Today I would like to talk
specifically about a plateau in regards to weight loss, and what exactly is it
is when people who are trying to lose weight, just cannot seem to shift those
extra unwanted pounds.
The first thing to
understand is exactly what a plateau is. A plateau is basically a situation
when the result you are trying to achieve does not take place, even when you
are doing all of the required actions for the result to occur. Plateaus happen
because the body gets very aligned quickly to routines and patterns that we do
on a day to day basis.
Another reason why you
might experience a plateau is because you may have cheated on your diet
slightly or you may not have put in the hours at the gym that you promised
yourself. All of the small things that you have done can make a big difference
on the overall scale of things.
We all have a specific
routine or pattern that we follow which we do on auto pilot without really
giving it much thought process. It can be very hard to simply stop doing what
you would normally do and change the way you do things. Its basic human nature,
change is difficult. This is basically what happens when we hit a plateau.
In relation to weight loss,
a plateau occurs because the body has got used to a specific routine or pattern
that it is doing on a regular basis, so new progress is minimal or
non-existent. This is one of the most frustrating experiences people go through
on a weight loss program. No matter how clean and health you may eat, and how
intense the workouts you are doing are, the progress you make is minimal or
little to none.
OK so now we know what a
plateau is, how to we break through this cycle?
There are several proven
strategies that can be used to combat this situation.
Visualisation is technique
that many coaches and trainers encourage their clients to use to get past this
area when it arises.
When you learn how to
visualise the goals that you have set yourself you find that your mind set
becomes much more sharp and focused and creates a tunnel vision for you to
follow.
Another common pitfall that
will often cause a plateau is yo-yo dieting. This is a very common practice
that many people fall trap to for the summer months when they want to shed
extra weight before going to the beach.
One of the main reasons
that people will face a plateau is because they have stocked there fridge with
mostly unhealthy food over healthy food choices. This becomes a problem in the
long run for people trying to lose weight, because they will crave unhealthy
food and snack on high caloric foods late at night which is counterproductive
to weight loss.
Another reason why we
sometimes face a weight loss plateau is because we are not recording what we
eat, and drink and the time of day that we eat and drink on a daily basis.
Many
people are not consciously aware that they are consuming higher calorie
expenditure than they need to lose weight, and also eating meals at a time of
day that is counterproductive to the results that they want to achieve.
A few simple techniques to
combat this problem is to try and understand what causes you to binge eat and
learn how to control your emotions to reduce and prevent this happening more
often than not. We all have emotional triggers that cause to eat certain foods
and to beat this problem we need to recognise this.
When you can identify the
emotional triggers that cause you to eat unhealthy food, a good strategy is to
replace the unhealthy food with healthier food choices, this will help reduce
binge eating and snacking. Alternatively you can work on different ways to
handle your emotions instead of eating, you could drink something in
replacement, but I would not advise alcohol here as this could cause the start
of many new problems.
Another useful strategy
here is to listen to relaxing music or channel your energy into physical
activity instead of eating when you're experiencing emotional stress.
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