Plateau Buster

tim_fitbuilt4life · March 2011

Fat Loss Tip: Blasting Through a Plateau

If you’ve hit a training plateau you know how bad it can be because it just kills your ability to see progress with losing fat and gaining any more lean muscle.

At some point we will all hit a plateau and it can be quite discouraging and very frustrating so in this article we’ll look at some ways to help you blast through that plateau and get to see noticeable results in the mirror again.

The one thing I want you practice is keeping a positive mind frame even when you hit a plateau, it’s very normal so you’re not alone and taking this on as a challenge to overcome is what’s really going to help you win at continued fat loss.

Fat Loss Tip: Defining a Plateau

You probably have a ton of questions and thoughts on why you may have hit a plateau with fat loss. Is it because you have been over-training, not training enough, not eating the right foods or eating too much? Let’s look at an overview and then take it a step at a time.

Plateaus with fat loss happen when our bodies become used to the exercises we do or even the caloric limitations we set on ourselves. Our bodies have an incredible ability to adapt mostly because through evolution we have had to acclimate to different stresses such as not having enough food or having to escape from prey and conserve our energy. Pretty interesting when you look at it this way isn’t it?

Nevertheless, let’s get back on topic and realize that for the most part our plateaus occur simply because we do not have enough variation in our training and/or eating plan.

Fat Loss Tip: Factors for a Plateau

In case you want to be more aware of other signals that you may have reached a plateau, check out this list:

Feeling exhausted all the time
No progress in fat loss or muscle gain in 2 weeks time
Loss of appetite
Lack of motivation
Increase in irritability or depression
Loss of strength
Fat Loss Tip: Breaking a Plateau

So with the above in mind, we will need to test changing one factor at a time to see what can break us out of this stagnant period. The best part of this is that switches things up for us and prevents us from getting bored. In fact, if you are ever bored of working out you should now realize that it’s time to switch things up.

To give you an example, I was training 6 days a week over the past year and my results were pretty much coming to a standstill and my body was screaming with aches and even a minor injury that wouldn’t get better. The crazy thing, is that I switched it to a 3 day plan along with one day of yoga and my results with gaining lean muscle went through the roof.

This is the time when you will really have to take control and pay very close attention to your body and testing variations with your training and eating plan. For instance, the winter months may be a great time to test lower intensity workouts with a higher caloric intake (of healthy foods that is!). On the other hand, summer months on the other hand may be a good time to throw in high intensity training and reducing some carbs or fats.

Let’s take this even further and have a proactive approach which will prevent fat loss plateaus. Make a plan for what you can do in the following situations:

If you want to have some exercise but your muscles are too sore (try: yoga, pilates, biking, massage therapy, glutamine for recovery)
If you are really short on time and need a quick workout in just 15 minutes (try: 15 Minute Fat Burning Workout)
If you want to keep it healthy and increase protein intake (try: whey protein smoothie for instance)
If you feel too tired and need a pick-up (try: 15 minute nap, energy drink like SuperPump250, coffee)
If you’re bored of your current routine (try: other workouts from the workouts & training section of this site, a kickboxing or step class in your gym)
I hope you enjoyed this article and have an idea of how to break through your plateau and really implement this fat loss tip. If you have any other questions or feedback make sure to leave a comment below…