Anyone who’s ever tried to lose weight is familiar with these nine frustrating words.
You’re trying to reach your goal weight, and you’re following the same healthy diet, lifestyle, and exercise plan, but suddenly the scale doesn’t work.
There’s a scientific reason why it’s so hard to lose those last few pounds, called the weight loss plateau. But before you hit Google for one of the programs that promises to help you lose the last 5 kilos, here’s some important information on why it happens, and 5 simple things you can do to beat it. I’ll show you how.
Understanding Weight Loss Plateaus
The weight loss plateau is basic biology.
When your body recognizes something that threatens survival, it automatically triggers a series of physiological responses to protect itself from the threat.
So, when you adjust your diet to reduce your calorie intake, your body will perceive that you are losing weight and that you are losing weight. It makes protective adjustments to lower your metabolic rate, burn less energy, and slow down the rate at which you lose weight.
They also secrete high levels of an appetite hormone called ghrelin. Ghrelin is known to increase hunger and promote fat storage.
Studies show that this plateau begins to creep in somewhere between 3 and 6 months of weight loss, after which weight is usually regained. So for someone who needs a significant weight loss, the last he hits a plateau well before the 5kg.
Breaking a weight loss plateau can be difficult. Whatever the time frame, it’s a sign that your previously successful approach to weight loss needs to be revised.
Here’s what you can do:
1. Review your weight loss goals
The first and most important thing that needs to change when you reach a weight loss plateau is your definition of a healthy weight.
Ask yourself: What’s so special about the weight I’m trying to achieve?
Many people use their body mass index (BMI) to set weight loss goals, but the numbers on the scale (and the scores they generate when you enter your weight and height into a BMI calculator) are nonsense. I haven’t told you all about what being a healthy weight means.
This is because the BMI calculator misses two meaningful measurements: body fat percentage and body fat distribution.
If you’re exercising regularly as part of a weight loss plan, you’re gaining muscle or improving your muscle-to-fat ratio, and muscle weighs more than body fat, which affects the number on your scale. .
It’s also likely that the location of fat distribution in your body has changed, reducing the amount of unhealthy fat stored around your stomach, which is closer to your organs, and reducing your risk of disease.
Pick up a tape measure to see how your clothes fit and think about how you feel to see if you really need to lose those last few kilos. It is about 80 cm for men, and about 90 to 94 cm for men.
2. Watch your portions throughout the day
The current fad is intermittent fasting. This often means that breakfast is the first thing removed from the menu in order to cut calories from meals and shorten the time you can eat throughout the day. But the timing of meals and the amount of each meal is important, most importantly breakfast.
Controlled studies show that this is the time of day when your body is most likely to utilize the calories you eat. In fact, in the morning he consumes calories from food 2.5 times more efficiently than in the evening. Eat a bigger breakfast and a smaller dinner instead of a smaller meal window.
3. Consider doing more strength exercises
If you rely solely on diet to lose weight, you may lose muscle along with body fat. This slows down your metabolism and makes it harder to maintain your weight in the long run.
While any physical activity can go a long way toward maintaining muscle mass, it’s important to incorporate several days of strength-building exercises into your weekly exercise routine. , is as effective as lifting weights at the gym.
4. Diet review
As you lose weight, your body needs less fuel, so it’s essential to review and adjust your caloric intake when you reach a plateau in weight loss.
Generally speaking, if you lose 10% of your weight, you need to burn 10% less calories to maintain your new weight. But this should not mean deprivation or starvation. Instead, you should focus on plenty of nutritious foods and keep snacks and takeouts to just once a week.
5. Stress check
Stress interferes with successful weight loss. Stress increases the body’s production of cortisol, promotes fat storage, and causes unhealthy food cravings.
The best type of stress management is exercise. Start doing whatever you love to encourage more exercise. However, doing the same routine every day is a surefire way to avoid boredom and activity, and it can make it harder to reach your goals, so be sure to include variety.
Conclusion
Stagnating weight loss can be frustrating and cause dieting attempts to fail.
Understanding why weight loss plateaus occur, making sure the weight loss goals you set are realistic, and following the steps above can help you stay on track.
Nick Fuller is a research program leader at the Charles Perkins Center at the University of Sydney, which has received external funding for projects related to the treatment of overweight and obesity. He is the author and founder of the Interval Weight Loss Program. This piece first appeared on The Conversation.
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