Despite a healthy lifestyle, your body weight is stagnating, and you just don’t lose weight anymore? An expert explains why it might be and what to do now.
You are doing everything right: you exercise regularly and eat healthily. Nevertheless, the number on the scale does not want to get smaller.
Sooner or later, this can be pretty frustrating and reduce motivation. But such a plateau should not be a reason for you to give up – on the contrary!
Adjust The Habits
While a weight loss plateau can be overcome for a few days or weeks without much intervention, a prolonged standstill on the scale lasting several months should encourage you to make changes.
It doesn’t have to be a complete lifestyle change. However, it doesn’t hurt if you take a close look at your previous habits and tweak them a little.
These Nine Aspects Will Help You Over The Weight Loss Plateau
Determine The Correct Calorie Requirement
All you need to do to lose weight is a calorie deficit. That means you’re consuming fewer calories than your body is burning.
Calculate your daily energy requirements and reduce your calorie intake by around 20 percent – no more, please. Keep in mind that your daily movement and your training units also influence and should be added to the total turnover.
“Once you lose weight, your body needs fewer calories than it did when you started,”
Track Your Meals Properly
Are you one of those people who track their calories? Then make sure you’re doing it right. Roughly estimating calories may be the first step, but it can also be counterproductive.
It’s better to use a scale, no matter how tedious it is. This is the only way you can be sure to write down the correct amount of calories and avoid unnoticed extra calories.
Important: A healthy diet is all about the nutrients in the ingredients. Therefore, make sure that you consume a lot of protein, fiber, healthy fats, and plenty of vitamins.
Snacking Also Counts
Here a small portion of nuts, there is yogurt with fruit. Of course, such snacks are healthy and provide essential nutrients.
However, keep in mind that they still have calories. Enjoy healthy snacks, but keep them in mind in your calorie balance.
The Weekend Is Not A Free Pass
Is your lifestyle exemplary during the week? Then you can go overboard at the weekend, right?
Unfortunately, if you want to lose weight, the consistent answer is no because the body makes no difference whether the calories are taken on Monday, Wednesday, or Saturday.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you should never treat yourself to something unhealthy. Just be aware that this exception also counts and should not dominate your menu.
“Be honest about your weekends,”
Get Out Into The Fresh Air
Don’t want to eat less? Then move more! This doesn’t just mean pure sport, but the available amount of exercise that you do.
In particular, people who work a lot at their desks in the office have to make sure they get their daily 10,000 steps. Therefore: Get out into the fresh air!
Set New Training Stimuli
Whether it’s HIIT, strength training, or cardio sports: at some point, it’s time to increase your performance. Because if you always train with the exact weights, sets, and repetitions, your body will not develop further.
Set new stimuli regularly, every six to eight weeks.
Building muscle, in particular, can help you lose fat faster. Because the more significant your muscle mass, the more calories your body burns even when it is at rest. So get on the weights!
Less Stress, More Sleep
Too little sleep and negative stress can not only spoil your mood, but they also hurt your figure. This is partly due to the hunger hormone ghrelin, which is increasingly released and makes you eat more.
But not only that: At the same time, the stress hormone cortisol is increasingly released, which stimulates the appetite or leads to water retention.
At the same time, the body tends to store fat reserves in stressful situations – losing weight is much more difficult for you. So find a healthy balance and relax.
Take A Break
You’ve been on a strict diet for weeks or months, and in the course of this, you even do without certain nutrients? Maybe it’s time for you to take a little break.
“In this way, your body can normalize the thyroid and hunger hormones, which stimulates your metabolism again,”
Be Patient
Even if it can be challenging: be patient. Just because the number on the scale hasn’t changed in the last few days doesn’t mean you have to change your entire plan.
Just stay on the ball, keep eating healthy, and get enough exercise. Then the positive results should not come in.
And remember: Gained muscle mass is also noticeable on the scale. So that one number shouldn’t be the only indicator you go by.