How To Avoid a Weight Loss Plateau

Weight loss plateaus happen way too often, to way too many people.

After a few months of successful dieting and trying to lose weight, progress begins to rapidly decline, if not stop completely. You have hit a weight loss plateau. Frustrated with the situation, two courses of action that yield undesirable results usually take place.

Either the frustration leads to completely stopping, only to gain back the lost weight or
You start working out and dieting harder, only to progress a small amount further.

So why exactly did you hit a weight loss plateau ?

First and foremost, a self-evaluation must take place. It’s common that results begin to decline due to a lack of compliance to one’s program or a faulty program. The primary faults can be separated into two categories.

Amount of food – Most people that diet have no idea exactly how many calories they are consuming. Eating too little or too much will hold you back from your weight loss goals. Even too much “healthy” food can hold you back.
Quality of food and Macronutrients – People who diet usually only consider how healthy the food they are consuming is. Food can be healthy, yet still hold you back from your goals. The levels of protein, fat, and carbohydrates have a huge influence on success. People like to argue that a “calorie is a calorie,” but this simply isn’t true. The second law of thermodynamics states that variation of efficiency for different metabolic pathways is to be expected. Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are all processed differently, so the notion that a “calorie is a calorie” violates this law.

So, you’re weighing your food and following the program to the “T”, yet still you’re stuck in a weight loss plateau. So, what’s going on?

Diets usually incorporate restricted calories for long periods of time. Restricting calories will cause great amounts of weight loss, but the longer one stays on a calorie deficit, the harder it is to lose the weight and you hit a weight loss plateau. Most people know that when you don’t eat enough, it will cause the metabolism to slow down, but most don’t know how, when, or why.

The human body is incredibly complex and has millions of mechanisms in place to protect itself. As the length of a calorie deficit increases, the body will start triggering hormonal, behavioral, psychological, and metabolic responses. It will literally send more hunger signals and cravings while unconsciously making you lazier to preserve energy. The body as smart as it is, can’t distinguish between dieting and starving, so it will do anything to save itself if it believes it’s starving.

The body burns energy for three purposes.

Resting Energy Expenditure or Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) accounts for 60-75% of energy consumption throughout the day. These are things that happen while you are at rest like breathing and your heart pumping blood.
Active energy expenditure accounts for 17-32% of daily energy consumption. This can be broken up in two categories 1) physical exercise and 2) other daily activities like walking and talking.
The thermogenic effect of feeding accounts for 8% of daily energy consumption. This is the energy needed to convert food into fuel.

The main reason a metabolism will slow down and you hit a weight loss plateau is because of the weight that has been lost. As you lose weight, your metabolism will decrease because smaller people burn fewer calories than bigger people. The more weight you lose, the slower both your resting and active metabolism will get. If you are consuming the same number of calories throughout the weight loss process, the calorie deficit will get smaller, which in turn will slow down results leading to a weight loss plateau.

Muscle Loss

Loss of muscle while in a caloric deficit is inevitable. Although some of the weight lost at first is from fat, a small amount may be muscle. The less fat you have while in a caloric deficit the more muscle will account as a portion of the weight loss. Every pound of muscle requires approximately 60-80 calories to maintain. A loss of muscle will decrease the number of calories burned while at rest and while active.

Metabolisms will also adapt overtime to changes imposed on the body and lead to a weight loss plateau. When first starting an exercise program, the body isn’t used to such activities and is forced to adapt and become efficient. The more efficient the body becomes the less energy is required to do the activity. The 10 minutes mile that use to burn 120 calories, now may only burn 100; not to mention the decrease in energy expenditure from the loss of weight. Extended periods of caloric deprivation can also lower the amount of energy required to convert food into fuel. This metabolic adaption is a reason why it’s so easy to gain weight back after dieting.

So how can you avoid a weight loss plateau?

Many athletes utilize cycles of muscle building and fat loss to keep your metabolism high. After a period of a caloric deficit for fat loss, raise your calories to maintenance or slightly higher while focusing on consuming nutrient dense “clean foods.” This will keep your metabolism going and won’t cause much, if any fat gain.

Periodically incorporating cheat meals will not only keep the mind sane but will require your metabolism to spike to process the influx of calories. A general rule of thumb is one cheat meal a week or one cheat day every two weeks.

Don’t go overboard and drop calories too drastically or try to do everything at once. Sure, this will yield results quickly, but it will also increase the likelihood of getting “burnt out” and stopping causing you to gain the weight right back. Focus on muscle gain to burn the extra fat, not the total deficit. Slowly change one little thing at a time and you will be well on your way to achieving your goal and avoiding a weight loss plateau.