Almost everyone reaches a fitness and weight loss plateau at some point. You may even find that after your initial weight loss, your progress has slowed to a complete stop. Not to worry though—plateaus are not uncommon and can be combated.
In order to determine the reason why you have plateaued and start effectively losing weight and toning muscle once again, first ask yourself these questions:
- Am I doing the same workout over and over?
- Am I eating enough calories?
- Am I overtraining?
If you answered yes to any of these, read on to learn how to get your workout back on track and break through your fitness plateau.
Add variety.
As your body adapts to your workouts, it’s able to complete them more efficiently, therefore reducing the number of calories you’re expending during your routine. In order to progress, your body needs to be challenged. A best practice is to shake up your routine and add variety to your workout every three to four weeks. Try increasing the intensity level of your current workout or add a new exercise. Sometimes, simply performing your normal routing in the reverse order is enough to kick-start your results. This is known as muscle confusion, and it works by keeping your body guessing so that it is forced to adapt.
Eat more.
This may sound strange when addressing why you’ve stopped losing weight, gaining muscle or reaching your fitness goals. We all know weight loss requires you to take in fewer calories than you consume. But if you eat less than what your body needs to maintain daily function, your body will either 1) use fat for fuel or 2) muscle (protein) for fuel. This is called adaptive thermogenesis, also known as “starvation mode,” and results when you eliminate too many calories from your diet. Unfortunately, many people think cutting their calories to below a healthy level will speed up their weight loss by forcing the body to consume stored fat. The reality, however, is that your body can function twice as long if it holds onto the fat and uses the protein (your muscles) for fuel. This is exactly what happens, causing you to lose muscle while slowing your metabolism.
Rest
True—muscle burns fat and builds muscle better than fat, so frequent intense muscle building workouts may be tempting; but by not giving your body the adequate time it needs to rest and recover, your muscles are not able to heal the tiny tears that occur in the fibers during a workout (hence why you are sore after a hard workout) and therefore stop growing. Also, when you exercise too often or at an intensity that is too high without rest, your body responds by decreasing the amount of calories you burn while inactive, in an effort to conserve your energy.
