Help with a plateau

I found myself in the middle of a plateau recently and found this articele. It really helped me. Hope it can help someone else too






By Dr. Ian Smith, MD

Almost everyone over the course of a diet hits a plateau, a point where they can’t seem to lose weight any more despite their previous success. This is what I call the critical point. It’s critical, because unfortunately, most people get frustrated and disappointed and quit. DON’T QUIT!

Plateaus are very natural and happen for a good reason. The body is an extremely clever machine and while we think that we can fool it, we can only do so for short periods of time at most. The body becomes accustomed to your new way of eating and your exercise regimen and decides that it is not going to keep burning calories by shedding fat.
Believe it or not, that’s an important protective feature of how our bodies operate. Imagine if you were stuck on a cold mountain with no way of getting food or water for a prolonged period of time.

Bust Through the Standstill
The body works to conserve your fat—the source of energy—as long as possible so that you can last without food and water until a rescue team arrives. Well, it’s that feature that kicks in when you’ve been doing so well losing weight. But there is a way to bust through this “standstill” point and it requires patience and determination.

First, each time you exercise, increase it by 20% and do this for 9 days. For example, if you normally walk for 60 minutes during your exercise time, walk for 72 minutes instead. If you normally walk 2 miles at a time, walk 2.4 miles. At the same time, decrease the amount of calories you consume by eating smaller portions. This way, you’re attacking the problem from both ends.

Shock the System
Another method is to change your diet altogether. Sometimes you have to “shock” the system to get it going. So go back to an earlier phase like 1 or 2 or a combination of them and stay there for 7 days. You can play with the combination as you like, but the idea is to do something different from what you’ve been doing.

You should also change your exercise program. Try to do a different exercise. If you spend most of your time walking, then try doing stairs or playing a sport. Don’t decrease your time, just switch up the activity. The bottom line is that in order to bust through the plateau, you must shake your body out of its comfort zone. Do this for 7-9 days and you will get through it. There’s no universal solution that works for everyone, but I have found these strategies to be very effective for most dieters I’ve helped over the years.