Top 5 Plateau Busters

Weight loss plateaus are extremely frustrating. For weeks or even months, you follow your plan and the weight drops off. Then you hit a wall. It seems like no matter what you do, your weight won’t budge. If this has ever happened to you, you know how miserable it is. Here are the top five ways to bust that plateau and continue on with your weight loss goals.

1. Often times, people lose a good amount of weight but never change their calories to match. You have to remember that the less you weigh the less calories you need to consume. So if you’ve stopped losing weight try looking at the amount of calories you’re eating daily. You have to cut out 500 calories a day from your daily needs to lose a pound a week. Keep this in mind when setting your target calories.

2. If you haven’t already started exercising, now would be the time to do so. Exercise will not only shape your body but will also increase muscle. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn. A good mix of cardiovascular exercise like jogging and strength training workouts should jumpstart your weight loss again.

3. While exercising is essential for long term weight loss, doing the same workouts for long periods of time can reduce results. Our bodies become efficient at doing exercises after a while. When this happens, you burn fewer calories. To avoid this, you should vary your workouts every few weeks. You can change up the exercises or try a completely new routine.

4. You should try to change your daily calorie limit as well. For example let’s say you normally eat 1600 calories per day for a total of 11, 200 per week. Instead of eating the same amount every day you could eat 1500 one day and 1900 the next. Just make sure that you eat the same weekly total.

5. Another change you can make to your diet is to increase your protein intake. Many times adding more protein to your diet will cause you to lose more weight. If you normally eat high carbohydrate snacks, add a little protein like yogurt or nuts. You will also feel fuller longer with the extra protein.

If you try all of this and you still aren’t getting the results you want, don’t give up. Many times you’re still losing weight, but not enough to show on the scale. Give your body time. The more weight you lose the longer it takes to see results.

Of course you can also use this plateau to re-evaluate your goals. Maybe your body is at its healthiest weight and doesn’t need to lose any more. A plateau can be your body’s way of telling you to stop. Only you can make that decision.

Tags: exercise program, diet and fitness tips, diet programs, eating to lose weight