Getting Past the Weight-Loss Plateau

by Christina Ranon — July 4, 2008

It's depressing to hit a weight-loss plateau. You're trucking along, doing fine, feeling great as the scale numbers steadily go down - and then all of a sudden, nothing. You're doing everything you're supposed to, eating healthy food, exercising regularly, cutting calories, and yet the numbers no longer descend. Your body really doesn't want to lose weight. Losing weight has always been bad, evolutionarily speaking, and your body has adapted itself to be able to survive famines and other times of scarcity. One way it does this is by lowering your metabolism in response to long-term caloric deprivation. The issue might be that you've lost enough weight that you don't need as many calories, and your current intake, which worked fine at the beginning of your weight loss plan, is really close to the amount you expend at your new lower weight. You might not be able to cut calories any further, and the weight loss has really just slowed rather than stopped.

The scale can sometimes be deceptive. If you don't want to change your caloric intake, try changing the make-up of your diet by eating more protein and fewer carbs. Work on keeping your metabolism up: lift weights to build muscle and switch up your cardio routine. Lean tissue is far more active than fat, and changing your exercise routine keeps your body from adjusting to a workout and becoming efficient (which sounds good but means that you don't burn as many calories). These kinds of changes should kick-start your weight loss again, although if you're already at a healthy weight, you probably won't see any more drastic changes.