I don't know of anyone who has gone through weight loss without experiencing a plateau. Over two year, I have experienced it not once or twice. Its very impossible to except the same amount of weight loss every week. You might be doing everything right but the body doesn't work like that. Plateaus makes one feel terrible like all your efforts are for nothing, they are not that bad. When i hit my first plateau, it lasted for 9 or more weeks, I nearly ran mad but I learnt from hitting plateaus, through that time, I concentrated on maintaining my weight. It is also very possible to add weight while on it. I considered it taking a break from my weight loss while i maintained the ones I have loss. Change is a simple word with a difficult meaning, human beings resist change so does the
body.
After i loss my first 30 lbs, the body shut down and didn't move for long (like 9 or more weeks). I didn't change a thing, i carried on with my normal routine although i didn't understand what was happening. My main problem was that i didn't research about plateau, no one told me about it, I thought that i will continue losing weight till am done. Well my body was used to doing the same thing and eating the same food. After much research and studying, I did the following to break out of plateau:
Re-evaluate what you eatI though I was getting enough food but by the time i looked through my journal, I realized that there was room for improvement. Sometimes, while cooking i pick food and i didn't realize how much damage that was doing to me. I got tired of measuring food and started eye weighing them. The research i carried out indicated that measuring food and writing down every single food i ate was necessary.
Increase my calorie intakeThis is where the problem comes in, some people come to me asking for help while plateau and when i tell them to increase their calorie intake, they see me as trying to sabotage their journey. If am not eating enough food, my body hurts down and nothing happens, no weight is coming off. I didn't just increase my calorie but i added foods with higher calorie in them like peanut, almond, nuts, avocado and the rest. At the start of my journey i got really scare of certain food like what i mentioned above because they are high in fat not knowing that they are very body and skin when eaten in moderation. If you have been eating 1,600 calories daily for the past six months, try indulging in an extra two-hundred-calorie snack one day, limiting yourself to 1,200 calories the following day, and so on--- a handful of peanut is packed with protein and good fat.
If you make a commitment to diversifying your meals, your workouts, and your eating schedule, there’s a good chance that this bleak time will soon be a distant memory—not to mention that switching things up will make your day-to-day routine a lot less monotonous. And if you still want that ice cream now, cheating once won’t kill you.
Try out new foodThe body is smart and can adapt to what you gives it. Trying out new recipes has helped me, i read up different meals and i experiment on them. The most important was switching up and around your food class portions like protein, fat, carbohydrate. If you normally eat 3 times daily, switch it up to 5 smaller meals daily. I normally eat 3 times daily but had to change things to 5 smaller meals, sometimes 2 snack and 3 meal.
Pump up and change your workout Try new workout if you have been doing the same thing over and over. Increase the intensity, if you normally use 3 kg dumbbell increase it to 5 kg. Push harder and harder, increase your cardio and add weight training to it. If you normally workout 30 mins, add 15 or 20 more. If you a gym person, increasing your interval by adding more incline to treadmills and all will really go a long way.
Timing Is EverythingIf you’re changing up your food and exercise routines and you still can’t get yourself out of your diet rut, it could be because you’re eating meals at less-than-ideal times of the day, thereby hindering your metabolism. Because our hormone levels fluctuate throughout the day, many nutrition experts believe that it’s best to consume calories when our bodies are at their most active and that doesn't always mean right after we exercise. While eating right after working out can certainly facilitate your weight-loss efforts, morning is the time of day when you’ll do your body the most good by eating, so having breakfast is essential. This may seem like counter intuitive advice—after all, eating an extra meal means consuming more calories, right? Wrong. When we’re asleep, we receive no nutritional input for hours on end, so when we refuel in the morning, our bodies are primed to maximize their use of incoming calories. Protein is particularly important at breakfast time, since our bodies deplete their reserves of it to regenerate our muscles, hair, skin, and nails while we sleep. And digesting protein-rich foods actually burns more calories than digesting the same amount of carbohydrates or fats does, because our bodies have to work harder to metabolize protein.
Because we produce most of our energy in the daytime and begin to slow down at night, the quantities of food we eat at specific times of the day should reflect that decline. If you make breakfast your largest meal, eat a medium-size lunch, and limit yourself to a small, light dinner, you’ll do your metabolism a huge favor. You should also avoid consuming starchy carbohydrates (such as pasta, rice, and potatoes) in the evening; carbs cause your insulin levels to spike and impede your body’s ability to burn fat, whereas lean proteins and low-sugar vegetables keep your insulin levels balanced and encourage fat burning all night. Finally, plan to stop eating a few hours before bedtime to accommodate your slowing digestive system. Because you’re about to enter your least active phrase of the day, burning off a big dinner will be difficult for your body.
RestGetting enough rest is vital because your body needs time to heal.
Remember that your success does not always show on the scale. Celebrate non scale victories
