Introduction

You've diligently sticking to your healthy eating plan, exercising regularly and checking the scales each week. To date you’ve been seeing regular, steady progress  - 0.5-1.0kg per week. Then all of a sudden nothing, not a gram lost. Why!? It doesn’t make sense! You’re been doing everything the same in relation to your diet and exercise.

So why’s this happened and what can you do to give the process a push along?

First up, chances are that the initial weight loss you’ve experienced has been body fat. As you’ve started to exercise slowly and progressively you’ve begun to gain muscle mass – a good thing! At a certain point the weight associated with the “fat loss” will be off set by the weight gain due to extra muscle mass. In other words you’ll be trading one sort of body tissue (fat) for another (muscle) with the result being little change on the scales. It is for this reason you should also (a) monitor your girth measurements – particularly your waist – as fat distributed around here is a major health risk and (b) take note of how your clothes are fitting you. Over time this will change.

What can you do to stoke up the weight loss and get even leaner?

Maintain and Enhance Your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)

Dieting (culling energy intake) immediately slows the body’s metabolic rate, which can account for 60% plus of the energy burned during the day. By slowing the metabolic rate you make it harder on yourself to burn energy at rest. Two ways to overcome this are: (i) add in some resistance training to your exercise program. This will increase your muscle mass further and muscle needs more energy to sustain it, hence speeding the RMR and (ii) even if you’re eating the same number of calories spread them out of 5 or 6 smaller meals throughout the day. Every time you eat a certain percentage of that energy goes into processing that incoming energy meaning more is burned – 5 or 6 times a day rather than only 3 times.

Adjust Your Exercise Routine

As you become fitter your body becomes more efficient at performing a given exercise. Therefore you will burn less energy. So mix up your exercise program. If you’ve been walking to date switch to cycling, swimming or incorporate a little jogging into your program to mix things up.

De-stress

If you are chronically stressed and anxious there is some scientific evidence to indicate that elevated levels of “cortisol” (the so called “stress hormone”) increase to propensity to store body fat. If this sounds like you, then seeking out an appropriately qualified health care professional such as a clinical psychologist to assist with your stress management may be a worthwhile undertaking.

Self Assessment

Are you really being truthful with yourself? Have the portion sizes snuck up a little? Are you being as diligent as you were previously? Are you hitting all of your exercise sessions. Remember, subtle changes over time are what really count. If you’re falling back into old habits this could be having a stalling effect on your weight loss goals.

Try keeping a food and exercise log for a week. Start weighing your typical portion sizes and recording your food choices. Do the same with your exercise habits and then, at the end of the week review this log. You may well find that what you “think” you’re doing compared to what you’re “actually” doing could be different enough to account for the stagnation you’re witnessing on the scales.

Is This Really a Plateau?

As mentioned above in the introduction. Your body composition could simply be changing and you’re getting leaner with increased muscle mass. As muscle weighs more than fat you won’t necessarily see the changes on the scales, you may even see your “weight” increase. So don’t be a slave to the scales look to other indicators: (i) Are you clothes looser, (ii) have your girth measurements decreased – particularly around your tummy and above all (iii) do you feel better.

If you can say “yes” to all of the above, then regardless of what the scales may tell you, you’re still moving in the right direction.