How to break the second weight loss plateau
Hi..I am 5’2″ female. Have been on a diet n have been exercising for almost 6 months now. I lost 14 KGS during this time and now weigh 70 KGS. I eat around 1200-1300 calories and work out 6 days a week (3 days cardio and 3 days weight training) for45-60 mins. I had plateaued some time back, so I cut calories further and moved to intervals in my cardio sessions. I lost another 3 KGS after that but I have stagnated again..if I cut calories further I’ll go below 1200. I am already doing intervals in cardio. My weight training sessions are also intense. I have a trainer with whom I do squats, dead lifts, lunges/leg press, bench press etc. I have whey protein twice everyday. What more can I do to break the weight loss plateau… i’m stuck.. please help
Pragati,
Do not drop below 1200 calories! From the sounds of it, you might benefit from a carbohydrate refeed just once a week. You may even benefit from raising your calories up to baseline for a few weeks if you have been on a deficit for over 6 months. If you have been eating at a caloric deficit for such a long time your body’s hormone production might be a bit behind, keeping that weight on.
Another important factor not mentioned here is macronutrient ratios. You can make huge improvements in your body composition if you get these right. They are going to vary from person to person. If you can get your protein intake to be about 0.8g – 1.0 g/lb of lean body mass, that is a good starting point. Your fats and carbohydrates can be balanced.
As far as exercise goes, keep what you have got. Make sure your exercise is somewhat varied while you are working your full body on each of your weight training sessions.
Hope this helps!
Refeed: http://www.completehumanperformance.com/refeed-podcast/
I would concentrate more on the BF% than the reduction of weight. Not sure what your goal is, but it seems to me that you have been improving with the fitness program you are on. Reducing your caloric intake could actually inhibit any further improvements and it might be detrimental to your long term goals. I like Nancy’s answer.
Hi there Pragati,
Sounds like you’ve done some great work. From my experience, here is what has to be done to break a plateau (stalled weight loss of more that 3 weeks). Firstly, keep in mind, when you change programming, your insides~ muscle to fat ratio are still changing even though you may not see changes on the scale. Sometimes it take up to a month (depending on age, lifestyle, etc.) to see those new changes.
Increasing one’s level of fitness and reducing body weight is a simple formula: less calories in, more calories expended =weight loss. Could you go below 1200? Yes. But I wouldn’t advise any client to do this without going over their diet, history, etc. carefully first. One small change in nutrients that normally gets good results is higher fat & protein for 4 days (around 40%p,30% fat, 30% carbs), then amping up complex and simple carbs for 2, then repeat. Another option is no complex carbs after 6pm. Another option: be sure to fast 14 hours prior to first meal of the day (lots of research out on this).
All that said, to change inside, one of the following must also change based on the FITT principle: frequency, intensity, time, type of exercise performed.
To change now, I would do any of the following:
~increase the total time of cardio each week by 10%
~increase the total time of weight training each week by 10%
~Change the type of lifting or cardio you are performing. In other words, start running sprint intervals or perhaps do some tabatas once or twice a week if you are currently using the elliptical or stairmaster to do cardio. Then continue to change this every 4-8 weeks to keep from another plateau.
~workout faster with weights: cut down all rest periods and either get more sets done in the same time (increasing intensity), or keep the same workouts and add sets so the time is longer.
~Change rep counts: if you are doing 15 reps per exercise at a particular weight, increase the weight and do less reps. This increases intensity too.
~ if you do cardio 2 days a week and weight train 3, add another cardio day. This increases frequency.
~ if tracking steps per day, try to increase them 10% each week. This increases calorie output and time.
Again, regardless of what you choose to do with diet, keep in mind those FITT principals, adjust the workouts per week and the weight will melt off!
Good luck & way to go,
Kimber
