keep track of your calorie intake.  You may have been more careful when you started your diet – weighing and measuring everything that passed your lips – but you might not be as accurate as you once were.  Being more consistent with your journal can help get you off the weight loss plateau and back on track.
2. Replace two meals a day with a protein shake to help you stay within your calorie limit.  When you make your shake, you know exactly what goes into it – and how many calories are in the protein powder, the milk and the fruit – so it takes the guesswork out of calorie counting.  Use the shake for two meals a day, have a healthy third meal, and fill in with snacks of low fat protein foods, veggies and fruits.
3. Try to dine out less often.   This one may be hard to do, but it can make a difference.  No matter how careful you think you are when you go to a restaurant, it’s usually difficult to accurately estimate how many calories you’re eating, because it’s often hard to tell exactly how foods are prepared – extra fats and calories are often lurking.  If you’ve been eating out more often than usual, try to cut back for a couple of weeks to see if it helps get your weight moving again.
4. Step up your activity, particularly strength training.  As you build muscle, your resting metabolic rate goes up.  If you’ve been working out for a while, you might also be in better shape – and that means that if you haven’t increased the intensity of your activity, you might not be burning as many calories as you used to.  Add some new moves to your exercise routine, increase the intensity, and pump some iron.
5. Consider that you might actually have reached an appropriate weight.  If you can, get your body composition checked.  Muscle is ‘denser’ and takes up less space than body fat – so if you are carrying more muscle than the average person, you might weigh more than you think you should.  If your body fat is within normal range, then you may not have much – if any – additional weight to lose.

 Written by Susan Bowerman, MS, RD, CSSD. Susan is a paid consultant for Herbalife.