Why The Weight Loss Plateau?

Jun 20, 2009

When you’ve been faithful to your dieting program, you are eager to get on those bathroom scales to see how much weight you have lost! Your excitement comes to a halt and is replaced with frustration and discouragement when you discover no loss, or even worse, weight gain!

Though faithful to our diets, occasional fluctuation of our weight should be expected. Weight loss plateaus are a common part of the weight loss process. Changing your dieting pattern or drinking an excess of fluids the previous day can easily tip the scales in a frustrating direction. Weighing yourself once a week will allow your body time to catch up and balance itself. An actual plateau can be recognized when our weight stays the same for several weeks.

Research suggests ‘possible links’ to weight loss plateaus. Despite research, solutions and answers to explain why our bodies work the way they do, is a difficult task. Our bodies are a complex mechanism, even more complex is the brain. Sometimes it seems as if the body has a mind of it’s own! In a sense, it does, as it utilizes a portion of our brain that controls our bodily functions. Our bodies work very hard to protect us from the damage that we often inflict upon ourselves.

Owning a car, we rely on our vehicle to do what it is designed to do. While driving, we don’t think about the computer chips or the spark plugs sparking, we simply want to reach our destination. In comparison to the complexity of our bodies, the car is a play school toy. We may never understand why or how everything works, but there are some aspects of our bodies that are important for us to know.

The first few weeks of your weight loss program, you may experience rapid weight loss which is very encouraging and motivating! Energy that the body needs to fuel itself, come from the calories in our food. Reducing these calories, the body replaces the needed energy by releasing its stores of glycogen. Glycogen is a type of carbohydrate found in your muscles and liver. Glycogen is designed to hold onto water, but when it is used to burn energy, it releases the water, resulting in rapid weight loss. We may think we have lost body fat, however, the weight loss experienced is mostly water.

We may become discouraged after this initial boost of rapid weight loss, finding our weight loss has slowed down. The positive and bright side to this slow down process, once the glycogen has used up all of its stored water for that energy, your body starts to burn fat for energy! Fat does not store as much water as glycogen, therefore weight loss results slow down. As the glycogen begins to replenish itself of water, you may find your weight stabilizing and you may temporarily experience no weight loss, or even possible weight gain. But realize this is a natural function that will balance out if you give your body time to adjust.

Yes it is exciting to see a weight loss of five or more pounds in a week! But generally, losing more than a pound or two a week is not recommended. If we begin depriving our bodies of it’s needed calories, the body will then tap into our lean muscle mass for that extra energy. We want our bodies to take it’s energy from our fat, not tear down our muscle tissue! It is natural to lose a small amount of muscle, but it is the muscle that keeps our metabolism moving along at a good pace. Losing the muscle can slower your metabolic rate and actually hinder your weight loss.

If you have been very faithful following your program, however seem to have hit that plateau, you may be tapping into your muscle tissue. Incorporating strength training into your daily activities can help preserve and build muscle and get your metabolism buzzing again!

Medical factors can influence your weight loss. Having thyroid or gland issues, pregnant or breast-feeding, going through menopause, or taking medications, are a few of the many possibilities that can slow down weight loss. Discouraging it is to experience and battle these issues, and often the cause to our throwing in the towel, giving up our weight loss efforts.

If you are following a healthy dieting program, getting your essential vitamins and minerals, putting in the effort to incorporate physical fitness into your life, then you are doing the right thing and your reward will come! Taking care of your body, you may find that some of the medications you are taking will no longer be needed! You may find that as you boost your metabolism, some of those hormone issues are no longer issues! Doing the right thing for yourself shouldn’t be about how many pounds you lost on a bathroom scale, it should always be about becoming a healthier you!

The comfort zones we find ourselves in also play an important role to what we think are plateaus. Perhaps becoming comfortable eyeballing food portions, we don’t realize we are slowly increasing our portions. It may be time once again to measure those portions. You may want to start journalizing your daily food intake to see if you have been indulging in a few high calorie foods that you have not accounted for.

When you began your program, you committed yourself to daily physical exercise. Have you found yourself slacking off of that regime, or you never even started a program? If now on a plateau, perhaps you need to start, or increase your activity level to give your metabolism a kick!

Your body may need a wake up call! If you have maintained a certain calorie intake and followed a particular dieting program for awhile, it is possible that your body has become comfortable and no longer feels the need to work as hard. To ensure that you don’t start tapping into your muscle mass and to ensure that you are receiving your essential nutrients, it not recommended that you consume less that 1200 - 1300 calories per day. However, maybe it is time to alter your diet. If you are consuming 1500 calories a day, you may want to lower your calorie intake to 1300 calories.

It is possible that you are not eating enough! If your body feels threatened, not having enough fuel for energy, it will cling to those calories! Your metabolism will slow down because your body is trying to store what it can to ensure it has it’s needed energy. If you are getting your essential calories per day, try spreading out those calories, eating frequently. Smaller but frequent meals may be what your body needs to feel safe and satisfied.

Is your body saying, “Give me a bit more protein!” Don’t be afraid to make healthy alterations in your diet to determine what your body is asking for. Sometimes I think my body is saying, “Hey, I am hungry, feed me those cookies!” The truth is, my body wants to save me, not harm me. It may actually be telling me it’s thirsty. After a few cookies, still not satisfied so I eat more cookies! My body never wanted cookies, it was asking for something else. To begin a communication process with our bodies, we should learn to listen to those second thoughts. My first thoughts are those impulses of habits, "Feed me cookies!" My second thoughts are rethinking the situation, “No, maybe I don’t really need those cookies or chips, I simply need a piece of fruit or a glass of water.”

Instead of becoming frustrated and discouraged when your body is not cooperating with your weight loss plans, finding yourself on that plateau, perhaps it is time that you begin cooperating with your body. It knows more than you do, it knows what it needs to survive, and it will strive to ensure your health and safety. Regardless of it’s size, shape or weight, your body is not your enemy, it is simply trying to take care of you and save your life!

Our bodies are precious vehicles, we can and should learn how to take better care of them. Our ultimate goal should be learning to optimize our own health, a healthy weight is just a portion of that. One’s motivation should not be determined by a bathroom scale, but by the fact that you care about yourself, and you have chosen to love and take care of your body. It is better to learn to communicate and respond to the needs of your body now, rather than waking up in a hospital bed later!

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