Your body is an efficient machine. Once it becomes acclimated to a certain form of exercise, it becomes more energy efficient and can soon complete the exercise using less effort than before. This is usually when weight-loss plateaus occur. You may have seen great success in the past, but when you suddenly stop losing, it can damage your motivation. Fix a weight-loss plateau by understanding what is happening with your body and how to change your habits for good.
Change It Up
If you've selected running as your exercise of choice, you may have seen great results right away. This is the result of your body working its hardest to achieve your running goals. After you experience weight loss, your body becomes accustomed to the task of running and will begin to do so more efficiently. While this means you're becoming fitter, it also means you're burning fewer calories. By changing your routine and trying a new form of exercise, you can wake up your metabolism and burn more calories by challenging your body.
Stop Bad Habits
You might be dieting religiously to change your eating habits, but you may still be holding onto poor eating habits that are sabotaging your weight loss. Keep a diet journal for a few days to identify bad dieting behavior that you may not have noticed. You might be sneaking a snack in the late afternoon, finishing off your child's portion of mac and cheese or be indulging in a soda too often. While they're small habits, they can combine to raise your caloric intake and stop your weight loss.
Alter Your Diet
While your 1,700-calorie-per-day diet may have been ideal when you were 180 pounds, now that you've lost weight you need to alter your diet for your new specs. When you follow the same diet all the way through your weight-loss journey, you could be consuming too many calories, which can stall weight loss. Calculate your daily necessary calories using an application such as The Daily Plate. Reducing your caloric intake by 200 calories, so long as you don't dip below 1,200 calories per day, can rejuvenate your weight loss.
Stop Excuses
When you've had some weight-loss success, it can be easy to lose some of your motivation. Excuses concerning your busy schedule or boredom with your workout can derail your progress and cause a plateau. Banish excuses by scheduling exercise as you would any other appointment. Enlist a workout buddy and make a pact to not contact each other before a workout. When you know that someone is waiting for you, you may be more inspired to head to the gym and work even harder to shed pounds.
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