Is shaping up hard to do?

Breaking through a plateau

Last year, I lost about a stone between January and May and got down to 9st 6 lb. This gave me a BMI of about 24. I found I just couldn't get below that mark and spent the rest of the year hovering between 9st 6lb and 9st 9lb.

I am now determined to lose another half stone or so to get down to around 9st. Any hints and tips on how best to break through the 9st 6 mark? It feels like I'm trapped in a pinball machine because every time I hit it I bounce up a couple of pounds again!

Dr Wynnie Chan: You've done really well over the past year and are already well within the normal weight for height range, so don't be disheartened. You've just hit a weight-loss plateau, your body is telling you to shake things up a bit, so perhaps varying your exercise regime might help.

For example, if you always run steadily on a treadmill, introduce some cardio bursts into your regime. So if you run at around 8mph (or whatever your speed) without an incline and it's not easy then that's cardio. If you then add some incline and run on the same speed, for 30 seconds and you feel breathless and that it's really hard work, then you've introduced a cardio burst.

Introducing cardio bursts can help boost your heart rate, so maybe do this for a couple of workouts a week and see if that helps. In terms of diet, try small, regular meals and if you're skipping breakfast, don't! Skipping meals or waiting too long between meals makes your blood sugar levels fall, therefore increasing your appetite and sugar cravings.

So eat breakfast to rev up your metabolism and keep it revved up during the day by eating small meals every 3-4 hours. This will prevent muscle loss and promoting fat to be mobilised for fuel.

Whatever you do, don't opt for a quick-fix diet. Restricting calories or starving yourself to lose weight makes your body think it's in starvation mode and it starts breaking down muscle for fuel and storing fat as a defence mechanism.

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