How To Break Weight Loss Plateau

Well, my dear dieter.

I think you may already know what I´m talking about.

Here you are, ten, twenty or thirty pounds lighter, enjoying the happiness of being able to tell everybody that all your weight loss efforts were rewarded, when suddenly…YOU STOP LOSING WEIGHT.

Frequently there are still those final pounds you need to get rid of, the most stubborn ones.

That is SO frustrating!

The Plateau effect has been known about for about many years by almost every dieter that has ever lost weight.

So believe me you are NOT alone.

It almost feels like your body is simply refusing to get thinner.

It´s like the metabolism enters a slow-motion state.

A weight loss plateau usually comes when you reach a place where you have lost 10 to 15% of your original weight.

Some causes of weight loss plateaus may be:

- Overestimated goals: You don´t need to lose any more weight and your body knows it.

- Decreased exercise: Maybe you didn´t notice it, but you may have diminished the time or frequency of your workout.

- Doing only aerobics and no weights: It´s known that weight exercises are an essential complement to any fitness program. You have got to do Resistance Weight Training to get total results people!

- Highly restricted diet: Some people fail to eat enough! Too many hours without food slows your metabolism to a standstill. 5-6 small meals a day is a way to keep your metabolism fires burning.

Your body has a memory and all your glands, subcutaneous fat cells and digestive system are programmed to respect what they think is a healthy weight.

The problem is that the fashion magazines keep pushing in on what THEY think it´s as ideal weight.

Your metabolism has hundreds of years of "experience" in hunger and disease, since the cavemen. It gets scared when you try to eat less calories and start to "save" for the future, by slowing the consumption.

This is not bad, it´s a defense mechanism, that has protected a lot of pregnant women and entire ancient civilizations from dying during cold hungry winters and wars.

Now we have plenty of food, microwave ovens and tasty marvelous carbohydrates. With the abundance of food, we don´t need that defense anymore.

But you will just have to accept it.

So how to break weight plateau?

You can rev up your metabolism using these tips:

- Change type of exercise you do and increase your activity: You can exercise up to five times a week with a sixty minute program. Ask your Personal Trainer for orientation and avoid ultra-low calories diets if exercising.

- Start resistance training: Use weights to create more fat- burning muscles. Those muscles will help burn more calories all through the day and night.

- Drink more water: Water is an essential catalyzer for a lot of biochemical reactions in yuor body, don´t overlook it.

- Reassess what and how much you are eating: Never skip breakfast, and try to stick with a three or four hour maximum interval between meals. Are you being accurate with your calorie counting? Are you really counting everything? Desserts too!

Don´t forget that sometimes your weight is stationary, but in reality your organism has replaced fat with muscles. This is good, but doesn´t show in the scale! Only the fat percentage exam can show this.

If you are a woman, avoid weighing yourself around your menstrual period.  The scale can frequently show an overestimation of your true weight.

Always empty your bladder before you weight, and weigh only first thing in the morning.

The weight loss plateau effect is a matter of "WHEN", not "IF".

It will happen to you.

During a plateau is the time to really dig deep, renew your motivation and your goals and stick with your program.

Take it from me, you will get through it and if you have stayed with your program you will be smiling big when you get on the scale and see that you have again lost weight and left that weight loss plateau behind!