Break A Weight Loss Plateau with These 11 Tips
If you've been
struggling to lose weight, you're not alone. About 95% of people who lose
weight will regain it within a year, and often they'll put on even more weight
than they originally lost.
What exactly is a weight loss plateau?
When you lose weight,
your body's calorie requirements gradually change, resulting in a weight loss
plateau. As you lose weight, your body needs fewer calories to function. If you
do not alter your food and activity, you may experience the dreaded weight loss
plateau.
What Causes a Weight Loss Plateau?
Adaptation
Your body adjusts to stress and nutritional patterns when you continue to adhere to certain behaviors over time. To continue seeing benefits, you must therefore intensify your diet and fitness routines.
Reduced Metabolic Rate
The
number of calories you consume must be lower than the number of calories you
burn to lose weight. When you are persistent with your workouts and nutrition,
it frequently happens that you drop a few kilograms quickly over time. But you
also lose some muscle mass along with the fat, which slows your metabolism.
How to break a weight loss plateau.
You
must either eat less or exercise more to break a weight loss plateau. This may
be easier said than done depending on other variables like your sleep schedule
or amount of stress.
But
after hitting a weight reduction plateau, fat loss is still a possibility. Here
are 11 methods to restart your life.
1. Eat enough protein.
When
you lose weight, your metabolism slows since your body doesn't need as much
energy to stay the same size.
The
loss of muscle mass that results from weight reduction must therefore be taken
into consideration. To achieve this, you should limit your protein intake to
between.8 grams and 1 gram per kilogram of body weight. Consider incorporating
a protein powder supplement into your diet if you cannot get enough protein in
your diet.
2. Increase Your Workout's Overall Intensity and Frequency.
The progressive
overload theory should be the foundation of your workout. There is a good
probability that your body will become accustomed to the exercise if you
continue to do it for several days or weeks. To completely avoid this, you
should gradually increase the intensity of your exercises. To adjust or enhance
the intensity of your workouts, you can do this by doing more reps, more sets,
more workout days, varying the movements, using new workout stimuli, etc.
3. Review your caloric needs and keep track of them.
When
everything is going well, you should occasionally reflect and make changes. The
same is true of nutrition. It's crucial to take stock of your progress and
reevaluate your calorie consumption after you've shed a few pounds. Perhaps you
need to cut back on the total number of calories, or perhaps a small macro
modification will be enough. To put it briefly, counting calories is crucial
for weight loss.
4. Stay active all day long.
You
won't lose weight by working out for 30 to 60 minutes a day and then sitting
about the rest of the time. NEAT, also known as non-exercise activity
thermogenesis, is among the simplest strategies to increase calorie
expenditure. It may be as easy as going for a five-minute stroll once an hour
or going about daily tasks in as many ways as you can.
5. Get Obtained Enough Sleep.
A
good night's sleep is a crucial component of weight loss, and when you don't
get enough of it, two things occur:
-
The Stress Hormone - As cortisol levels rise, stress levels rise as well, which
in turn causes appetite to rise.
Your
body releases growth hormones while you sleep, so getting a bad night's sleep
or not getting enough rest reduces recovery and protein synthesis in addition
to raising stress hormone levels.
6. Manage Your Stress.
Weight
loss may be directly impacted by stress. Any type of stress mental or
physical can cause you to overeat or undereat and elevate your stress hormone
levels. Your circulation is flooded with glucose when cortisol is released,
which slows down your metabolism.
7. Never Skip Meals
You
could believe that foregoing lunch or breakfast will cause the scale to move
down more quickly. Research has shown that skipping meals might slow down your
metabolism and make you gain weight rather than lose it.
8. Try Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent
fasting has become very fashionable recently.
It entails going without food for extended periods of time, often 16 to 48 hours. Along with other health advantages, the practice has been linked to weight loss and body fat reduction. A review of various research on intermittent fasting revealed that, within 3–24 weeks, it caused a 3-8% weight loss and a 3-7% reduction in waist circumference.
A
type of intermittent fasting called alternate day fasting involves people
eating as much as they want in one day and relatively few calories the
following.
According
to one study, consuming this manner of eating provided more protection against
muscle loss than daily calorie restriction.
9. Avoid Alcohol
Despite
having just about 100 calories (4 ounces of wine, 1.5 ounces of hard liquor, or
12 ounces of beer), one alcoholic beverage has little nutritional value. In
addition, a lot of folks consume multiple drinks at once.
Alcohol
also lowers inhibitions, which can cause you to overeat or choose unhealthy
foods. This might be particularly difficult for people who are trying to stop engaging
in impulsive eating practices.
In
research of 283 adults who completed a behavioral weight loss program, it was
discovered that those with higher levels of impulsivity experienced less
overeating and more weight loss when alcohol intake was reduced.
Additionally,
studies have indicated that alcohol decreases fat burning and may result in the
formation of belly fat.
10. Eat More Fiber
Increased
fiber consumption may aid in overcoming a weight reduction plateau.
This
is particularly true for soluble fiber, which dissolves in liquid or water.
First,
soluble fiber slows down the passage of food through your digestive system,
which might contribute to a feeling of fullness and satisfaction.
However,
a thorough analysis of numerous trials indicated that a soluble fiber known as
viscous fiber was most efficient at suppressing hunger and limiting food
intake, despite research suggesting that all forms of fiber may be helpful for
weight loss.
Fiber
may also help you lose weight by reducing the number of calories you absorb
from other foods.
11. Drink Water, Coffee, and Tea
While sugary
drinks make you gain weight, other drinks can make you lose weight. According
to studies, drinking 17 ounces (500 ml) of plain water can increase metabolism
by 24–30% for 1.5 hours.
When people
drink water before meals, which may help them eat less overall, this may
eventually result in weight loss.
In a 12-week
trial of overweight older adults, those who drank one serving of water prior to
meals lost 44% more weight than those who did not.
Your
attempts to lose weight may also be helped by coffee and tea.
Caffeine,
which is commonly found in these drinks, has been shown to improve metabolic
rate and increase fat burning by up to 13%. However, lean people appear to be
more strongly affected by these impacts.
In
addition, green tea includes the antioxidant EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate),
which has been shown in research to increase fat burning by 17%.
FAQs
How Can I Quickly Break Through the Weight Loss plateau?
One
of the most upsetting things you might experience when trying to lose weight is
a weight loss plateau. It is the time when, despite your best efforts to shed
additional weight, your weight remains above a specific kilogram. Fortunately,
you can break through this weight loss plateau by increasing your daily
activity level, cutting calories, changing your exercise regimen, and
reevaluating your lifestyle choices.
How Do I Know If I'm Stuck in a Weight Loss Trap?
Numerous
signs and symptoms suggest a weight loss plateau. Even if you consume fewer
carbohydrates and get eight hours of sleep every day, you could still suffer
from colds, hair loss, a lack of appetite, irregular periods, and other
symptoms. Additionally, you might start feeling a little uneasy when eating.
Additionally, despite following a diet with a calorie deficit, your weight
remains stubbornly high. All these factors hint at a weight loss plateau for
you.
How Long Does a Loss Plateau Last?
Even
though there is no set time frame because it differs from person to person, the
average weight loss plateau cycle is anticipated to last eight to twelve weeks.
In some circumstances, four weeks may be the bare minimum. You will need to
take the appropriate actions, such as adjusting your calorie intake, changing
your training schedule, increasing your daily activity level, etc., to break
this plateau.
Summary
Sticking to the abovementioned tips and tricks will help you to break the weight loss plateau. I hope I could answer your questions and I will leave you with a subtitled video about the same topic.