Reasons You’ve Hit a Weight Loss Plateau and How to Overcome It

When you decided to start your weight loss journey, you felt extremely motivated. In the first few weeks, with healthier food choices and exercise, you began to see the numbers on the scale go down week by week… That was even more motivation to keep pushing through and keep working harder…

Then one week, you hop on the scale, and your weight is the same as it was last week, and it’s the same the following week as well. In your mind, you’re going through all the things you did the week prior and the meals you ate; everything was as it should. What are you doing wrong?

The reality is that, you’re not doing anything wrong, per se, you’ve just hit a plateau. It’s a common part of weight loss, but even in its commonality, it can become very frustrating and cause people to give up and regain all the weight they previously lost. But don’t succumb to your frustrations.

The thing to understand is that our bodies are what you would call “master adapters,” so once you reach a certain level of fitness, your body adapts to that and forces you to challenge it in more intense ways to continue losing weight. So, hitting a plateau is actually a good thing because it means you’re building up your endurance. As long as you’re not gaining weight, keep pushing to reach your weight loss goals.

There are many reasons you could be hitting a plateau, and in this article, we’re going to explore some reasons why you hit a plateau and how to overcome them to get back on track with your weight loss goals.

 

Potential Reasons You’ve Hit a Weight Loss Plateau

 

Your Body is Becoming More Fit

This is a matter of continually challenging yourself. As you exercise, your body starts to get used to the level of workouts you’ve been doing. If you started on the elliptical on level 3, and it was hard to get through without taking a few breaks in between, and now you can get through it with no breaks, that means your body’s fitness level has adapted to level 3 and needs to be challenged even more to get your heart rate up. So maybe it’s time to try out level 4.

 

Your Body Needs to Reset

Have you ever heard people say that they’re at their “comfortable weight?” Well, what they’re really saying is that they’ve more than likely settled at their current weight because they can’t seem to lose any more.

Every person has a weight range at which our bodies feel most comfortable. When you start to workout and move away from that comfortable range, your body can sometimes resist the change and fight to get back to that comfortable weight range. This is your body needing time to reset itself to adapt to the changes you’re making physically. Just stick with it… Your body will adapt, and you’ll soon start to see weight loss results.

You’ve Already Lost Weight

After you’ve lost weight, your metabolism will significantly drop because your body mass is what determines your resting metabolic rate. As your body mass decreases, so does your metabolic rate. Essentially, it would help if you kept decreasing your calories to see weight loss results continually.

Please note that we are not telling anyone to starve or skip meals, but knowing calories in and carries burned will help give you a great idea of what you need to do.

 

Ways to Overcome Your Plateau

 

Switch Up Your Workout Routine

When your workouts become easier, it’s time for the old “switcheroo!” If your main exercise consists of hopping on the treadmill and elliptical for cardio, consider going to the park for a jog in the open air where you can get some sunshine as well. Consider group workouts to boost your heart rate. Also, consider lifting weights as well.

The whole point is that what you’ve been doing is no longer working, and if you want to see changes in your weight, you have to start working parts of your body in different ways than what you’ve been doing.

For what I know, constantly mixing up your workout will keep your body guessing and your muscles working.

 

Go on a Juice Cleanse

When you’ve hit a plateau in your weight loss journey, that means you not only need to switch up your workout routine, but you also need to make changes to what you’re eating as well. Maybe you’ve been eating a well-balanced diet, and that’s great, but to see changes in your weight loss, it sometimes requires changes that you’ve never done or are used to.

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture, three-quarters of Americans don’t consume enough fruits and vegetables. Going on a juice cleanse is going to pack your body full of vitamins and minerals in raw form so that your body can get the maximum results from it– which is dropping excess weight that you weren’t able to lose due to the plateau you hit. A juice cleanse is going to help you lose weight fast because it’s such a transition in your diet.

Some people do juice cleanses anywhere from a couple of days to weeks. After your cleanse, you can use your juices as meal replacements to maintain your weight loss journey, or even transition to fruit-based shakes you add protein too, that’s what I do!

 

So, keep focused, stay motivated and remember, this isn’t a sprint its a marathon, and it doesn’t matter your time, it just matters that you cross the finish line and achieve your goals, but with that remember, it’s not about what the scale says, it’s how you feel.

 

Jessica Alexander

Jessica Alexander

I've always loved to write, but I'd never want to be famous. So, I write as Jessica A. over here at ADDICTED. You can think of my like Carmen Sandiego, you trust me, but where in the world am I?
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