Plateau... help!!

It's not true that the same exercise, done repeatedly at the same intensity, for the same amount of time, at the same bodyweight, will burn materially fewer calories. Some of the fitness-products industry want people to believe that so they can sell us the latest trendy workouts videos, books, and equipment. Now, that idea has bled over into other people who aren't selling.

What burns calories is work, in pretty much the physics sense of work. Same work, same calorie burn.

What is true:

* As your bodyweight is lower, you'll burn fewer calories doing the same workout, if a reasonable portion of the work is moving your bodyweight (as in running). A lighter person burns fewer calories per mile than a heavier person.

* In some exercises, ones that have a major technique component, it's conceivable that you'll burn a slightly different number of calories by becoming more efficient (fewer wasted movements, or more powerful ones) but it could cut either way, and is unlikely to be a big difference. Running in particular is of lower likelihood to have meaningful efficiency variations. (With HIIT, it's hard to tell, because so many things these days are called "HIIT".)

* If we want to make fitness progress, we do have to keep increasing the frequency, duration, or intensity, because it's challenging ourselves that improves fitness. The good news on that front, is that as we get fitter, we can usually go harder in the same time period, or go longer at the same intensity, or work out more often, and burn more calories that we could before, without becoming over exhausted.

* If we over-exercise (to the point of persistent fatigue through the rest of the day), that has the potential to reduce our daily life calorie expenditure (we do less, rest more). That can potentially reduce weight loss.

* Same deal, if we lose weight too fast, for too long: Fatigue, lower energy, less daily life calorie burn.

Otherwise, if you're enjoying your exercise, and not feeling over fatigued, a plateau is not normally a sign you need to change your workouts. It's usually something else. Sometimes it's temporary water retention masking fat loss (can be more likely in hot weather). Sometimes it's logging accuracy issues for either food or exercise. There are lots of possibilities, most of them captured in the flowchart posted above . . . the flowchart too many people love to hate. 😉

I hope you're able to figure out what the issue is, for you. Hang in there!