When the calories you burn equal the calories you eat, you reach a plateau. To lose more weight, you need to either increase your physical activity or decrease the calories you eat. Using the same approach that worked at first may maintain your weight loss, but it won't lead to more weight loss.
There are many reasons why you might experience a weight loss plateau, this could be down to reverting your old eating habits, reducing your exercise, or having poor sleep or excess stress. However, the main reason you'll experience a weight loss plateau is down to your body's 'set point'.
Stalled weight loss efforts can be attributed to many factors, such as hormones, stress, age and metabolism. “As you age, your metabolism slows down and stress can produce cortisol, which leads to weight gain,” she says. “It's a normal process, but something we have to constantly monitor.
You're eating less but still picking less-nutritious foods. If you consume fewer calories than you expend, Dr. Weiner says it's definitely possible to lose about 10 percent of your total body weight through dieting alone. But if you want to lose more, you can't just keep cutting calories.
Cheat Often
Take a break now, and plan to take another break soon. A planned cheat day can sometimes shock your body into breaking through the plateau and going back to weight loss mode. It can also give you a mental break from being so careful with what you eat.
First, it's good to know when they start. A 2014 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition indicates that weight-loss plateaus typically begin 6 months after starting a low-calorie diet. Weight-loss plateaus may last a minimum of four weeks—and some reports say they can even last months.
When the calories you burn equal the calories you eat, you reach a plateau. To lose more weight, you need to either increase your physical activity or decrease the calories you eat. Using the same approach that worked at first may maintain your weight loss, but it won't lead to more weight loss.
The best way to overcome the weight-loss plateau, according to Dr. Avadhanula, is pretty simple: more exercise. There's no particular increment of increase you need to hit to get over that plateau, she says. But one way to know if you're on the right path is keeping track of how comfortable you are during your workout.
Busting through a weight-loss plateau is more than calories in and calories out. Processed foods won't cut it anymore, thus quality whole foods like vegetables, beans, high-fiber fruits and lean proteins are needed for your engine to burn body fat. The stores are still open so make sure to pick up fresh veggies.
Muscle Mass
A month or two after you start exercising, your body composition may begin to change. You will likely gain muscle mass and may begin to lose some fat mass. Muscle weighs more than fat, but it also burns more calories.
Some research also suggests that weight loss is about more than the calories a person consumes and burns. The body may change the rate at which it burns calories depending on how many calories a person eats. Therefore a person on a 1,200 calorie diet may burn fewer of them. This can slow weight loss.
So, will a weight loss plateau go away on its own? Most likely, no. You will need to make some changes to your daily habits to help move past it.
Research shows that weight loss plateaus happen after about 6 months of following a low calorie diet. Doctors are unsure why weight loss plateaus occur, but some theories include: the body adapts to weight loss and defends itself against further weight loss.
Re-adjust Your Calorie Intake
Let's say you needed 1,700 calories per day when you've started to diet. Now that you're leaner, your body requires fewer calories to function at its peak. To break a plateau, slightly reduce your daily calorie intake. Aim for 1,500 or 1,400 calories a day.
Research shows that after a cheat meal, the body increases its metabolism, causing you to burn calories faster.
Suddenly, you've had a whole weekend of cheat meals...and potentially some bloating to show for it. Hey, it happens. But giving yourself just three cheat days a week is enough to impact your gut health as badly as a consistent diet of junk food, according to a study in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research.
It kicks in to preserve and store fat for future energy. Research shows that this happens because the human body has evolved to value storing fat and energy and to interpret a shortage of calories as sign of distress.
Can You Gain Weight From Not Eating Enough? Undereating may cause weight gain for some people, but even if it doesn't, it's important not to eat so little that it adversely affects your health. From constipation to immune dysfunction, not eating enough can lead to a host of health issues.
But before you launch the scale (and your resolve) out the window, know that it's totally normal. In fact, it's not always a bad thing (and it's often resolvable when it is). Sometimes, putting on a few pounds is part of the process of improving your overall body composition.
The most common cause for gaining weight after working out, particularly during the first few weeks of a new training program or after a particularly intense workout, is due to water retention. What is this? This is temporary weight gain rather than a true increase in body fat.