You have been doing everything right, and up until now, you have seen linear progress. You are eating less and moving more, your body is dropping weight on the scale and your clothes are feeling looser. Life is good, until it stops… the scale hasn’t moved in 2 weeks and life has gotten a little bit crazier. It feels harder to make the time to get to the gym and it would be way easier to grab some take out on the way home rather than go home and make dinner for your family.
So what do you do?
First, a couple notes on plateaus.
- it’s actually not a true plateau unless it lasts 4 whole weeks. Which can feel like an eternity when you are drinking all the water, hitting your step goal, getting your lifts in 3x week and NOT seeing the changes you are looking for.
- progress towards your goal whether it be fat loss or muscle gain will NOT be linear. It may start out that way, but EVERY journey has a plateau of varying degrees at some point in time.
Plateaus are a good time to re-evaluate what you are already doing. Not to automatically change anything and everything to try to see progress again, but to really dive into what you are currently doing, and to be honest with yourself. Are you actually logging EVERYTHING you eat in your food logs, or do you omit oils when cooking? Have you gotten a little bit lax with your sleep routine and schedule? Or maybe you have little ones and sleep just isn’t happening this week. Whatever it is, do an honest audit of the steps you have already taken to achieve your goals. Then tighten up the reins on anything that may need some fine tuning.
If after 4 weeks of consistency in regards to your health habits you still are not seeing any changes, then it may be time to re-evaluate your approach and maybe change something up. Maybe it is time to change your workout stimulus a little bit, or maybe you need to up your daily protein target a little bit. A little bit of change can go a long ways when it comes to breaking a plateau. Let me say that again: a LITTLE bit of change can go a long ways. Don’t totally up end what you have been doing up to this point (and getting results with!) or you’ll feel like you are right back at square one, having to make all of these changes feel like habits that fit into your crazy life, which can really hurt motivation to stick with things.
I know I have said it before, but the biggest contributor to your success is going to be CONSISTENCY. So totally changing up the plan, makes it harder to stay consistent AND motivated. Not a good recipe for success.
I’m going to suggest something that may seem a little bit counterintuitive, but when it comes to staying on track, doing whatever it takes to stay consistent is important. When doing your own personal audit of your health habits… look into ways you might be able to make consistency more achievable. Maybe up until now you have been working out 4 days a week, but that has really seemed overwhelming lately. Switch it up and aim for 2 or 3 days, CONSISTENTLY. Maybe you have been able to make time to get to the gym, but now the kids’ activities are up and running again and the extra commute is hard to make. Do some at home workouts instead.
If you have a hard time setting aside 30-40 minutes for a walk, try breaking it up into 3, 10 minute walks (one after each meal). That way, if you miss one, you have only missed out on 10 minutes of movement, not a whole 30.
If everything still seems manageable and you are happy with the habits you have built, some additional strategies to help bust through that plateau are:
Increase your protein intake
Eat more fiber
Drink more water
Get enough quality sleep
Lower your stress level/find ways to manage stress
Track your food, if you aren’t already doing so.
Hope this helps!
And don’t forget, BE PATIENT AND TRUST THE PROCESS. Progress isn’t always linear, and before long you will be looking back at this plateau and thinking, “if I had only known!”. You’ll get through it, I promise. No plateau lasts forever.