TomO
0
Hi Risty, and thanks for dropping by.
Plateaus are frustrating, that's for sure. Here's what I do about mine.
1) Make sure the plateau is not really an accurate reflection of what you are doing. In other words, do you really have the deficit you think you do? This accounts for the majority of plateaus. Some of the things that can happen are:
a) You've stopped tracking the calories in your food and drink, and you're "cheating" a lot more than you thought. Fix: start tracking meticulously, using a program like FitDay. Get an accurate picture of your intake.
b) Your Normal Activity Rate of Metabolism (NARM) is lower than you think it is. This can happen especially if you've lost more than 10 pounds. I use a figure of 10.0 calories per pound of body weight. That way, as my weight decreases, my NARM decreases along with it. NARM is critical, since your energy surplus/deficit is basically this:
NARM + Exercise Calories - Food/Drink Calories = surplus/deficit.
Fix: take a close look at your NARM and recalculate if necessary.
c) You are not expending as many calories in exercise as you think you are. There are a couple of reasons this can happen. First, if you're doing the same sort of exercise every day, your body gets more efficient at it, and consequently uses fewer calories. Second, as your weight drops, you expend fewer calories doing the same exercise. Fix: take a good look at your exercise program, and make sure you really have accurate figures.
2) Now suppose you are doing everything right, and you really do have a deficit. But what if the deficit is too large? In that case, you may have screwed up your metabolism, and your body is doing everything it can to preserve fat. So even though you've built up a large accumulated caloric deficit, nothing's happening.
Fix: you may have to "reset" your metabolism for a month and then go on a more sensible deficit. You do this by eating/drinking at maintenance level (NARM + Exercise Calories). To do it right, you have to keep accurate track of intake calories as well as exercise calories, so that you can recalculate your NARM. After a month, you should have a pretty close figure, and then you can re-start. I use a rule of thumb of 10 calories per pound of body fat to set my daily deficit target. In other words, if you're 30% body fat, and you weigh 150 lbs., that would mean you have 45 lbs. of body fat, so a safe deficit would be 450 calories per day. By safe, I mean a deficit that will preserve your lean muscle mass as well as keep your metabolism from trying to save fat.
3. OK, your deficit is right on the mark. You're not starving yourself; you're keeping accurate track; you have good variety in your exercist program. What then?
Fix: take a break -- a week off where you stop doing any of the same exercises, stop counting calories. Not that you should pig out or become a couch potato on this week, but you should enjoy yourself and do something completely different. Then resume your program. I did this after my last plateau in March, and the results were very good. I had been exercising 6 days a week for 4 months, so I was due for a break.
Of course, this only applies if you've been maintaining your program diligently, not if you've been lax about it from the start!
4. You took a break; your program is on track; you have good figures; the plateau continues.
Fix: be patient, and let momentum help. I know, this is not an easy answer. But if you have a reasonable deficit, and it's calculated accurately, eventually the weight MUST come off. As Steve would say, that's simply the law of thermodynamics. Your body is a closed system, and if you accumulate a large enough deficit over time, it HAS to drop some weight eventually. My last plateau lasted 36 days, and the scale didn't move until I had an accumulated caloric deficit of 13,000 calories. Then suddenly, in 4 days, I dropped 3 pounds and stayed there. Sometimes patience is the best answer.
Hope this helps!
Plateaus are frustrating, that's for sure. Here's what I do about mine.
1) Make sure the plateau is not really an accurate reflection of what you are doing. In other words, do you really have the deficit you think you do? This accounts for the majority of plateaus. Some of the things that can happen are:
a) You've stopped tracking the calories in your food and drink, and you're "cheating" a lot more than you thought. Fix: start tracking meticulously, using a program like FitDay. Get an accurate picture of your intake.
b) Your Normal Activity Rate of Metabolism (NARM) is lower than you think it is. This can happen especially if you've lost more than 10 pounds. I use a figure of 10.0 calories per pound of body weight. That way, as my weight decreases, my NARM decreases along with it. NARM is critical, since your energy surplus/deficit is basically this:
NARM + Exercise Calories - Food/Drink Calories = surplus/deficit.
Fix: take a close look at your NARM and recalculate if necessary.
c) You are not expending as many calories in exercise as you think you are. There are a couple of reasons this can happen. First, if you're doing the same sort of exercise every day, your body gets more efficient at it, and consequently uses fewer calories. Second, as your weight drops, you expend fewer calories doing the same exercise. Fix: take a good look at your exercise program, and make sure you really have accurate figures.
2) Now suppose you are doing everything right, and you really do have a deficit. But what if the deficit is too large? In that case, you may have screwed up your metabolism, and your body is doing everything it can to preserve fat. So even though you've built up a large accumulated caloric deficit, nothing's happening.
Fix: you may have to "reset" your metabolism for a month and then go on a more sensible deficit. You do this by eating/drinking at maintenance level (NARM + Exercise Calories). To do it right, you have to keep accurate track of intake calories as well as exercise calories, so that you can recalculate your NARM. After a month, you should have a pretty close figure, and then you can re-start. I use a rule of thumb of 10 calories per pound of body fat to set my daily deficit target. In other words, if you're 30% body fat, and you weigh 150 lbs., that would mean you have 45 lbs. of body fat, so a safe deficit would be 450 calories per day. By safe, I mean a deficit that will preserve your lean muscle mass as well as keep your metabolism from trying to save fat.
3. OK, your deficit is right on the mark. You're not starving yourself; you're keeping accurate track; you have good variety in your exercist program. What then?
Fix: take a break -- a week off where you stop doing any of the same exercises, stop counting calories. Not that you should pig out or become a couch potato on this week, but you should enjoy yourself and do something completely different. Then resume your program. I did this after my last plateau in March, and the results were very good. I had been exercising 6 days a week for 4 months, so I was due for a break.
Of course, this only applies if you've been maintaining your program diligently, not if you've been lax about it from the start!
4. You took a break; your program is on track; you have good figures; the plateau continues.
Fix: be patient, and let momentum help. I know, this is not an easy answer. But if you have a reasonable deficit, and it's calculated accurately, eventually the weight MUST come off. As Steve would say, that's simply the law of thermodynamics. Your body is a closed system, and if you accumulate a large enough deficit over time, it HAS to drop some weight eventually. My last plateau lasted 36 days, and the scale didn't move until I had an accumulated caloric deficit of 13,000 calories. Then suddenly, in 4 days, I dropped 3 pounds and stayed there. Sometimes patience is the best answer.
Hope this helps!
but i know its coming... and ya know where im gonna go? TOMS DIARY! have a good one Tom! im off to work... its gonna be 94 degrees today.. this should be fun.
