Plateaus

Plateaus are as normal a part of weight loss as sweating and sneaking a unapproved snack from time to time. They just happen. Your body is amazing; within twenty one days it will adjust to anything, including the things you have been doing to take weight off. This is an added benefit of using the shock, stop and roll method, you actually get to keep shocking your body and that shock is what produces those impressive losses on the scale.

So what to do when you hit a plateau? Well first make sure it is really a plateau. In my experience the lack of weight loss has to last a week or longer before I will consider it a plateau. You can’t go off what happens on the scale in a couple days that just isn’t enough time. Also don’t just use the scale, do you look better, are your clothes looser? Remember muscle weighs more that fat so you may of gained muscle in addition to losing fat which could cause you to be smaller and the scale to be the same.

Ok so let’s assume it really is a plateau and let’s assume you gave it a couple weeks and still no change, so what’s the problem? Well your caloric intake could be equal to the calories you are burning daily so make sure you track your calories in and what you burn in your workouts. Another possibility is your workouts have become too easy and you need to ramp it up to get your body back to burning fat for energy. Make sure you are not starving your body, because it will go into starvation mode and you won’t see the pounds coming off because starvation mode is essentially reversing the direction you want your metabolism to go in.

Another possibility is you aren’t getting enough sleep. Sleep is essential to health; you should shoot for eight hours a night. Seriously I said eight hours. Your body needs that time to rest and repair the damage you did during the day.

Water could also be your missing link. Are you drinking enough? How much is enough, well a good number to use is half a ounce for every pound you weigh, so if you weigh 200 pounds you need 100 ounces of water a day. Water is basically the lubricant for your internal body so imagine how your car would run without enough oil.

A last possibility is something in the food you are eating is sabotaging your efforts. There have been a number of reports that have come out recently about how chemicals in food and food containers can wreck havoc on your hormones, some even believe certain ones can propel your body into a weight gaining mode. This is why we want to strive to get our food from the purest sources possible.

So when you reach a plateau use the above as a checklist and you will probably see where you need to fix your program. Make sure you keep an accurate record of what you eat and when because this will most likely be where you need to do your fixing.

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