#30 Four Tips To Break Through A Weight Loss Plateau

You’ve been eating well and exercising and have seen some weight drop off. But nothing has happened for a while and you feel like your progress has plateaued. This is quite common so try not to get disheartened. There are a few things that you can do to help break through a weight loss plateau.

1. Re-evaluate Your Diet

You have been eating healthy and you know what you should be eating, but are you cheating on your diet and slipping up? I know that this is my biggest problem and it severely affects your weight loss. Be true to yourself and admit if you are not sticking to your diet like you should.

To stick to your diet is hard, and will require immense willpower and determination. A good idea is to keep a food journal, and highlight every time you slip up. You will start to see trends and try to identify what the cause of you slipping up is – is dessert your weakness? Or are morning teas at work letting you down? Identify the problem, and fix it!

If you are sticking to your diet 100% and still not seeing any change, then your diet is not effective and something needs to change. It could be the fact that you are consuming too little or too many calories, or eating too much of the wrong foods. Have a look at my diet daily diet and my clean eating guidelines for ideas (links). I also have a blog post on how to calculate your daily calorie intake.

2. Mix Up Your Workouts

Your body adapts to your training so you need to continually change your workouts and challenge your body to keep progressing. This can be achieved by

• Increasing the amount of weight that you lift each or every few weeks;
• Vary the exercises that you do. For example, if you always use the seated row and lat pull down machines for your back, try a variety of other workouts such as barbell row, chin-ups and standing pull downs;
• Mix up your cardio. If you’re always walking on the treadmill, add in some sprints, try a cycle class, incorporate skipping, the possibilities are endless; and
• Throw in a few HIIT sessions or incorporate HIIT moves into your weights session. For example, superset squats with box jumps. This is difficult but effective.

3. Keep Your Long Term Goals In Mind

It can be hard to keep motivated when you’re not experiencing any results. A lack of motivation can cause you to go backwards.

Sometimes it’s hard to see results when you look in the mirror. Make sure you’re tracking your progress in some other form rather than just what you see in the mirror. Take body girth measurements and progress photos. Keep in mind that even if you don’t see any change on the scales, this does not mean that you haven’t made any progress!

Make sure you have a specific goal. Do you want to lose 5kgs before a holiday? Do you want to fit into a dress for an event? Having a specific goal in mind will help keep you motivated to reach that goal.

4. Get Your Hormones Checked

If you have tried absolutely everything and have seen no difference in 2-3 months, it could be a good idea to get your hormones checked. You could have issues with your thyroid or you could have abnormal levels of testosterone, adrenal and other hormones. If you are stressed, you could have high levels of cortisol, which may contribute to increased appetite and weight gain. Please seek professional medical advice if you feel like you may have a hormonal imbalance.