Oh No! I Hit A Weight Loss Plateau!
Weight loss plateau. Don’t you absolutely hate it when this happens? You are doing so well with your diet and even exercise but every time you go to weigh yourself the scale doesn’t move. This is quite frustrating and I have been there before. So you start going on crash diets or start exercising a lot more than you probably should and at the end of the day this really doesn’t work either. You can’t survive on crash diets or exercising twice a day for ever. To be honest I have learned that a diet is something that you go on and then come off. But all these extreme measures that you may take to break through your weight loss plateau just don’t work. This is not a healthy lifestyle and something that you can sustain over an extended period of time. Like I said I have been there. I gained weight after my wife and I had our first daughter and then I lost it to a point. But I couldn’t break through that weight loss plateau. Was it me? Was I doing something wrong? Am I the only person that suffers from this? In the end I learned it was quite normal and it wasn’t me. It was about something I had to change.
Why Did I Hit This Weight Loss Plateau?
Weight Loss Plateau
The number one reason people hit a weight loss plateau is the failure to change up their exercise routine or even their diet. Overcoming a weight loss plateau is hard and I understand that. When I think of this from the exercise perspective how many times do you go to the gym and see the same people doing the same exercises on the same machines day after day and even week after week? Probably all the time. What’s even worse is that all these people after a few months or even years look the same or sometimes even worse! Your body is an amazing piece of science and if you fail to change up your exercise routine then your body will adapt and eventually stop responding. Without question this will lead to a weight loss plateau. You need to constantly switch up your exercise routine and keep your muscles confused. The more you change your workout routine the more your muscles are confused and the more they are confused the better results that you will get. Muscle confusion is something you want to stay on top of and this was one of my faults. I used to go to the gym and do the same workout routines week after week and little did I know I wasn’t going to get anywhere. I needed to change it up in order for me to get the results I wanted and break through that muscle plateau.
From a diet perspective many people who hit the weight loss plateau want to stop eating all together or fail to not eat at the right times. In order for you to continue to lose weight and move forward you need to keep your metabolism going. If you begin to starve yourself what ultimately happens is your metabolism will drastically slow down. Then when you do eat something it won’t burn through all the calories at the speed it should have. This goes into my second point of when to eat and eating at the right times. As much as our society and our culture tell us to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner this truly isn’t the best thing for your body. Eating smaller more frequent meals throughout the day will keep your metabolism elevated. This way every time you do eat your body will burn off those calories and improve your weight loss. If you are stuck at this weight loss plateau do not starve yourself . Stick with eating smaller more frequent meals throughout the day. In my blog Keeping Your Diet Simple I talk about how to make this nutritional plan an easy process for you. In the end when it comes to that dreaded weight loss plateau remember that muscle confusion and eating more frequently are two key areas to focus on.
How Did I Break Through My Weight Loss Plateau?
Weight Loss Plateau
So after my first daughter was born I did gain some unwanted weight. I put myself on a diet and tried to work out more but eventually my weight loss just stopped and my results in the gym were basically staying the same. It wasn’t until my younger cousin told me jokingly that I had “man boobs” that it really hit me that I needed to change whatever I was doing in order to get through my own weight loss plateau. I was an avid gym goer and even ran the NYC Marathon at the time but didn’t realize that week after week I was doing the same thing over and over. I needed to change it up. A close friend of mine who I worked with gave me an ab workout from the program P90X. I was a stubborn guy for about six months and was dead against doing a home based workout. He ultimately made me at least try it once and when I did I got hooked. I have had great success with P90X and many other of the home fitness programs like Insanity, P90X2, The Asylum and so on and I directly contribute this to a few things. First and foremost it took the guess work out of the equation. I no longer had to worry about what to do each and everyday I wanted to work out. Therefore muscle confusion and the dreaded weight loss plateau couldn’t occur. I also realized that these programs were put together by world class trainers and millions of people were having success with them today. I didn’t need a lot of space at home to do the program and it was amazing how hard these workouts were. I never thought I could get into such great shape with a home based fitness program but quickly realized this was the real deal. As for my diet all of the programs provided a nutrition guide and therefore made it easy for me to follow along. I truly felt like I had my own personal trainer on a daily basis as well as a nutritionist telling me what to eat. As soon as I applied myself to P90X I broke through the weight loss plateau and immediately starting getting great results. It only snowballed from there and I became a lifelong fan of all these programs. No more wasting time driving to the gym and ultimately doing something that is not going to get me to where I want to be. My health and fitness had finally drastically changed.
Try One Of My Weight Loss Plateau Ideas!
I hope this weight loss plateau blog opened your eyes as to why you may be stuck and not getting anywhere. There is no secret trick to having results. It’s all about keeping it simple and changing it up. I highly recommend giving one of these at home programs a try so you can start taking advantage of a healthier lifestyle and avoid weight loss plateau. Feel free to Contact Me if you have any questions. I only want the best for you. The last thing I want is for you to experience the dreaded weight loss plateau.
Your Coach,
DAVE
