Diet & Fitness 

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Break free from your weight loss plateau: Part 1

Are you exercising regularly and eating well but find you still can't lose those last few pounds? If so, you've probably hit a weight loss plateau. In our two-part series, Sara Singer Schiff explains why it happens and how you can overcome it

Starting your weight loss programme with gusto, losing a few pounds and then finding that your progress has come to a dead stop is a natural and common occurrence for many dieters. This plateau is a result of the body's constant need to maintain equilibrium.

When you start a new diet or fitness plan, you usually consume fewer calories but also burn more through exercise. 'Because you're expending more energy than you take in, your body burns those few calories for energy first, then you begin to burn stored fat quicker than before, when your calorie intake was higher,' explains Josh Salzmann, iVillage's fitness expert.

However, like a finely tuned machine, your body settles into this new pattern of outgoing and incoming calories and gradually adjusts by burning fewer calories in order to safeguard its reserves. The result? Weight loss slows down as your body tries to retain fat stores so it can use its reserves as sparingly as possible.

It's at this point that you'll notice your eating and exercise efforts aren't producing results and that you can't seem to shift the weight any more. In order to break through the plateau, you have to do two things: alter your eating habits and change your exercise programme in a way that challenges your body.

Start first with your diet. Review the following tips from Lyndel Costain, a state registered dietician and independent nutritionist based in Birmingham, and try to make the changes today.

1. Keep a food diary: If you've been following a diet plan for some time, you may be bored and your motivation for staying with it may be fading (after all, what's an extra Hob Nob now and then?). Keeping a food diary, or a record of what you eat each day, will help you pinpoint situations where you might be indulging more than you realise and help you get back on track.

2. Try again: Many people get trapped in cycles where, amidst their efforts to follow a healthy diet, they stray and can't seem to get back to a healthy pattern of eating. This is often due to an 'all or nothing' way of thinking, whereby dieters feel guilty or angry with themselves for the lapse and then continue eating poorly because of these negative feelings. The first step is to forgive yourself. Look at past patterns and see how unhelpful these emotions are. What you've eaten isn't the problem, but how you've reacted to it is. If you've fallen off the wagon, remind yourself that no one's perfect and focus on getting back to your eating plan.

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