Guest guest Posted June 10, 2004 Report Share Posted June 10, 2004 Overcome Your Weight Loss Plateau Don't despair, it's only a temporary setback!! Have you hit one yet? That plateau where the scale just seems to be stuck at the same number for weeks at a time? If you're there, don't panic... it's only a temporary situation. Sometimes our bodies may get in a sort of " rut " and doing the same old, same old just seems to stop working. Don't let this situation stop you dead in your tracks. Now is not the time to give up! Here are a few tips we have found helpful in breaking through our weight loss plateaus: Eat something " bad " . Sheri is on the Weight Watchers 1-2-3 plan, and although she has had a good deal of success, the last month or so was really tough for her. She says she was losing only a half a pound a week -- if anything -- instead of her usual pound or two. When she spoke to her Weight Watchers leader, they discovered Sheri was going just under her Points range some days. What did Sheri do? She headed to the nearest Burger King! Sheri swears by eating a hamburger once a week to stay on track. " The weight started coming off again, just like it did in the beginning. I guess the burger gives my metabolism a little boost. I can't believe I eat a Whopper on Weight Watchers! " Be honest... are you cheating? Sometimes if we don't monitor our eating habits very closely, we fall back into old habits without giving them a second thought. Are you falling into the mindless eating trap? Are you stressed and responding to it by eating? Have you stopped paying attention to portion sizes? Are you writing down absolutely everything -- even sodas or candy from your co-worker's candy dish -- in your food diary? Even if you don't normally keep a food diary, track what you eat for a minimum of three days. Do you see any patterns -- certain times of the day, certain foods, eating with certain people? Doing a little extra stringent self-monitoring may point out some areas that need improvement. But don't be too hard on yourself! On the other hand, you need to make sure you're not depriving yourself and then setting yourself up for a binge. Sometimes we " make up for " not eating our favorite foods for days or weeks at a time by overindulging when we finally do say yes to our craving... which certainly sets us up for a stumbling block. Instead, let moderation guide you. If you allow yourself small portions of your favorite foods -- even if they're not diet-friendly -- or better yet, if you can find reduced fat versions of them, indulge! If not, you may give into cravings without giving them a second thought simply because you feel you've missed out on your favorites for so long. Pump some iron. Marci wrote me to say that she experienced a weight loss triumph when she began lifting weights. " I had been at the same weight for nearly six weeks! I was doing everything on my diet by the book and walking my 30 minutes a day, but it just stopped working! I was ready to give up. " But Marci didn't give up. Instead, she high-tailed it to the nearest sporting goods shop and purchased a set of dumb bells. She started out small, just doing curls with three pound hand weights, but she soon worked up to using ankle weights for leg exercises and she eventually increased the weight of her dumb bells. " It wasn't magic, but I did start seeing changes. At first I just saw some toning, which was great, but I really wanted to see the scale move. In about three weeks I broke through and lost six more pounds! " If you consider using weights, be sure to okay it with your doctor if you have any orthopedic or muscular-skeletal conditions. *************************** HELP! I'm Not Losing!!!! by Joanne Bednar You eat right, you exercise. You've tried to lose weight now for over a month, unsuccessfully. What gives? It seems that you are following the rules, so why on earth are you not losing weight? The answer is different for everyone, but if you are not seeing weight-loss after doing everything right, then you need to look at a few different factors: (1) Caloric intake. Just because you are eating healthy and exercising doesn't grant you a license to over-eat. The rule still applies that in order to lose a pound of fat per week, you must eliminate 3500 calories from your weekly intake/output. The best strategy to do this is to reduce your caloric intake by 250 per day, and exercise off 250 per day (500 x 7 days in a week = 3500). So how many calories should you really be taking in? Try this formula: #1 Take your weight and multiply it by 10 #2 Take that number and multiply it by .30 for light exercise, .40 for moderate exercise or .50 for heavy exercise #3 Add up the answers to #1 and #2, then multiply that answer by .10 #4 Add up the answers to #1, #2, and #3 to get your estimated calorie intake per day (This calculation is from the American Dietetic Association) (2) Exercise intensity level Many people exercise daily, but at the wrong intensity level. You will still get great benefits from exercising daily, but if you are not working hard enough you will not burn enough calories to lose weight. Find out your target heart rate! Click here: target heart rate (3) You are putting on lean muscle mass During the first 6-8 weeks of a new weight training program you will gain 4-6 pounds of pure, lean, calorie burning, metabolism raising muscle mass! In MOST cases you will not notice this gain, because you are losing body fat pounds at the same time. What this does do is keep the scale constant, frustrating many who are trying to lose weight. What IS happening, however, is your percentage of body fat is going down, which is a better indicator of health and fitness than any scale. Be patient and be prepared for this transition. After you get past this initial period, you will continue to burn body fat and reduce your pull of gravity on the earth (better known as WEIGHT). (4) You are already at an ideal body weight. Even though our image of ourselves may be twisted and distorted when we look in the mirror, we need to take a good look at whether or not we really need to lose any weight, or just need to get fit and healthy. There are millions of people out there (mostly women) who continually strive to reduce their weight further and further to achieve some kind of perfectionism that is not within reach. The sad thing is they are already at an ideal body weight. What should be focused on is making healthy eating a part of life, and making exercise a daily routine, and the rest will just fall into place. If you follow the rules of healthy living, any excess weight that shouldn't be there will eventually go away. If it doesn't then it probably needs to be there. For a good number of people (over 50% of Americans are obese), this is not the case, and some weight does need to be removed for health reasons. Joanne Bednar is the owner and webmaster of The Motivation Station web site. She is a certified Personal Trainer and has a BS degree in Exercise Sport Science. ***************************** Give Me a Break!! (A Guide to Breaking the Weight Loss Plateau) by Joanne Bednar It's inevitable. Anyone who has lost a large amount of weight (more than 10-15 pounds) has hit one or more weight loss plateaus. The weight loss plateau is a very annoying period of body adjustment, where your body " catches up with itself " so to speak. I hit 2 or 3 of them when I lost my 38 pounds, and I learned a lot from each one of them. I mostly learned patience! There are two types of plateaus that occur. The first plateau is the short plateau, lasting 2 weeks to 4 weeks. The short plateau is the kind that all active " dieters " run into throughout their weight loss efforts. It is not necessary to make adjustments for this type of plateau, because your body is simply re-adjusting to your new weight. Over time (2-4 weeks) you will naturally start losing weight again, as long as you continue your healthy diet and exercise program. Patience is all you need to get past a short plateau. The second type is the long-term plateau, which lasts for longer than 4 weeks. If you go for more than 4 weeks without losing weight, AND you are continually following a nutritious diet and exercise program (in short, you are doing everything perfectly), then you need to make some changes. A plateau lasting for longer than 4 weeks is because you are no longer asking your body to go beyond it's point of comfort. Let me explain this further: When you first start a new way of eating and a new exercise program, everything is a total shock to your body. All of a sudden you are filling the body with good healthy food full of nutrients, and you are pushing your body so that it responds to physical activity. You burn a high number of calories because it requires a ton of effort just to do simple exercise. Over time, you adjust and become more efficient at exercise, and it no longer requires the same amount of calories that it once did. If you do not change your activity, and continue to eat the same amount of food, you will eventually stop losing weight. The same principle applies to food. If you cut your calories down to 1500 per day, and lost 15 pounds that way, your new weight may use that 1500 calories for maintenance now, rather than weight loss. It's as simple as calories in = calories out. So how do you break out of this long-term plateau? There are several things you can try, but the most important thing to remember is CHANGE. Any change is worth a try to shake things up a bit. Let's start with food intake: have you been taking in the same number of calories or fat grams since the beginning of your lifestyle change? If so, then you need to throw your body off, and there are a couple of ways to do this. You can cut your calories or fat grams by a bit more (not a lot) to adjust for your new weight. You can try going off your healthy eating plan completely for 3-4 days. You can actually try increasing your calories or fat grams a bit per day. You can switch from eating 3 square meals per day to 6 smaller meals throughout the day. You can eat your largest meal in the morning and smaller meals at lunch and dinner. You can increase your water intake. In the exercise department, you need to find ways to further challenge your body. You can try many different strategies: You can completely switch your exercise method. If you only walked before, you can switch to cycling. You can introduce cross-training into your program. If you only walked before, alternate it with cycling or aerobics You can exercise for 5-10 minutes longer each day. You can exercise harder during your normal session time. You can introduce interval training, where you alternate intensity levels throughout your workout. You can add another day of exercise to your week. You can switch the time of day you exercise. You can start lifting weights. You can vary which activity you do first: lifting weights or cardiovascular activity You can change the time of day that you exercise. As you can see, there are many different ways to TRY and break a plateau. I recommend that you start by trying 2 or 3 all at the same time. If they don't work, then next week try some others. It takes some experimenting to find out what will work for you, at this particular time in your weight loss journey. The steps I took to break my first plateau didn't work to break my second, so be prepared to pull out something else from your arsenal. You can expect that your new method will become effective within 2 weeks. If you are not seeing any other results, then you need to change your method again. If you are close to your goal weight (or ideal weight within reason) and none of these methods work, then you need to look at 2 factors: Have your body fat tested. It is very possible that you are already at your ideal body fat level, and your body is not going to allow any further losses. Accept your new weight, and congratulate yourself for the long, hard road you just traveled! ******************************* Dieters who finally muster the determination to start exercising to lose weight frequently find themselves facing a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. After steadily shedding pounds on a diet-and-exercise plan, their weight suddenly refuses to drop further. Weight-loss plateaus occur commonly, says , a registered dietitian with the American Institute for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C. In the first of four health briefs from the Detroit Free Press says that the first step to breaking through the plateau is to readjust the balance between calories consumed and exercise spent burning them. This might be done by increasing the time or intensity of a workout or revising the diet. Weight-loss plateaus can also be a sign that your body is getting into shape and becoming more efficient during exercise. This means that the same workout burns less energy than it did when you started weeks or months earlier. A feature from theSan -Express explains how to estimate levels of exertion during exercise to determine if it's time to ratchet your workout up a notch. ****************************** 7 Ways to Beat the Diet Block - 2 July, 2001 The eDiets Nutrition and Motivation Team If you've been dieting for some time you've probably encountered the frustrating 'weight plateau'. You've worked hard and lost weight, but now no matter what you do, you can't seem to lose any more. For many dieters, this is frustrating, demoralising, and all too often, causes the successful dieter to give up. You might ask yourself, " What's the use? Why continue my diet if I'm not getting anywhere? " Once you have this thought, your motivation lags, and most likely, you stop dieting. If you've ever had this conversation with yourself you've come to the right place for some attitude adjustment. First, recognise that few things in this world follow a straight line. The stock market doesn't go straight up (or down), each day in July isn't always hotter than the day before. To see the whole picture, you have to stand back from day-to-day fluctuations and observe the larger trends that take place. The same is true for your weight. Assuming that you persist, a year from now you may be able to look back and see a plateau that was followed by another period of weight loss. But this only happens if you persist. If you are thinking 'What's the use?' you won't persist and you will give up and regain the weight that you worked so hard to lose. Think about this plateau positively. It's a time for you and your friends and family to get used to you in a new body. Sometimes such a big physical change can be difficult for everyone involved. Plateaus allow you to adjust. Given the will-power you have shown to-date, you won't stay stuck forever. There are plenty of ways, practical and psychological, to get you over this physical block. Here are just a few of them. 1. Forgive yourself! Plateaus usually accompanied by self-criticism. You get angry with yourself for losing control and breaking your healthy eating patterns. Accept it. You are human and you are experiencing a normal aspect of the weight loss process. So forgive yourself and you will be able to get on with it. 2.Take time out. Stop and think about why you have hit this plateau. From a practical point of view you may have strayed off track, but what is the underlying reason. Are you bored? Are you stressed? Work on those areas first and watch yourself get right back on track. 3.Get physical! Take a new exercise class or run/walk a different route today. It will kick start your metabolism as well as making life a little more interesting. 4.Experiment! Try different low-fat recipes with the wonderful fresh fruits and vegetables that are in season. Realise that eating healthy doesn't mean boring foods! Choose a few new eDiets recipes for your weekly menu. 5.Treat yourself! Really indulge yourself have a day at the spa, a manicure, buy a new book, go to an art museum, the theatre or to see a film, anything enjoyable that is not related to food. 6. Talk about it! Tell someone about your diet block and what you are doing about it. Make sure that this person is understanding and compassionate. Why not join one of the eDiets community support groups. You are definitely not alone in your experience. 7.Think positively! Focus on the weight that you have lost. You've done it before and you'll do it again. ************************ So, there are several articles and differing views on the subject but all agree that continuing to stick with your plan and adding to your energy output are so important to success in breaking any plateau. I hope that you can all find something here that will help you!!!! 15 Tips for Breaking through a Plateau by Weight Watcher Leader 1. JOURNAL, JOURNAL, JOURNAL -- This is one of the most powerful tools to help you stay on track or get back on track. Your journal can help you see where you are perhaps going over or under on your number of points for the day, or aren't getting in the Guidelines for Healthy Living requirements. Use your journal as a detective tool: Had a good week? Look over it at the end of the week and try and see what you think contributed to that success. Had a not so good week? Again, look over your journal to see what may have contributed to you playing a little looser with the program. Look at last week's journal for clues too, sometimes it takes a full week before the effects of a blown week show up. 2. EATING BY THE NUMBERS (Or are you getting in too many carbs? Protein? Not enough fat?) -- Look at your food choices, are you really getting a wide variety of foods in? Remember, your body needs nutrients from lots of different sources and if you're eating the same things all the time or too much of one type of food, you're probably not getting the proper nutrition your body needs. How is your protein to carb ratio? Look at the Eating by the Numbers chart on page 8 of your Week 1 booklet for suggested guidelines of how to most nutritiously spend your points during the day. These are suggested ranges for someone under 200 pounds, for over 200 take most of your extra points from complex carbohydrates and protein. There's a helpful Excel spreadsheet on Rea's homepage: www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/6548/ that is called something like the Points Food Groups Journal that she's got set up for 28-35 points per day, but all you've got to do is input your points range and the suggested guidelines from the Eating by the Numbers chart for the various food groups. This can help too if you're one of those old WW selection plan people who just don't like the Points system. You can use this to follow the points, but use it for the selections of the various food groups so that you keep a healthy balance in your points. Take a look at your food choices as sometimes we have the attitude that as long as our points balance at the end of the day we're okay, but if we keep in mind the Guidelines for Healthy Living on pages 5-7 of the Week 1 booklet, we'll see that we still are asked to do a few steps to ensure we're spending our points in a way that keeps our bodies healthy. 3. WEIGH AND MEASURE PORTIONS -- Too many times our portions have gotten bigger without us realizing it, using measuring cups and spoons and weighing out our portions can give us a better idea if our portions have suddenly grown bigger than we're counting. Remember, portion size does matter. 4. READ LABELS CAREFULLY -- Are you counting your points right for the product that you're eating. I remind everyone of my jumbo dinner frank story where the serving size was half a frank! Who eats half a frank? I was counting 4 points when I should have been counting 8 points. If you're eating a bigger serving size than the one listed on the label you're probably eating more points than you calculated. 5. REMEMBER, ZERO MULTIPLIED IS NOT ALWAYS ZERO (okay, not when it comes to food points) -- If you're eating one serving of fat free sugar free gelatin for 10 calories, okay, that's zero points, but if you're now eating 4 servings plus 2 tbsp of fat free whipped topping, you've got yourself one point! Beware of those hidden extras where we multiply portions, and beware of BLT's: Bites, Licks, and Tastes that never seem to get counted on any journal. These add up. 6. TOO MANY REFINED CARBS? -- Are you eating too many sources of simple and refined carbohydrates, the stuff that's heavily processed and no longer looks like its natural food source. Think of it as the difference between whole grain bread and processed white bread, brown rice vs. white rice, popcorn cakes vs. corn on the cob. Try to include more of the natural sources of carbohydrates in your diet stuff like beans, yams, potatoes, brown rice, and whole wheat anything rather than so many crackers, pretzels, and chips (even low fat chips). This is not to say you can't have any refined carbs, just try to limit the amount of them if you're having trouble 7. NOT ENOUGH FAT? -- Okay, this sounds counterintuitive, but according to the Eating by the Numbers chart and for good nutrition you should be actively adding in about 2-3 points of fat per day. This is stuff like vegetable oils, margarine, butter, regular or reduced fat (not fat free) salad dressing, avocados, regular or reduced fat (not fat free) mayonnaise, olives, and peanut or soy butter. I have personally met a number of people now who weren't losing and when I suggested they start actively adding in 2-3 points of fat per day they started losing again. Our bodies need enough fat in order to properly function. You think there's enough fat in my food already, right? Not when you're limiting your number of points in order to lose weight. We are often making much lower fat choices than we normally would have, and as a consequence our consumption of fat falls far below the recommended guidelines according to lots of nutrition experts of 30% of your total calories in fat per day. If you are limiting your fat intake to only the fat that's naturally in food and even then you're probably taking the skin off the chicken and drinking skim or 1% milk, then you might only be getting around 10% of your calories in fat per day, not enough for your body. So, the reason our bodies need enough fat in our diets each day as opposed to just feeding off of our body's fat stores is because fat contains an essential fatty acid: linoleic acid, that our body can't produce on its own. That fat is needed for proper metabolic and digestive function. Fat provides essential nutrients our bodies need, it transports fat soluble vitamins that our bodies need, it is needed for proper digestion and metabolic function, it helps us keep fuller longer, keeps our hair and skin nice, and is crucial for proper gallbladder function. If you're on a super low fat diet you can develop gallstones that are no fun and super painful. 8. DRINK HALF YOUR BODY WEIGHT IN WATER EACH DAY -- According to Barbara Levine, R.D., Ph.D., the Director of the Nutrition Information Center at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and reported in the June issue of Weight Watchers magazine, she says that overweight people need more water than the typical 8 cups a day rule. " Overweight people tend to need more water, because fat cells hold more water than other fat cells in the body. To determine the number of ounces of water you need per day, divide your weight by two. For example, a person who weighs 140 pounds should consume 70 ounces, or about 9 cups. Of course, this is an estimate. The best way to gauge whether you are getting enough water is to monitor the color of your urine. If you're drinking enough, it should be the color of pale straw. If it is a deeper yellow, you're not getting enough fluids " (page 16, June 1999). Lots of times we misinterpret thirst for hunger, try water first, wait 20 minutes, real hunger will not go away. 9. MAKE SURE YOU'RE GETTING FIVE SERVINGS OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES PER DAY -- Eating the zero point veggies can often help us to fill up so that we're not eating the other higher points foods instead. If you're hungry, try non-starchy veggies first. Lots of members make the Garden Vegetable Soup recipe in the Week 1 booklet and eat a bowl of that before dinner to fill up a bit so that you can get full on the smaller portions you'll be serving yourself. Try a glass of V8 juice before a meal during the summer when soup sounds too hot. Variety is good here too, try a new fruit or veggie each month to expand your repertoire. 10. INCREASE THE FREQUENCY OR INTENSITY OF YOUR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY -- Are you exercising? If not, know that you'll be much more successful at losing the weight and keeping it off if you are also physically active. Find something that you enjoy doing and just do it! Start with a five minute walk out of your door, look at your watch after five minutes start heading back, just like that you've done 10 minutes! Next week start adding in a couple of extra minutes, try walking for 7 minutes out of your door, and 7 minutes back, you've now done 14 minutes. Keep adding until you're up to at least 10 minutes out and 10 minutes back. If you're already active, are you exercising at enough intensity? If you can easily carry on a conversation while exercising (you should be able to speak, but it should take a bit of effort) you're not challenging your body enough. Your body becomes really efficient at adjusting to the amount of physical activity you're doing, so you regularly have to adjust either the intensity of your workouts or the frequency in order to continue to reap the maximum benefit from physical activity. Try strength training in order to build lean muscle tissue. As we get older we lose lean muscle tissue which depresses your metabolism in addition severely restrictive diets where we eat too few calories can cause us to lose weight but lots of it is lean muscle which also depresses our metabolism. If we build muscle tissue this can help us to reverse that process and to make us trimmer and stronger. 11. MOVE THE FURNITURE AROUND -- Do you always have your biggest meal at dinner? Try eating your biggest meal for lunch or even for breakfast, with smaller meals for the remaining meals. If you regularly eat most of your points at one meal your body converts the rest of the food into stored energy...fat...so that if you balance your points out throughout the day better you can actually give your metabolism a boost by keeping it revving throughout the day instead of only one spike at dinner. Food actually helps to boost our metabolism, that's why it's important never to skip meals. There's a saying that you could help losing weight. to lose weight by eating breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper. This gives us the majority of our points early in the day when our bodies can use them because we're active instead of right before bed if we eat them at dinner. 12. TRY VARYING YOUR NUMBER OF POINTS -- Do you always eat at a certain number of points per day? Your body gets very efficient at predicting its intake and adjusts itself accordingly. Keep it guessing. Try mixing up the number of points you have...low one day, middle the next, back to low, then high end of your points. Special note: If you're very active never eat at the low end of your points, your body may think it's starving, always eat middle to high end of your points and take those extra exercise points if you need them...let your hunger be your guide. 13. TAKE YOUR MEASUREMENTS AND LOOK FOR OTHER NON-SCALE SIGNS OF PROGRESS -- Often even when the scale isn't moving, we're still improving our health and our bodies which will show up in other ways other than the scale. Have your measurements gone down? How are your clothes fitting? Can you climb a flight of stairs without being winded? Has your cholesterol gone down? Can you walk now for 20 minutes when before you were huffing and puffing at 5 minutes? How do you feel? 14. ARE YOU ON AN ATTITUDE PLATEAU? -- Are you just tired of feeling like you're going to be doing this forever? Does that translate into that right now your desire to lose weight is equal to your desire for freedom from counting and having to think about points and healthy food choices? If so, then that mental attitude might be the culprit in that you're following a more relaxed adherence to the program but you think you're still doing it to the letter. Remind yourself of why you started this process, look at how far you've come. Is your goal still the same? Is it that you're scared of success, are okay with how you look right now, have you become complacent? Ask yourself these kind of questions honestly. If you're tired of the weight loss routine or have become complacent, try spicing up your food plan by trying more interesting meals and snacks, adding new foods, trying new recipes or new restaurants. Set new goals, setting a new goal can continue to challenge yourself. 15. CONSIDER MAINTENANCE -- A plateau that lasts a long time can be the practice to show you that you can maintain your weight. Sustaining weight loss is a challenge in itself. Consider doing the maintenance process so as to take a break from weight loss. Taking a break from weight loss and focusing on keeping the weight off can be the best thing to do, especially if a vacation or stressful situation is what is keeping you from continuing on your weight loss journey. It's better to gain some ground, then hold it, then go back and gain more ground than to give up because then you lose all of the ground you've gained (lost!). WHEN YOUR WEIGHT PLATEAUS Bob Greene (Make the Connection) A plateau occurs when your weight remains the same for a period of time. This can last weeks or even a couple of months. With nearly every successful weight-loss program, you can expect your weight to plateau--probably many times. Plateaus occur for a variety of reasons, and are quite normal. One of the most common reasons for a plateau is a natural adjustment to weight loss. Your body needs to make many adjustments when you lose weight, and it will release the weight only when it's ready. Realize that it is virtually impossible to lose more than three pounds of fat in a week. If you lose more than three pounds in a given week, you are losing either water weight or muscle/lean weight-which, as you know, is not what we want. Go to the local butcher counter and ask to see three pounds of fat. You will see that it takes up a lot of space, and your body must make physical adjustments for this loss. At this time, physiologists don't know all there is to know about these adjustments, but we can be sure that they serve a purpose. Plateaus caused by these natural adjustments normally last two or three weeks, but could go on for a month or two. So be patient and stay on your program! Another cause of plateaus is water fluctuation. As I discussed earlier, water can be retained for a variety of reasons. This extra water weight can create the illusion that you are gaining weight or have reached a plateau - even when you're losing FAT. Plateaus caused by these water fluctuations typically last from three days to one week. Again, just realize that these are temporary fluctuations in your weight, and don't be alarmed. Cheating on your program can also cause plateaus. Let's say you've been good about following the program, and you've had consistent weight loss. Now you have a bad eating and/or exercise week. This may or may not make you gain weight, but it could easily result in a prolonged plateau. This type of plateau can last as long as you are cheating on your program. My advice is to take this attitude: " Yes, I went of my program, but everyone slips up from time to time. I'm going to get right back to work and pay the price for that week. " And keep in mind, a bad day or week might not show up right away on the scale. But you shouldn't think you've gotten away with something, because it will show up at some point. This is why it's important to get right back on the program as soon as you stray from it. Don't give it up. A Positive Spin On Those Frustrating Weight Loss Plateaus ediet newsletter - April 13, 2000 by Cyndi , N.D. We live in a society that wants instant gratification. We want our health and weight loss... and we want it now! True health and permanent weight loss takes time. I have so many clients that have the attitude, " Well, I've followed your advice for a month now, why don't I feel better yet? " I have to remind them, " You didn't get sick overnight and it will take time to see the desired results. " Now, onto weight loss...Just as the body was formed and operates on a priority basis, so it heals on a priority basis. This means that the most important parts of the body get the healing attention before the less vital tissues. We can't force the body to place its healing priority on weight loss when in fact the liver is about to die, for example. The liver is more important to your body than the extra pounds. So all the energies of the body go to heal the liver and weight loss will stop. The body will not compromise what health and vitality it does have in one part of the body to bring about healing in another. In other words, the body will not " rob to pay . " So you may be eating nutritionally and exercising and you start out losing some weight. But then all of a sudden, you become stuck at a certain weight -- the needle on the scale won't budge anymore. The body is rejoicing on the inside and saying things like, " You know, we have all this extra energy now because Mr. Doughnut here has decided to start eating right and exercising -- let's take some of our new available energy and start the healing process on his congested liver! " So the body will take all the available energy and channel it into the liver. As a result the weight loss stops. The body will NOT take away any energy needed for daily activities and maintenance. It will only take what is left over to start the healing process. It's my belief that the body does not completely heal one part before moving on to the next item on its priority list. Rather, it heals a part to the degree that it is no longer a priority. At that point the healing attention is shifted to the part of the body that is now in most need of repair. In the above example, once the liver has been cleansed somewhat, the body will refocus its attention on other areas... perhaps back to weight loss. During my weight loss period, I would hit plateaus where it seemed like I'd never lose another pound. I lost 10 pounds and then nothing for 3 weeks. During that time I woke up one morning and my arthritis was gone and my blood sugar had stabilized somewhat. If you keep on your diet and exercise program, you will eventually lose all the weight you want. A healthy body is not overweight. Remember, " Always strive for health and the weight loss will happen! " Weight-Loss Plateau is a Good Sign By Loni Calie The 1st week of a calorie-controlled weight loss diet is easy. The 2nd and 3rd weeks are not too hard either. But around the 4th or 5th week it seems that the scale will not budge. You have reached your first weight loss plateau. Plateaus, the times when your weight stubbornly stays put, are normal. Of course, plateaus are frustrating - so much so that many people abandon their weight loss efforts. But surprisingly, a plateau is a positive sign. It is a signal from your body that you have lost body fat, but unfortunately, not body weight. This last statement may sound contradictory. How can someone lose body fat and not lose body weight? Basically, the answer is that in place of the fat you lost, your body now holds water. Until the water is lost, the scale will not register your achievement. Scales cannot tell the difference between weight that is fat and weight that is water. Unfortunately, you cannot see inside yourself either. But you can learn what is going on and why. The human body, like the food we eat is composed of nutrients - protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins, minerals and water. If you were a trim 150 pounds, your body would contain about 90 pounds of water, 30 pounds of fat and 30 pounds of all the other nutrients. As you can see, you (and everyone else) are mostly " all wet " . Water is not just blood. Much of the body's water is part of the chemical configuration of cells, tissues and organs. For example, muscle hold considerable water within its structure. Generally, 1 pound of muscle tissue in the body is associated with 4 pounds of water. Even fat tissue is about 15% water. So for example, 7 pounds of body fat contains about 1 pound of water. When you are eating fewer calories than you are burning up, your body must get the energy it needs from somewhere. That somewhere is you. When you lose weight, you are in fact consuming your own fat and protein to get the energy (calories) that you need. In effect, you " eat " yourself. During the first few weeks of any weight loss program, your body tends to use up more body protein in the form of muscle and organ tissue than in later weeks of dieting. As time goes on, your body becomes more selective and relies mostly on fat stored for energy, and less on the protein tissues essential to body functioning. When body protein and fat tissues are used for energy, the water associated with these tissues generally hangs around for awhile. In other words, you remain " water logged. " This is what accounts for the plateau periods. It is like the body is resting before it goes down to the next lower weight. To see the pounds disappear, you may want to assist your body to lose its excess water weight. You can do so safely by reducing your sodium intake. Try to keep from adding much salt in cooking, and do not put a salt shaker on the table. Cut down on condiments like pickles, mustard, catsup, and soy sauce. Instead of salty condiments, try applesauce, spiced peaches and other fruits to perk up meats and fish dishes. Use lemon, spices and herbs for flavor in cooking, but avoid monosodium glutamate. Avoid canned foods with salt. Buy fresh or frozen foods without added salt. For normal water loss, diuretics are not necessary, nor even advisable. Also saunas and steam baths provide only momentary dehydration, not lasting effects. Because one pint of fluid perspired away in a hot sauna equals 1 pound less of water, dramatic weight changes are possible in record time. However, as soon as you drink again, and you should drink, your water weight returns. While water weight fluctuations are frustrating, they are temporary. The true test of dieting success is the pinch test, not the scale's numbers game. It's how much real fat you lose, not how much protein and water, that makes for a leaner and healthier you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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