Health

Weight Loss Plateaus

September 1, 2008
By J White

If you diet long enough, you’ll eventually hit a weight loss plateau. They are not uncommon and shouldn’t cause you much concern. Typically they occur because of strict adherence to a diet and exercise plan. With some adjustments to your plan, you’ll be back to losing that unwanted baggage.

First, to get back to losing pounds, take a look at your diet. Weight loss plateaus occur by eating the same amount of food constantly for a long period of time. When eating the same amount, your body becomes accustomed to the quantity of calories it’s processing. With no variation, it becomes static and has little reason to change.

To get it out of that rut, you need to give it a shock. The easiest way to do this is to decrease your calorie intake by 100 to 200 calories for two days and then increase back to the amount you normally eat for the next three. To confuse it even more, include a day where you increase your calories by 100.

The idea behind this is to keep your body’s metabolism off balanced. This way your body doesn’t know what to expect. Body builders use techniques similar to this to get in competition shape all the time.

Another cause of weight loss plateaus is to perform the same exercise routine over and over. You can quickly change this by adding 5 to 10 minutes to your aerobic exercise routine. For a more permanent solution, get in the practice of periodically changing your workout routine.

For instance with weight training, lift lighter weights, but increase your repetitions. After about 2 to 3 weeks, increase the amount of weights you lift and lower the repetitions. As for your aerobic workout you can not only add time spent performing the activity, but you can also increase the intensity.

By making these two simple changes, you’ll be able to bust through your weight loss plateaus.

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