Grind Harder to Break Through Any Plateau
You’ve finally found a diet and fitness routine that is giving you noticeable results. Your clothes are fitting looser, your muscles are becoming more prominent, and your weight loss has been steady. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the number on the scale flatlines day after day. Can you relate to this scenario?
In the health and fitness industry, this is often referred to as a plateau. Hitting a plateau is common at any fitness level and is a normal part of many weight loss journeys. Plateaus happen. In fact, you can expect them to happen. The good news is that a plateau means you’ve made progress.
Diane Fu, a weightlifting coach in San Francisco, tells her athletes, “When you hit that first plateau and you’re not improving as fast as you were before, congratulations — you’re no longer a beginner!”
At Performance Inspired Nutrition, we want to encourage you to recognize a plateau as a sign of progress and that your hard work is paying off. By staying positive and using the right resources, you can push through even the toughest plateau. Keep reading to learn safe and effective ways to grind harder so that you can break through any plateau.
How to break through a fitness plateau
A fitness plateau occurs when your progress has come to a halt, whether it is muscle gain, strength increases, or overall performance. You’ll be able to tell you’ve hit a plateau when your workout becomes easier and easier. As mentioned above, this is a sign that you’re making progress and that you’ve become more efficient at performing those activities. However, the more efficient you are, the fewer calories your body will burn during the activity.
Many people are tempted to quit when they reach this point. But we know our PI readers aren’t quitters. You’re ready to grind harder to break through your fitness plateau, and we’re ready to give you the answers on how to do it.
The first step to overcome the plateau is to modify your training program. This isn’t to say that you need to completely change everything you’ve been doing. Rather, try changing just one or two things in your program at a time. The Greatist gives four tips to mix up your fitness routine:
- Increase weight and decrease reps
- Try a new move
- Up the intensity
- Set a new goal
Another way to break through your fitness plateau is by incorporating a new type of exercise into your normal fitness routine one to two days per week. For example, runners can integrate cross training into their routine to increase strength and flexibility. Whatever form of exercise you choose make sure it is enough to keep your body challenged and burning the most calories.
How to break through a weight loss plateau
The human body is incredibly adaptive, constantly trying to reach a level of homeostasis. Plateaus occur with diets based on calorie restriction because the body can recognize the number of calories you’re taking in on a daily basis. In order to protect you and reach homeostasis, your body will respond to the calorie restrictions by only burning a certain number of calories to match that restricted number.
What many people don’t know is that weight loss plateaus will usually break on their own. If you stay consistent with your diet and fitness routine during the plateau, it will typically subside after about 3 to 4 weeks. However, the closer you get to your goal weight, the longer the plateau will last and the harder it will be to break.
So if you choose to stay the course to see if the plateau will break on its own, evaluate your progress after those 4 weeks. Keep in mind that progress doesn’t have to be limited to the number on the scale. Do your clothes fit looser? Can you see greater muscle definition? These results mean that your body fat is decreasing even if the number on your scale hasn’t budged.
If you still haven’t noticed results after that time period, you can start making changes to restart weight loss. However, be cautious of advice from sources that say cutting calorie intake further and/or exercising more is the only way to break a plateau. Remember, the body is extremely adaptive and eventually it will slow your metabolism further to match your reduced calorie intake. Thus, you’ll most likely hit another plateau even though you’ve cut back on your calories and are exercising like a maniac. That doesn’t sound like fun, does it?
So what can you do to push past this weight loss plateau?
First, evaluate if your diet is still as clean as it was when you first started losing weight. Many people are very diligent at the beginning of a diet. But as time goes on they become more complacent and begin adding in extra calories throughout the day without even noticing. Just a small piece of chocolate isn’t going to derail your diet is it? Well, if that piece of chocolate becomes habitual, the calories begin to add up and your weight loss stalls. Accurately tracking your food for a few days to analyze your calorie and macronutrient intake can give you some insight as to why you might have hit a plateau.
If your diet has truly remained consistent and you’re still faced with the dreaded plateau, another method to try is called zig-zag nutrition, otherwise known as calorie cycling. This method is highly effective and has helped many people who were struggling with weight loss to bust through their plateaus.
In zig-zag nutrition, your caloric baseline is the same as whatever it was when the plateau kicked in. Beachbody.com explains what to do: “On two to three days of the week, eat the same number of calories you usually would [for your particular program]. On the remaining four to five days, eat more calories. The general practice is four days of change and three days of remaining the same.” The changes in calories should be subtle (start with 300 or so extra). Therefore, over the course of your week your body doesn’t adapt because the number of calories is changing from day to day.
So how do you grind harder to break through your fitness or weight loss plateau? Have you tried any of these methods? Leave us a comment below!
