Break Through Your Plateau

Do you remember the good old days when you first started working out? Perhaps you hit the ripe old age of 25, and realized that all of a sudden you can’t do the 2am Jack in the Box runs anymore without gaining weight. Or perhaps you gained that freshman 15 in college, which ended up to be the senior 20?

For whatever reason you decid it’s time to hit the gym and get your diet in check. So you hit it hard and eat well and lose 5 lbs. You add weight training to your routine and lose 5 more lbs. By this point you are a gym regular and walk in confidently on a daily basis with your routine all planned out in your head. You say what’s up to the weird guy in the weight room who has been stalking you and give the janitor dabs. You are a gym rock star and no one can touch you.

After a few more months of doing this, you realize the weight loss has stopped! Why?? You’re going to the gym every day and your diet is on point!

Well, ladies, the unfortunate news is that adaptation is a bitch. When you first start training and your body is completely uncomfortable, change happens. As working out becomes easier and your body adapts, change stops. This phenomenon occurs because the difference between energy intake and energy expenditure gradually balances within us. Remember, all the human body cares about is survival. It is only your brain that is concerned how hot you look in a white bikini. Therefore, the body is consistently working on restoring energy balance in order to survive. Imagine what would happen to humans if we kept losing weight because we couldn’t find enough food (energy intake) when roaming the land thousands of years ago. All the cavemen would drop dead pretty quickly!

The short of it all is that in order to re-start fat loss you need to do something that makes you completely uncomfortable and shocks your body.  This can be related to your diet or your workout. If you do this with both diet AND workout, your chances of re-starting fat loss are rather high.

Let’s start with diet:

• Are you completely confused and don’t know where to start? The “every other day” diet is a perfect guide to mixing it up strategically and is the fastest way to break the diet plateau
• Have you been eating like a bird? Many fat loss experts believe that you should break away from the diet for a week or two in order to re-stimulate your metabolism by providing essential proteins and energy to build again. Once you stabilize hormonal influences, you can cut calories again in order to shock the body back into fat burning mode. This will obviously mean no fat loss during your diet break, but it helps boost fat loss when you go back to your old bird-eating ways.
• Do you have the same routine day in and day out and eat the same stuff day in and day out? Try diversifying your diet. This will shift your macronutrients and confuse the body. the “every other day” diet can help here as well.

Now for the workout:

• Do you go to the gym and do the same thing every time? Do something different! My favorite workout programs (due to the fact that they are most effective) are:
  • Turbulence Training
  • Body of Fire
  • Squat Routine (if you don’t need much guidance)

Chances are you have not done any of these before, so the shock to your body will be immense.

• Do you always do sprints for your interval training? Try the bike or the revolving stairs.
• Do you always go to the gym? Get outside and get into biking or hill running!

No matter what you do, the most important thing to remember is that you always have to keep your body guessing.  Once you become a seasoned workout junky, do not hope that the fact that you have a healthy lifestyle and work out will keep you on your fat loss journey. You MUST persevere and break away.