Breaking a Weight Loss Stall


A question often posed on weight loss chat groups is about how to break through a weight loss plateau. Let’s face it, it’s great when a weight loss program works and your consistently losing weight but when the scale stops moving, it can be frustrating, especially when you feel like you’ve been following the diet to a ‘T’, not cheating, exercising and seemingly doing everything right.
This is also true for when you’re finally close to those final 5-10 lbs. It can take just as long or longer to lose those final pounds as it took for all the rest, especially if you’re over the age of thirty.
Let me start by saying that our bodies are amazing systems. They work hard every day trying to keep our chemistry in balance so that all of our organs, etc. are functioning well. When we change things in our lifestyles, such as our diet, our body must adjust. These adjustments take time and our body will fight to maintain homeostasis.
Use a Measuring Tape
The scale is not always accurate when it comes to weight loss. Changes in hormones, water retention, building muscle and losing fat, all come into play. Using a tape measure and taking pictures of yourself in a bathing suit are much more reliable and useful ways to track your progress. Knowing how your clothes are feeling can also be an indicator as to whether you're body composition is changing.
Fasting
When it comes to weight, our bodies have a ‘set point’ and it can take a long time through lifestyle changes for this ‘set point’ to change. After reading The Obesity Code by Jason Fung my thoughts are that one of the best ways to speed up this change in your ‘set point’ is through fasting which minimizes the amount of insulin sensitivity in our bodies, so I encourage you to read that if you desire more information about this.

Fasting is one way to help your body start losing weight again, not everyone is ready or willing to try fasting, but if you are, check out my blog post The Hype About Intermittent Fasting.
If you're not into trying intermittent fasting, then at the very least, stop eating late at night and stop snacking. Give your body a chance to burn its own fat stores.

Exercise
While I truly believe that ‘Abs are made in the kitchen’ and that the impact of diet plays a much larger role in your overall health and fat retention, exercise can play an important role in signalling your body to drop weight.
If you have never exercised before then I would encourage you to simply take up walking. Adding a 30 minute stroll around the neighbourhood may be enough to get your weight moving in the right direction again.
If you’re looking for more of a challenge, than I highly encourage you to try bodybuilding. See my blog Best Shape of Your Life without a Gym!
If you already have an exercise routine than change it up! Your body gets use to routine and becomes to expect what it needs to do. Your body needs new stimulus in order to break through a plateau and sometimes a new way of moving throughout the day can do that. 
Interval training, where you work hard for short bursts can be a great way to change up your routine without changing what you’re doing. If for example, you have a favourite exercise video, than go really hard for 1 minute than take it easy for 1 minute and cycle through those intense bursts throughout to get that metabolism humming again.
On another note, doing miles of running or cardio exercise thinking it will help your waistline can actually be counterproductive when trying to lose weight. It can stimulate your appetite causing you to over eat or signal your body that it’s under stress and needs to hold on to all its fat stores because you may need them. If you like your cardio, but you’re not losing weight, again, just change what you’re doing. Try doing sprints with walking in between or finding a hilly terrain if you’re a runner. If you love your aerobic classes, it could be as simple as trying a new class out.
Stop Stressing
Sometimes, stressing about the scale not moving can be your biggest hindrance. Stress from anything in life, work, family, bills or even good stress such as a new baby or career, can increase the stress hormone cortisol which tells our bodies to hold onto fat. Even dieting for too long can be a stress. Maybe you need to take a diet break. This means eating at maintenance calories for a week so that you're body doesn't feel the need to hold onto calories.
Medication

Things like Thyroid medication, Diabetes medication, Birth Control Pills or Hormone Replacement Therapy, can have an impact on your weight as they impact the regulation of hormones. Consult with your doctor to see whether medication may be a factor in your weight loss efforts and ensure that you are taking the correct dosage or if there is an alternative to your medication. If you are holding onto a few extra stubborn pounds and you’re on birth control for example (estrogen tells your body to hold onto weight) then you may want to explore some non-hormonal methods of contraceptive with your doctor.

Stay the Course
While that’s not an exhaustive list of what may cause a weight loss stall, things like alcohol, medication, chronic illness, allergies, etc. can also impact your weight loss, it does get you thinking about what steps may make most sense for you. What works for one person doesn’t always work for the next.
The most important thing, is to embrace your low carb diet as a lifestyle and be patient. People who have just ‘trusted the process’ and made a few tweaks in their diet here and there, have been rewarded with the most amazing changes in their body compositions. Men lose their beer bellies and have abs for the first time even in middle age and women who had almost given up on having their dream bodies are wearing their teen daughter’s jeans. It’s amazing and encouraging to see these changes but they don’t happen overnight, they take time, so be patient and don’t throw in the towel.

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