7 Tips for Breaking Through a Weight Loss Plateau

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You will often hear bodybuilders and weightlifters talking about “hitting a plateau” they can’t seem to overcome.

No matter what they do, they simply can’t get past a certain level of performance, and lift more weight.

The same is true with other physical fitness endeavors as well.

This can also occur if you are trying to lose weight. Whether your goal is 20 pounds, 50 pounds, 100 pounds or more, you may hit a point in time when you just can’t seem to lose another ounce.

Strictly defined, a plateau is: a state of little or no change following a period of activity or progress.

You are following a diet, exercising regularly, getting plenty of rest and staying hydrated, and the weight is starting to come off.

Congratulations!

Then, seemingly for no reason at all, the same efforts that were paying off start to lead to zero weight loss.

What has happened? What do you do then? How do you move past this seemingly unbreakable barrier?

That is the focus of this short report.

Covered below are 7 proven tips and strategies for getting your weight loss cranked up once again.

Some are simple lifestyle changes.

Other methods have to do with mindset and changing habits.

Regardless of which of the following tips you try, they are all geared towards helping you reach your target weight even though it appears your weight loss may have plateaued.

1) It May Be Time for Some Tough Love

Are you being truly honest with yourself?

It is very easy to tell yourself that you are still doing the same things you did before, those activities and behaviors that led to significant weight loss.

Maybe it’s time to ask yourself some tough questions.

Have you been rewarding yourself with unhealthy meals because you were so happy about the weight you have lost?

Have you been grabbing a snack here and there without writing it down in your weight loss journal?

After all, what harm can a few candy bars or energy drinks have since you have so diligently stuck to your diet thus far?

These and other questions may lead to answers that spell out exactly why your weight loss has stopped.

Look at every aspect of what got you to this point in your weight loss journey, and examine what was happening in your life when you stopped losing weight.

Be honest with yourself, and this single tip could reveal exactly how you can get your fat burning furnace cranked up again.

2) Lower Your Salt and Sodium Intake

Excess sodium in your diet can lead to substantial weight gain.

This happens because water is attracted to salt like a chocolate and ice cream lover to a hot fudge sundae.

Since just 16 ounces (2 cups) of water weighs 1 pound, you can see how the water retention weight can add up in a hurry.

Salt is one of the many chemicals found in excess in many of the processed foods we eat.

Start reading food labels. Anything you eat that has sodium already added means you certainly don’t need to be adding more by sprinkling with the table salt shaker.

Eating more fresh, unprocessed foods takes you to healthy sodium levels, and provides a lot of other benefits over processed foods as well.

3) Add Strength Training Exercises

Cardio and aerobic exercises burn calories and fat while you are engaged in them.

However, shortly after terminating that type of physical exertion, your body’s metabolism and calorie burning ability returns to normal.

This is why people engage in extended exercise sessions when they are running, jogging, swimming or enjoying some other type of aerobic fitness activity.

Eventually, unless you continue to increase the number of cardio or aerobic sessions you engage in, or you extend the length of your sessions, your weight loss may slow down.

Don’t be concerned if this is the case, because there is a simple solution.

Add some type of strength training conditioning to your exercise program.

When you stress your muscles sufficiently, they can burn calories for up to an amazing 24 or more hours after you have stopped working out.

Another awesome benefit of strength training, like lifting weights, working out with resistance bands or body weight training, is that you don’t have to invest that much time to receive amazing weight loss benefits.

If you add 3 or 4 sessions, 20 or 30 minutes each, of strength training to your physical fitness program, you can see some amazing weight loss results.

Be sure to allow 24 hours between working out the same muscle group. This reduces your risk of injury, which could endanger your weight loss efforts altogether.

4) Change up Your Ratio of Strength Training to Cardio

We just discussed how important strength training is for building muscle and ramping up your calorie and fat burning ability.

It may be that you already strength train, as well as perform cardio.

If your weight loss has plateaued, take a good, long, hard look at your ratio of strength training to aerobic exercising.

It could be that your body would work better for weight loss purposes if you changed how much you perform different types of exercises.

If you weight train very little and spend most of your time performing aerobic exercises, make that ratio more balanced.

Do the same thing if the opposite is true.

You can read all of the weight loss, exercise, strength training and cardio fitness books in the world and then put all of that knowledge to practice.

Even so, you may not realize the physical fitness goals you are trying to achieve. That is because every human being is entirely unique.

The physiological processes which build muscle, burn fat and consume calories in you might be drastically different than someone who is the same size and weight.

Everyone is different.

If your cardio/strength training ratio has maxed out your weight loss efforts and you have not yet reached your target number, change the ratio.

Play around with it. Experiment. Record your results.

You will eventually be able to find the perfect balance of aerobic and strength training that delivers the most significant weight loss benefits.

5) You May Want to Begin the Dreaded Calorie Counting Practice

No one likes counting calories.

It is a pain in the “you know what”, and it makes losing weight boring and tedious.

If you have stopped losing weight however, this may be exactly what you need to start doing.

In the beginning of a weight-loss program, individuals often see wonderfully amazing results.

Their mind is in the right place, they are dedicated and driven, and they are at their largest weight that they will hopefully be during this journey.

That means that initial efforts frequently produce amazing results.

As you begin to lose more weight, you may have to change your dietary approach to see more weight loss.

This could mean counting calories to be sure that you are consuming a healthy amount for proper nutrition, while still giving yourself the chance at a caloric deficiency that delivers the weight loss results you’re looking for.

6) What Does Your Carbohydrate Intake Look Like?

You may have heard that calories are not the only thing you need to consider when attempting to lose a significant amount of weight.

The way your body treats carbohydrates, especially if you consume a lot of them regularly, can lead to weight gain.

As just mentioned, weight loss is sometimes pretty easy when you first start out.

So things like counting calories and carbohydrates is not required.

However, if your progress to your target weight seems to have slowed down, or stopped altogether, perhaps you should start tracking your carbohydrate intake.

Cutting back on the carbs forces your body to use fat as a fuel instead, and this could get your weight loss engines running again.

7) Boost Your Fiber Intake

Did you know that for every gram of fiber you consume, you cancel out roughly 7 calories?

This is awesome news if your weight loss efforts have plateaued.

Add an additional 30 grams of fiber to your diet each day, and you automatically eliminate a whopping 210 calories.

That simple move would contribute to a 20 pound weight loss in just 1 year.

The “barrier busting” strategies just mentioned have been used by women and men, young and old, to crank up the weight loss.

They are especially effective if you seem to have plateaued in your weight loss efforts and want to get them going again.

Seeing your weight loss stop can be a very frustrating situation.

You are working so hard to lose weight, and early on, your efforts were noticeable.

Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, you are still working just as hard, but the weight loss just isn’t happening.

The good news is that, in almost any situation, you can start crunching those calories and burning that fat, finally realizing your dream weight.

Bear in mind, you must have realistic goals.

It is not sensible to attempt to lose a certain amount of weight that would put your health at risk.

It is easy to get addicted to weight loss once you see the pounds start to melt away.

Be honest with yourself, and get important health metrics like blood pressure, heart rate and others measured regularly while you are on your weight loss journey.

As long as your health is not taking a backseat to your weight loss efforts, the strategies and tips listed above can help you smash through a plateau that has you questioning your efforts.