How to Overcome Weight-Loss Plateau: Understanding the Causes and Solutions

It is almost inevitable to experience a weight-loss plateau at some point during your weight-loss journey, and it happens to almost every person who tries to lose weight.

Understanding how to overcome it will determine whether you’ll achieve your weight loss goals or not. This is the point where most people quit and revert to their old habits. Experiencing a plateau is a natural phenomenon of a weight loss journey, don’t get nervous when it happens, there are several ways to overcome it.?

First of all, we need to see whether you’re really in a weight loss plateau because many times -

The scales don’t tell us the whole truth.

When we stand on the scale, the number that we see measures our total body weight. It has no idea about changes in our body fat or muscle, and it doesn’t tell us where the fat is stored. This is known as our?body composition.

It’s important to remember that muscle is denser than fat, which means it takes up less volume compared to an equal amount of fat. So even though you might be making positive progress towards your overall health by burning fat and building muscle, you might not see a decrease on the scales.

So, although the scale might tell us that we’re struggling to lose weight, measuring our bodies in other ways will provide a more accurate picture. Consider measuring your waist size, checking how your clothes fit you, keeping track of your energy levels, or looking at old photos of yourself to compare.

Noticing changes in these areas as well gives us reinforcement to keep going in the same direction and not change our regime so quickly.?

I had several clients who didn’t see the scale moves for a couple of weeks, however, we saw that other metrics improved, we kept the same plan and then as expected we also saw a drop in weight.?

The "set point"

Another reason which is unknown to many people is that?everyone has a natural ‘set point’, the weight our body stays at when we eat healthily. Our DNA and the environment around us determine our set point.

Slow, gradual weight gain over many years can trick our body into thinking its set point is higher than it should be, which causes our body to resettle at a new, higher weight.

Scientists estimate that the average person will have a set-point range of 5-10% of their body weight, which means that at any given time, our body can lose or gain between that amount without much resistance.

For example, if your current ‘set point’ is 76kg, your body could lose or gain between 4-8kg without too much resistance.

However,?going below this range would be challenging. Our body is programmed to function optimally within our set-point range and will do everything to maintain it, it will increase your hunger and reduce your metabolism.

This is why a weight-loss plateau is important to allow our body’s metabolic rate and hunger levels to readjust back to normal. This happens when our body ‘resets’ to a new, lower set-point weight and then we can continue losing weight.

I know it is frustrating, to put in all that effort without seeing the results on the scale. Things are changing for the better from the inside which we can’t see yet on the scale.

An important reminder is that weight loss is a marathon, not a sprint. Patience is key here. As weight is not gained in a couple of weeks, the same applies to when we lose weight.

Those are “small and natural plateaus” of weight loss and they can last for as long as a few weeks.

When should you change something?

Now, if you don’t see any changes in your weight or other metrics for more than three months it’s a red sign.

When this happens…

Start by tracking your regime - if you hit a plateau it means you’ve probably been on a weight loss journey for several weeks/months. Many times after a long period of following a new plan we slowly start to drift away from it even without noticing. In the beginning, we are hyped and we do everything as intended but most of the time a plateau is when people start to “let go” a bit.

Many times we think we still do the same but when put it to the test and check what we actually do, we see a totally different picture.

Check if something in your diet changed, many times the weekends are the time when we don’t notice the extra calories we consume. Maybe you started to exercise less or move less during the day? Do you drink enough water?

Also, in the last few weeks, how was your sleep? How are your stress levels?

Both of them have a huge impact on your weight loss even though they are overlooked by so many (Read here for more info about the connection between sleep and stress to weight loss).?

Now, if you found that you have really been doing everything the same and still the weight hasn’t changed for more than a couple of months, there's probably something in your diet, exercise, sleep or stress management habits that doesn't fit you.?

Here I’ll advise you to consult a professional and see what exactly can be done to continue your weight loss journey.?

Don't let a weight-loss plateau lead to an avalanche.

If you encountered a weight loss plateau and want to overcome it, you can schedule?a free consultation call with me ?and we will examine what exactly keeps you from losing weight.?