You just don’t get it. You’ve been doing the same exercises day-in and day-out. The intensity is the same, the frequency and length of time has not also changed. You have not also made any drastic changes to your diet. But how come you’re not losing any more weight? The bathroom scale continues to measure the same way. If writers dread that most-feared terror known as “writer’s block,” fitness buffs do not like to hear of the phrase “weight loss plateau” to describe the phase they are in their quest for that ideal weight.
But the truth of the matter is that an exercise plateau can and does happen to almost everyone. When the metabolic rate slows and the body has already adapted to a workout regimen, you can expect a plateau to occur at some point in your fitness regimen. This situation, however, can be easily remedied by following these guidelines:
1. Vary your workouts. When your body has already adapted to the same workload that you constantly put on it– such as when you are doing the same cardiovascular regimen day in and day out– it will not burn the same number of calories as when you first engaged yourself in the program. Back then, your body still had to work constantly to adapt to the new stresses you have placed on it and as a result, you lost weight fast. To continue shedding the fat off, change the intensity, duration and frequency of your exercises. You can do interval training or concentrate working out another muscle group that you don’t normally devote much attention to.
2. Don’t restrict calories too much. The most common partner of exercise is diet. However, while you are training, it is best not to lower your caloric intake too much since your body will respond by slowing down metabolism. When your metabolic rate slows down, you won’t lose as much fat as you would like to. Calories are needed by your body to burn more calories so don’t restrict yourself severely but cut only a few from your maintenance caloric intake so you still keep your metabolism humming so you can burn weight. This will prevent you from experiencing a weight loss plateau.
3. Don’t over-train. Over-training is one of the faults of those seeking to lose weight. Their rationale is that the more you expend your energy, the greater the weight loss. However, when you have reached that point in your training where you have exercised too much, your body knows this and will do all it can to preserve its integrity. It will correspondingly decrease the number of calories you will burn throughout the day. Sufficient rest is an integral part of any workout regimen. This is the time when your body can heal and as a result new muscles will form. Don’t give in to the misconception that the more you exercise, the more fat you will lose. This will only become possible if give your body ample time for recovery and stave off the immobilizing effects of a weight loss plateau.