It is a common issue. You know how it goes, you have been losing weight for a while and then it stops. Why did it happen? Did you reach a magical plateau? Has your body decided that it is happy at the new weight, or?
I have seen this scenario play out probably thousands of times over the years and this is my take on it.
Initially, most clients I see are fairly motivated to make some changes to their diet and lifestyle. They tweak some of their habits, they become more mindful about what they eat, they track what they are doing and in return they get good results and feel so much better.
Then, some weeks later, their results begin to diminish. Whereas before they were achieving steady losses, their results now are smaller, or non-existent, or horrors, they start to regain the lost weight. Why? Because they changed something.
It starts with where you are at in your headspace. Is the desire to lose weight a wish or a serious want? If it is a wish, like ‘I’d like to drop a few kilos before my holiday’ as opposed to “I am going lose 5 kilos before my holiday”, it will make a difference. Most of the time you aren’t even aware of what you have started (or stopped!) doing.
Some of the most common reasons for weight loss stopping are:
Feeling complacent. Maybe you have lost enough fat to feel smaller, fitter, healthier and more comfortable in your clothes and, often subconsciously, you think ‘it won’t matter if’ and you start to fall back into old habits.
You start to add in little extras, a few nuts/biscuits/crackers here, extra fruit or more treats there and before you know it, you have added in a few hundred extra calories. Those extra calories do count.
The weekends become a time to relax and indulge. Whereas when you first started you were very aware of the extras, now they just kind of slip in. A meal off becomes a weekend off and the weekend starts on Friday, right?
Your portion sizes grow. A little bit more here and there, even of the ‘right’ food and suddenly the calorie deficit you had before disappears and you are eating at your maintenance level. The next step from here is more energy coming in than your body requires and you start filling up the fat cells again.
You might be eating out more often and when you do, you aren’t quite so particular about making better choices as you once were.
Extra alcohol slips in and exercise slips out. More of one and less of the other sends you back in the wrong direction.
These are some of the most common factors I see in why a client stops losing weight. Unless someone has experienced rapid, massive fat loss, it is unlikely to be a true plateau.
Fat loss is a head game. Where the mind goes, the body follows. Once you start being a bit wishy washy with your desire to lose fat, your results will change. No mystery as a rule. If your fat loss has slowed down or stopped, read the above points again, get out a food diary, (you can download one here) and keep a 100% accurate record of what you eat and drink. Every bite!
New recipes on my website
Cauliflower and broccoli salad. Last week I decided that I was done with (hot) winter veggies and would move to raw/salad veggies. At the time I had a head of broccoli and half a cauliflower in the fridge and, not wanting to waste them, I came up with a stir fry that turned into a salad. It was delicious and made about 6 servings as it was very filling, served alongside protein.
Cauliflower rice is such a good way to bulk out meals and to use as a low carb substitute for rice. It is super easy to make and you can eat as much as you want. See the recipe here.
Lettuce wrapped chicken burgers. I used chicken for this, but you could swap out the chicken for beef burger patties, fish fillets, pork steak or haloumi. Barker's do a good range of sauces that are handy to keep in the fridge. See the recipe here.
Hopefully the weather will hang around and our menus will change back to more simple foods, like skewers on the BBQ, bun less burgers etc. It really did feel like the never-ending winter of 2019, but hopefully we are on the up now.
8 weeks until Christmas!
If you have started trying on your summer clothes and they are feeling a bit snug, or if you need help restarting your fat loss, contact me now and let’s get going.
