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Tips to Get You Through Your Weight Loss Plateau

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When you start dieting and exercising consistently you will find you lose a fair a few pounds. However, weight loss is not a continuous process.  At some point, you might find you become stuck at a particular weight. Hitting a plateau can be discouraging and frustrating, but it should not be a cause for worry since it is part of the process. A stall in weight loss is usually a result of the body’s adaptability to the new low-calorie routine. Fortunately, a few adjustments to your program can help tip the scale in the right direction again.

Here are some tips to help you break through the plateau.

Check Your Body’s Caloric Needs

While dieting can often result in fairly significant initial weight loss, your body can quickly adjust to its new calorie intake.  At this point, you may stop losing weight. If you are still taking the same number of calories you used to consume when you began your diet, your weight will continue to remain the same. Cutting more calories from your diet will help you overcome the weight loss plateau.  Focus on low-carb diets, and your scale will start moving in the desired direction. Besides, low-carb diets are known to reduce hunger and appetite.

Eat More Fiber

Research indicates that foods high in fiber can help you reduce weight when other diets have failed.  Soluble fiber makes you feel full by slowing down food movements in your digestive system. This means you will keep your appetite in check and more easily control your food intake. Fiber also lowers the number of calories absorbed from other foods. Therefore, if your weight is stalling, increase your fiber intake to 30 grams a day, but it should be from fresh fruits, whole grains, and vegetables.

Chickpea and Dill Salad

Increase Exercise Intensity

During the first few weeks of your weight-loss journey, you burn many calories. However, as you shed more pounds, your metabolic rate reduces, leading to a stall in your weight. If you want to counteract this effect, you need to rev up your exercises. Spend more hours in resistance training, and you will burn more calories. Strength training offsets a drop in metabolism, and your weight will reduce. Increasing the intensity of aerobic exercises can also prevent a reduction in the metabolic rate.

Increase Protein Intake

Proteins are vital when you are losing weight because they increase metabolism. Digestion of proteins boosts the burning of calories by 30%, which is double the metabolic rate of carbs. Moreover, consuming proteins promotes the production of hormones that lower your appetite. Therefore, if your weight is stalling, you need to increase your protein intake to reverse the effects of losing weight and help you shed more pounds.

Reduce Stress Levels

Stress promotes the eating of comfort food and can reignite your cravings, which puts a brake on weight loss. Besides, stress encourages the production of cortisol, which increases belly fat storage. While you cannot avoid stress, you need to find ways to limit it if you want to keep losing weight.

Cutback on Alcohol

While that nightcap adds few calories, they are known as ’empty calories’ for good reason. If you can limit yourself to one drink, then you have nothing to worry about, but people rarely stick to one glass. Some alcoholic beverages have high calories, and they will lead to weight gain. However, the major problem with alcohol intake is the poor food choices you make after consuming it. You may overeat or make unhealthy food decisions, which will undo the effort you have put into losing weight.

Treatments

If you have done everything possible to reduce your weight and you have hit a dead-end, it may be time to consider medication or other options. Talk to a doctor about what might work best for you to help with weight loss. These can be useful in overcoming plateaus if you are already on a reduced-calorie diet.

Losing weight is a challenging journey and a plateau is one of the annoying bumps on the road. However, with the above tips, you can continue with your journey without looking back.

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