Your Daily Banana

fitvillains:

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
- Albert Einstein

A plateau means…

• That it is humanly possible for you to lose additional weight but you are not. (your body does not keep losing weight indefinitely).
• That you’re doing everything right “i.e. diet & exercise in adequate amounts.
• That you were losing weight with what you were doing, but have stopped.
• That you haven’t noticed any difference in 2 weeks or more.

When it comes to plateaus, there really are only a few ways to bust them. But they involve making changes to what you are currently doing. You cannot keep doing the same thing, expecting different results. A plateau is your body’s way of letting you know that it NEEDS to stay where it is based on what you are doing NOW. In most cases, it just needs a little TLC from you in order to get back on track.

Our bodies talk to us, and plateaus are feedback.

Reasons why you might be ‘stuck’.

1. A plateau can occur when your body has reached starvation mode (or rather thinks it has). When we over restrict and exercise, the body goes into ‘shutdown’ to save itself from us. Fat is necessary for survival: it won’t give it up easily if it feels like there’s a need to keep it for later. It will slow down other processes to compensate for the deficit you’re making if that deficit is too large.

Solution: boost your calories for a few days (up to a week), and take an extra day off (or two). You need to reassure your body that things are okay, before it’ll be willing to work efficiently again. Boosting your calories can bring your metabolism back up again. No need to go crazy, but anywhere from 300-600 extra calories a day is sufficient. Re-examine whether or not your restricted calorie diet is enough for your body, and raise your calorie limit permanently if that’s what your body needs. 

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