What Is A Plateau and Why Did I Hit One?

One of the biggest frustrations I hear from you all through email or when you come in for your body diagnostic at my studio is that you feel like your weight loss progress has just come to a screeching halt. Just last week I had at least 3 women come in and tell me how all on their own they had lost 25lbs, 30lbs, one woman had even lost 50lbs. But each and every one of them could not seem to get one more pound to budge. Can you relate?

This is called a plateau and it’s the #1 reason that women fail at weight loss once they get past all the initial danger spots. Women who have gone for weeks, even months faithfully getting their workouts in, saying no to diet temptations and have thrilled at seeing it all pay off, suddenly stop doing it all and soon enough they find the weight creeping back on one sneaky pound at a time.

Can you relate?

Well I’m going to tell you exactly what a plateau is, why you’ve hit it, and what you can do about it.

This is gonna help you avoid a LOT of frustration. I’m also going to tell you how to avoid a plateau if you haven’t hit one yet.

As I was writing this blog post I realized that it’s almost impossible to keep it short and still convey useful information that you can actually take action on. So I’m going to break it down into a few blog posts over the next couple of weeks. I know it’s daunting to open a web page and see an endless stream of words so I’mma try and not do that to you. I want you to actually read and benefit from the info I have for you ‘cause it’s gonna save you so much time and stress. Ok so here goes.

First up: What exactly IS a plateau?

A plateau is when you stop making progress toward your goal even though you are continuing to do the same actions and habits that previously gave you results. For example: By walking 5 days a week for 3 miles you’ve lost 15lbs in the last 3 months. You are still walking 3 miles 5 days a week but the scale hasn’t budged for the last 3 weeks and your clothes have stopped getting looser. This is a plateau.

Now keep in mind, it is only a true plateau if you are still doing the exact same things as before. If you’ve started slacking off and missing days, if you’ve picked up a bad night-time munching habit, it is not a plateau. Also if you are starting to gain weight or put on inches it is also not a plateau, you’ve changed something and its showing.

So now WHHYYYYY?!

That’s where it get’s complicated, especially with us women but I’ll break it down to the basics:

1. Not enough rest (we’re talking sleep as well as rest from exercise)

2. Too much stress

3. Nutrition is off in some way (eating too much, not enough, too much sugar, not a balanced ratio of macro nutrients)

4. Not enough water (sounds simple but it happens)

5. Loss of muscle (this happens without strength training)

6. Wrong kind of cardio (waaaaay more common that I wish it were)

7. Not pushing yourself harder in relation to your progress

Really the list could probably go to 100+ and could include a myriad of medical reasons as well. But I would say these are the top ones that you all are dealing with.

Ok, so how do you get over a plateau?

I’ll talk about that in my next few posts so check your email or come back to this blog. In each blog post I’ll give you concrete, actionable steps to break through that plateau and maybe even a few recipes and workouts to help. You’ll be in your skinny jeans in no time.