Fat Loss Plateaus
It may not come as a surprise when I tell you that your body doesn't like losing weight.
It's a survival thing and your body will do everything it can to survive. If you decrease your calorie intake to lose fat your body thinks "hang on a minute. Fat is good, it provides energy and I'm not getting enough energy from food, so save the fat!" It's at this point when it will try to match the energy it expends to the energy that's coming in from food by slowing down breathing, heart contractions and digestion which is not good news.
Somewhere between nine and twelve weeks of trying to lose weight your body will have successfully matched the calories it burns with the calories it's getting from food and your fat loss will stop, which some call a plateau.
There are two, possibly 3 ways to overcome this plateau:
Plateau's are inevitable and it is where the majority of dieters will give up and make a million excuses for why they can't lose weight. Remember when we talked about the psychological journey? Well at this point you are firmly in the 'discipline stage' and have two options. Whine and make excuses, or grit your teeth, deal with it and accept you're not going to lose weight for a few weeks. On the plus side you get to eat more!
If your weight is consistently coming off then don't change anything. If you change something that is working the you're just a fool. Sounds harsh, but it's true. However, if your weight hasn't changed for 3 consecutive weigh ins, then chose one of the above options or come see me and we can discuss the best way to proceed. Just don't get disheartened, plateaus are inevitable even for elite athlete's, it's how we deal with them that are important.
It's a survival thing and your body will do everything it can to survive. If you decrease your calorie intake to lose fat your body thinks "hang on a minute. Fat is good, it provides energy and I'm not getting enough energy from food, so save the fat!" It's at this point when it will try to match the energy it expends to the energy that's coming in from food by slowing down breathing, heart contractions and digestion which is not good news.
Somewhere between nine and twelve weeks of trying to lose weight your body will have successfully matched the calories it burns with the calories it's getting from food and your fat loss will stop, which some call a plateau.
There are two, possibly 3 ways to overcome this plateau:
- Further decrease your calories - If your daily calories are over 1200, you started out with quite a high calorie diet and haven't had to change much to lose weight, then this may be an option. Simply reducing your calories by 200kcal a day should get things moving again. However if you have already had to be quite strict, then reducing your calories further will make your diet harder to stick to, you will feel more deprived and you may struggle to get the protein, fat and vitamins you need.
- Stop losing weight - I know that this doesn't sound like a great tactic if you're trying to lose fat, but let me explain; it's not clear why, but our bodies seem to have a 'set point', it's a weight they like to be. After short term diets do you always seem to go back to the same weight? Well that's your set point. The good new is you can reset your set point, you just need to give your body chance to get used to it's new, lower, set point weight. To find out how many calories you need to maintain your weight go into 'My Fitness Pal' and update your bodyweight, then change your 'Weekly Goal' to 'Maintain'. You need to maintain your weight for at least 4 weeks, and make sure you enjoy this time, you're going to have an extra few hundred calories so take advantage and have some of the foods you have been missing. When you are ready to start losing again just change your 'Weekly Goal' to lose 1lb or 0.5kg and he fat loss will return. Think of it as taking one step back to make two steps forward. It's also good for you mentally. Dieting is stressful both on the body and mind so it is good to have a break from the deprivation. If you haven't been feeling at least slightly deprived over the last 7 weeks then be honest with yourself and go for option 1.
- Low Carb (possibly) - A few studies recently have shown that people can lose weight by decreasing carbohydrates, increasing fat and not actually changing the total amount of calories they have each day. The amount of carbohydrates allowed varied from 5-10% of total calorie intake, which means if you are currently eating 1500kcal, then you would need to reduce your carbs to about 38g a day, which is very low. There's nothing wrong with only eating that amount of carbs per day if you can stick to it, but can you? If you think you can, then go for it and reduce your carbs to 10%, keep protein the same and increase fat to whatever it needs to be to equal 100%. If you're not sure then chose either option 1 or option 2.
Plateau's are inevitable and it is where the majority of dieters will give up and make a million excuses for why they can't lose weight. Remember when we talked about the psychological journey? Well at this point you are firmly in the 'discipline stage' and have two options. Whine and make excuses, or grit your teeth, deal with it and accept you're not going to lose weight for a few weeks. On the plus side you get to eat more!
If your weight is consistently coming off then don't change anything. If you change something that is working the you're just a fool. Sounds harsh, but it's true. However, if your weight hasn't changed for 3 consecutive weigh ins, then chose one of the above options or come see me and we can discuss the best way to proceed. Just don't get disheartened, plateaus are inevitable even for elite athlete's, it's how we deal with them that are important.