Weight Loss Plateau - Its Causes and How to Get Past It

ByRaj Rishi

You are continuing with your low calorie diet regime. You are sticking to a consistent aerobic and anaerobic exercise program and yet the scale refuses to move down even an ounce. You feel stupefied and frustrated that you have stopped burning fat and losing weight.

The truth is that you have reached a weight loss plateau.

This stalemate generally spans a period of two consecutive weeks and rest assured it is a normal occurrence and can be overcome.

Causes of weight loss plateau

1. Reduction in calorie burn out

It is common knowledge that you find it difficult to perform tough physical exercises in the beginning. It becomes easier as you continue doing them. In other words, your muscles, heart, lungs adapt to stronger workouts.

The reason for this is that while you burn more calories in the beginning of your exercise, you burn less or practically no calories at all as your body adapts to it and becomes stronger.

2. Your weight loss also causes this problem

We all know that it is easier for the light weight person to climb a mountain than an obese and heavy person because you need to carry the burden of your extra flesh.

To translate in terms of calories, you burn fewer calories if you are lean and thin and more calories if you are overweight. It is in this sense that the weight loss also contributes to the cause of this problem.

How to get past weight loss plateau?

The answer to this question is quite simple. It lies in the causes of the weight loss plateau. You have to get out of the new comfort zone you have achieved. You should set up higher goals, new bench marks.

The most important thing is not to follow blindly a generalized diet and workout plan, but to devise one to suit your individual needs.

Lift heavier weights; run faster over longer distances than before; change the exercise regime; set new limits in whatever workout regime you follow and burn more calories.

But all this is easier said than done.

It is always easy to set up goals, but difficult to achieve them. It requires a sustained effort, rigorous discipline, strong motivation and will power to achieve the kind of weight loss you dream of.

Your zeal starts cooling down after a few days and you start finding excuses to miss out your exercises. You get tired of the bland, tasteless, fat free, calorie free and monotonous diet regimes and long for the fried crispies, chocolates and pastries.

And why should you not enjoy them if you stay within limits? This can be done by taking good weight loss pills.

Try Proactol Plus weight loss pills.

Proactol Plus weight loss pills are made up of a natural cactus plant called prickly pear. Its fibrous ingredients bind with a whopping 28% of the fat you eat, stop it being absorbed by your body and pass it out. So you can continue to eat the food you eat daily. They also create a feeling of fullness and reduce craving for food.

They can help you to burn off about 250 calories daily without taking any physical exercise.

Proactol Plus pills have been extensively tested by medical experts and are certified to be absolutely free of side effects. They are easily affordable and above all, you get a money back guarantee if you do not lose weight.

Click Here to get huge discounts and bonuses on Proactol Plus Weight Loss Pills.

Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert

7 Sneaky Ways to Bust a Weight Loss Plateau

"Mikey, I can't seem to shake this weight loss plateau. I've dropped (insert number of lbs of fat) and I can't seem to get past that. Any suggestions?" - I've been asked that or something similar dozens of times.

I think I've written a post or two about it before, but when the alarm at 4 AM went off this morning, I knew this was what I was going to write for you since I've been approached by it through email or visits at my gym a lot recently. It was either this or the fact that I'm going to win my first fantasy football game since week 1. That's right, homie. Holla'!!

Insert awkward silence here - "Awkward Silence"

We've all hit the dreaded weight loss plateau. It happens. It even happened to me. You're doing all the right things like eating better, working out hard and getting plenty of rest. But you've hit a wall and you can't find a way around it.

Well, that's not cool. Good luck!

The end

That was fun and awesome to type. But so are the tips below to help you break your weight loss plateau. Over the years as a trainer, I've discovered some cool ways to get around that annoying plateau. Some of it is basic common sense and you just needed it to be drilled into your head one more time before actually doing it, while some of it may take you out of your comfort zone.

Well, you can either stay comfortable in your comfy zone, or you can quit being a wuss and implement it, then finally be victorious in your quest of breaking your weight loss plateau. Let the wusses stay in the comfort zone. The comfort zone is not for you. Put on your gloves and let's go to war...

Sneaky Way 1 - Track your calories either by hand or through free resources like fitday.com. Is it annoying and a little time consuming? Yep. But if it was easy, wouldn't everybody be lean? Just sayin'. Sure, you may THINK you're bringing in 1500 calories, but once you plug in each and every bite you take and discover you're consuming 2000 calories, then you know what to adjust.

Sneaky Way 2 - Try intermittent fasting. There are several ways to do this. One of the popular ways is 24 hours off. Mondays are my fasting days and typically my most productive days. Another option is 16 hours of fasting followed by an 8 hour window of eating every day.

Sneaky Way 3 - Adjust your nutrition a little tighter. Simply replacing one of your starches for non-starchy veggies will reduce your calories by up to 200. Veggies don't have to be boring either. As a matter of fact, I got some awesome turkey chili with plenty of veggies in it in the fridge right now. As you lose fat, I don't care what the experts say, it does get tougher. But you just tweak and retweak and your weight loss will continue.

Sneaky Way 4 - Use total body workouts. Whether you have been on a body part split or an upper/lower split, if you incorporate total body workouts, you will give your body a nice shock and burn more calories. The key here is to use big, compound movements. I've got some sample routines at my blog. Even if you are short on time, you can still work your whole body.

Sneaky Way 5 - Staying active on your "off days". Even on the days when you're not working out, you can break a weight loss plateau by staying active on your off days. I've discovered that this works better for your mentality then it does for actual fat loss (and yes, it helps with fat loss... but more with your mentality... dang it, now I'm repeating myself and this is a long sentence between the parenthesis). When my clients (and including myself) stay active, I'm less tempted to splurge when I'm not supposed to. But burning a few more hundred calories is pretty cool, too. This can be done by going for a low-intensity walk or jog, playing with your kids, etc., etc.

Sneaky Way 6 - Switch your exercises to single limb movements. In other words, instead of squats, incorporate Bulgarian squats. Switch Romanian deadlifts for 1-legged Romanian deadlifts. Insead of the barbell row, switch to the 1-arm db row.

Tell knock-knock jokes to your favorite body parts.

I know that sounds freaky, but I wanted to make sure you're paying attention. (By the way it doesn't work, but it's still fun)

Sneaky Way 7 - Cheat. Yep, I said it. Cheat on your diet. Some people are so "gung-ho" that they forget to cut loose and enjoy life a little bit. When you're constantly on a calorie deficit (awesome, I sepelled deficit right!) Ha! Good one... you will probably find yourself struggling through your workouts and find yourself a little cranky. Plan a reward meal or two. It does wonders for your mentality and it can actually help you with your fat loss. You get the occasional boost as well as raise your leptin levels. That's a whole new post that I will not even type. A guest post perhaps is in order for that one...

Boom goes the "sneaky ways to bust through weight loss plateau" dynamite

That should help.

Mikey, CFNC, CTT

Mike Whitfield has been seen on the blogs of Men's Health, Times Union, and the AJC. He specializes in fat loss plateaus and jump starting a weight loss program using his specialized metabolic workout finishers. You can learn more about him and his story of losing 105 lbs at:

http://www.cranktraining.com

Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert