Diet Check-Up Procedure When Fat Loss Stops
One of the biggest problems almost every dieter faces at one point or another is that dreaded plateau. Things are going great with your diet, the scale is inching downwards, your clothes are fitting better and then everything just stops. Dead.
You wonder where you went wrong. Frustration likely sets in and you might just start pushing yourself even further – reducing back your food more or amping up your cardio time significantly.
Before you do this though, you’d be well advised to do a quick diet check-up first. 99% of the time the reason for the stalled progress has something to do with one of these factors, not your lack of hard work.
Here’s what to assess.
Length of Time On Your Diet
First up, ask yourself how long you’ve been on your diet. Then ask yourself how strict that diet you’re on is. Are you eating at a calorie intake of lower than ten calories per pound of bodyweight each day (so 1500 calories for a 150 pound person for example)? If so, this is likely your problem.
After staying on a very low calorie diet for an extended period of time the metabolism has a tendency to shut down, slowing in response to the reduced food intake. This is a way of preventing starvation from happening – the slower the metabolism is burning calories off, the longer starvation will take.
For you on your fat loss diet however, this means big trouble.
If this is your situation, you should increase your calorie intake (yes, I know it’s scary) up to a maintenance intake, defined as approximately 14 to 15 calories per pound of body weight. This is likely going to seem like a lot and you might gain back a pound or two, but do realize this is temporary water weight and that the weight won’t stick around for long.
What’s better is that once you start up on your diet again, you’re going to be burning fat a much better rate than you were before – finally starting to see some progress.
Protein Intake
Next, consider your protein intake. Protein is the one macronutrient that increases the metabolism the most since it takes up to 25% of the total calories contained in the food just to digest it. For you this is great because it means you can eat more total calories and still lose weight.
Secondly, if you aren’t eating enough protein you may be losing muscle mass, which is yet another thing that causes the metabolic rate to slow.
Be sure you’re eating at least 1 gram per pound of bodyweight each day. 1.3-1.5 grams would be even better.
Carbohydrate Level
Third, check out that carbohydrate level. Carbohydrates are another thing that significantly impacts your metabolic rate because they are going to have a large influence on the thyroid hormones. When the thyroid hormones are low, that means the metabolism is not functioning optimally, thus you can struggle to see weight loss.
Being sure to take in at least 100 grams of carbohydrates each day helps to bring the thyroid hormones back up to where they should be, keeping fat loss happening.
If you are on a low carbohydrate diet, that’s fine, but every 2 months take 1-2 weeks at a higher carbohydrate intake to ‘reset’ these hormones.
Total Weight Lost Up To Date
Also take into account how much weight you’ve lost already. If you initially weighed 170 pounds and required a calorie intake of 2000 calories per day to lose weight but now weigh 150 pounds, that same 2000 calorie intake is likely your new maintenance intake.
This is one of the biggest mistakes most people make – they forget to re-evaluate their calorie intake and make sure it’s still where it needs to be. Every 10 pounds make sure you adjust your intake down slightly.
Honest With Self-Reporting
Finally, take a good honest look at your own self-reporting. Are you being completely honest about how much you’re eating? Or do you let a little bite here, another big there sneak in without tracking it down?
While those ‘little bites’ may not seem like much, when they’re from the wrong types of food, they can dramatically sway your weight loss results.
Track everything. A good strategy for helping with this is to designate a certain place for eating (kitchen table usually is the common choice) and only eat at that place (and wherever you eat at work). This prevents you from taking bites while standing or walking through the kitchen.
So, have a good look at your diet first before running on that treadmill or cutting more calories out. There’s a very good chance you should be doing the exact opposite and by going through with your calorie-reduction plan, you’re just further setting yourself back.
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