It happens to all of us. You’re in an amazing routine, your diet is great, you’re on track to meeting your weight loss, toning or muscle building goal. Then all of the sudden, it just stops. No matter how hard you try, you can’t seem to build any more muscle, lose any more weight or drop any more body fat. There is nothing more frustrating than putting in your best effort and not seeing the results you’re trying so hard to achieve. It’s beyond frustrating, but there are great options to get you past that plateau and back on the fast track to your fitness goals.
1) Start Tracking
The first place to start is to take a look at your diet. Often times, we think we’re eating the right things, consuming the right amount of calories, but then you take another look and you realize that the yogurt you’ve been eating twice daily has 12 g of fat per serving or that those healthy rice crisps really aren’t so healthy. Who knew? So, it’s time to reevaluate and to take a closer look at what you’re eating. It’s time to make use of your Truestar Food Trakker and to start recording what you eat and reading your labels again for at least a full 5 days. You may find there are a few areas that could use a little work. Make sure you include alcoholic beverages in here as well.
What some people don’t know is that when you lose weight, your metabolism will slow down naturally, due to a smaller body size. This also means your caloric needs have also decreased. Make sure you’re adjusting your caloric intake to your energy output and your new weight.
2) Change Up Your Routine
When we get on track with an exercise program that actually works, the obvious action is to stick with it! However, our bodies are pretty adaptable, so they eventually become accustomed to our workout routines. It might be time to take the intensity up a notch or to change up your workout routine entirely. Try giving a HITT workout a try. Read more about these great workouts here. This kind of workout will always keep your body challenged.
3) Keep Eating!
A common response to a plateau is to dramatically slash calories. Severe caloric restrictions put even more strain on the body, will sink your metabolism and cause even greater issues for you down the road. Another common response is to completely eliminate a macronutrient – usually cutting out all carbs or all fats. You NEED carbs, fats and proteins, just in the right ratio, so keep using that Food Trakker and keep eating. These foods are a source of fuel and if you slash calories and cut out key foods, not only will you be cutting out your sources of fuel for exercise, you will also be depriving your body of key nutrients. And, once you start eating again (because you can only survive on those slashed calories for so long), your tanked metabolism won’t do you much good and you’ll just gain more weight. You may also tend to binge eat or got nuts on those treats you stayed away from.
4) Increase your caloric intake
That’s right, if you’re dieting, or have cut your calories every week or so, you’ll want to actually increase your dietary intake to that of a “maintenance” level, to restimulate your metabolism. This doesn’t mean to binge eat, but rather to increase your calories in the form of clean foods. If you’ve been dieting for an extended period of time, then every 12 weeks or so, take a full week off your diet and move back to that maintenance caloric intake. You can even move into your lean muscle building phase here as well, if that’s a goal. This will keep your metabolism at a normal level.
5) Slow & Steady Wins the Race
Be patient. A healthy weight loss is approximately 1 to 2 lbs per week or 1% of your body mass weekly. Rapid weight loss usually corresponds to loss of lean muscle mass and subsequent weight regain.
6) Reevalute your supplements
Supplementation is essential to our general well-being and especially when we’re engaging in any physical activity. Take a look at what you’re consuming and make sure you’re taking the right products at the right dose.
To boost your metabolism and your energy,TrueTHERMO and TrueENERGY could help. To assist in weight loss, TrueDETOX and Cleanse and TrueBASICS with Lean Extreme are great options. To ensure adequate protein intake, TruePOWER and TrueSTRENGTH are the right choices. For post-workout support, TrueRENEW and TrueREPAIR could help.
There are so many options when it comes to supplementation, so make sure you’ve completed your profile and taking what’s right for you.
Try implementing a few of these tips to get you beyond your frustrating plateau and back on track with your weight loss, health or fitness goals.