Weight Loss Pitfalls and Plateaus
By Alphonso Allen

It’s kind of like running into a wall – that feeling you get when, after a few months on a weight-loss program, you suddenly stop seeing results. This is called a plateau and it is not uncommon. In fact, unless you continually update your program to reflect the changes your body has already experienced, you can almost be guaranteed to plateau at some point along your journey toward reaching your goal.

Weight- Loss Woes
The first thing you should do upon hitting a plateau is try to determine the cause. Could you be eating more calories than you think? Research shows that most people under report the number of calories they eat.  It’s not that they are lying, they just don’t know how to make an accurate assessment of how much they’re eating. And even if you’re eating fewer calories than before you lost the weight, you could be eating just enough to maintain your current weight at your activity level.

It’s important to keep to keep in mind that as you lose weight, your metabolism slows down because there is less of you to fuel, both at rest and during activity. So while on a diet of 1,800 calories per day you lose a certain amount of weight, if you’ve hit a plateau, it could be that 1,800 calories is the exact amount you need to stay at your current weight.

Exercise Your Option
This leaves you with two options: Lower your caloric intake further or increase the amount of time you spend being physically active. The first option is less desirable.  You may not be able to get sufficient nutrients from a diet that is low in calories, and it is difficult to stick to it for very long. It is much better to moderately reduce calories to a level that you can sustain when you reach your weight goal.

The same is true for exercise. Trying to exercise for several hours per day to burn more calories is a good way to set yourself up for failure. Not only does this regimen require an enormous time commitment, it is hard on the body, making you more susceptible to injury and over traing syndromes.

To help balance the intake with the expenditure, a good rule of thumb is to multiply your goal weight by 10 calories per pound, and add more calories according to your activity level when exercising.

Strength training should be incorporated minimum three days a week. You will be amazed that doing this will help you increase your lean muscle – and this is a good thing! Your body will burn 30-50 more calories per pound of lean muscle daily, turning you into 24/7 fat burning machine - even while you sleep.

Don’t attempt too much in an effort to burn more calories. Instead, aim for 30 minutes of moderate activity most of the days during the week and as you become more fit, gradually increase the intensity and duration of your exercise session Remember, Rome was not built in a day. Walking is always a great place to start.

Get of The Plateau
If you stop losing weight, the key to getting off the plateau is to vary your program. The human body is an amazing piece of machinery, capable of adapting to just about any circumstance or stimulus. By shaking things up a bit and varying your program, you’ll find yourself off the plateau and back on the road to progress in no time. Try it - your body will thank you.