Weight Loss: Avoiding Plateaus and Ruts

If you've lost a significant amount of weight or followed a weight loss plan for a period of time, you know that even if you continue to follow the plan perfectly, most people will hit a plateau about 6 months in. This happens because your body, as Intelligently created as it is, learns to adapt to what you've been doing and no longer responds as it first did.

It is recommended that for every 10% of your body weight lost, you consume about 20% fewer calories if you want to continue losing weight. At a certain point if you simply continued doing this you would find yourself ravenous! You can only cut the amount of food so much before that backfires.

You want to continue to burn fat and build muscle, since muscle is more metabolically active and will keep your metabolic rate high enough that you don't have to cut the amount of food you eat so drastically.

Another tweak you may find helpful is to increase protein intake so you minimize muscle loss. Protein is also more satisfying so you will feel more satiated. When seeking to continue weight loss you might want to increase clean protein to about 25% of your total caloric intake.

Also keep in mind that your body becomes more efficient as your do your regular workouts. Add to that the fact that you expend less energy to do the same workout as you lose weight resulting in fewer calories burned. I always recommend you switch up your exercise routine every 3 or 4 weeks - the frequency, time, type of workout or intensity. Keep your body guessing and it will respond. Many fitness experts believe "confusing" your muscles by varying your exercises from one session to the next forces adaptation to constantly changing demands, thus improving growth and strength and allowing you to avoid plateaus.

While I'm on this subject of muscle confusion, let's talk about ruts. Maybe you are sticking with the program but feeling unmotivated. Sounds like a rut to me. We all like a bit of variety. Well I believe switching things up - both in your exercise routine and with your diet can just shake things up and renew your motivation as well as shock your body into responding again.

You can change-up your meals. I mention several ways to do this in Today is Still the Day, in the last section, like the progression principle and carb cycling. You could try intermittent fasting and switch up the fasting windows, doing a 16/8 window for a few days or a week and then doing a couple of 14/10 days and maybe a 20/4 day. Your body stays surprised and nothing will lift you out of a rut better than seeing your body respond again. With intermittent fasting, just be sure that you don't eat less, you just eat less often. Also be sure one meal in your eating window is substantial enough to make you feel full so your body knows you are not starving. Otherwise you defeat the purpose and your body will conserve fat rather than burn it.

Do you have a preferred way of getting past a plateau or avoiding a diet/exercise rut?

Ann Musico is a holistic health coach and independent nutritional consultant. She has developed a "3-D Living Program" to assist her coaching clients in achieving vibrant health and wholeness - spirit, soul and body. Visit her website at https://www.threedimensionalvitality.com to learn more about the "3-D Living Program," her book, Today is Still the Day, as well as the coaching packages she offers. Subscribe for her free monthly newsletter and weekly email messages.

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What's the Best Diet? Healthy Eating 101

Weight Loss Strategies 101

When it comes to weight loss, it is true that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. What works for your friend may not work for you. This is because of the fundamental fact that the biological responses to each and everyone's body is different and the reason for that depends on various genetical and diet factors. Therefore, in order to determine, what works best for you, you need to try few different options and be patient with each one of them until you hit the jackpot of your weight loss strategy. It is understandable that it is easier said than done, but with a little bit of commitment, it is definitely not impossible. This article is about two of key elements that are contributing factors of your weight loss strategy.

1. Proteins, fats and carbs:
It is true that your food intake can be the biggest player in your weight gain as well as weight loss strategy. Again, same food does not have same effect on two different people. It may not even have same effect on you if you try it over a period of time. Also, after changing your dietary habits, do not expect to see the results immediately or all at once. The effects are usually indefinite and imprecise. If implementing a dietary strategy over one-week cuts 1 pound of weight, it is not necessary that continuing to implement same strategy over the next week will slash another pound from your weight. It could be more; it could be less. It is said that eating carbs create craving for more carbs, hence eventually increasing your weight. If you want to cut your weight, cutting carbs is the first step followed by cutting bad fats.

2. Exercise:
Although food is the most important factor of your body weight, exercise plays an almost equal role in getting you close to your weight loss goal. Exercise speeds up your metabolism. One of the biggest benefits of exercise is that it burns fats in your body, and it does so quickly. If you don't do any exercise at all, your body might still burn fats in doing daily physical activities, but it will be extremely slow. Just like setting up your dietary plan, you don't need to spend a lot of money to come up with an exercise plan. When it comes to exercise for losing weight, you should do what you enjoy doing. Walking, cycling, hiking are activities that only need time and a little bit of commitment. Whatever exercise you choose to go with, make sure you do it in sets with appropriate intervals between sets. Don't exhaust yourself to an extent that you feel tired the following day to do any exercise at all, hence slowing down your overall weight loss progress.

These are the two fundamentals of weight loss. Start with these and track your progress over a period of time. Don't hesitate to change your plan if you need to.

If you are serious about losing weight and have an hour to spare every day, you need lean muscle weight loss. With a bit of commitment and promise to yourself, you are not too far from your weight loss goals!

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Muhammad_F_Mazher/604432

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