Experiencing a weight loss plateau is common during your weight loss journey. This challenge is frustrating when you have been making efforts to get rid of unwanted pounds. When you begin your weight loss journey, you can see the number on the scale go down quickly thanks to the water weight you are losing first.
Even consistent healthy habits can result in a stall, but the good news is that there are practical tips to break through this plateau. Staying motivated plays a crucial role in losing weight. Your patience and efforts can pay off with a few tweaks in your daily life.
#1 Track What You Eat
Many people tend to underestimate how much food they eat, which can be detrimental when making efforts to lose weight. If you don’t see progress for a while, keeping a food journal, whether in a notebook or via an app, can keep you accountable.
Complete honesty is how you make a food log work. It also helps if you reach out for snacks when stressed out. This tracking system helps you modify your diet if necessary. Health providers usually recommend eating at least 1,200 calories per day to stay healthy.
#2 Increase Your Fiber Intake
Eating more fiber can help you break through a weight loss plateau, especially if it is soluble fiber. This type of fiber helps you manage hunger and food consumption better. Fiber improves your digestive health and promotes regular bowel movements.
You can increase fiber intake with fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Low-carb and high-protein diets may lack fibers, but you can still incorporate daily fiber supplements to make up for it.
#3 Eat Enough Proteins
Proteins boost how many calories your system burns during digestion. They also support the production of hormones that regulate appetite. Eating enough protein helps build and maintain muscle mass. They play a significant role during recovery time. Consuming proteins at every meal increases benefits and makes you feel full and satisfied faster and longer.
Good sources of protein include:
- Eggs
- Lean meats,
- Lentils and beans
- Spirulina
- Oats
- Nuts
- Yogurt
- Quality protein powders
#4 Don’t Drink Your Calories
Watching out for empty calories that provide no nutritional value is important for your weight loss efforts. Drinking this type of calories can easily happen. Sticking to water and unsweetened tea or coffee helps minimize extra calories. Trading your fancy Frappuccino or cocktail mixer for lower calories options can go a long way in helping you shed pounds.
Alcohol can also cause:
- Overeating
- Bloating
- Inflammation
- Water retention
#5 Get Enough Sleep
Sleep is vital for your mental and physical health. Sleep deprivation can lower your metabolic rate and affect your hormone levels, which can lead to an increase in your appetite and fat storage. Getting enough quality sleep helps break through a weight plateau.
Creating and implementing a bedtime routine can promote relaxation so you can get seven to eight hours of sleep per night. Adequate sleep can reduce stress and junk food cravings. Regular and restorative sleep also participates in proper recovery from exercise.
#6 Manage Stress
Stress can easily hinder weight loss. It often leads to comfort eating, which messes up with your healthy habits as it often means high-fat and sugary foods. Stress also increases your body’s cortisol production. Cortisol helps your body deal with stress, but it can also cause more belly fat storage. This can in turn negatively impact your digestive and cardiovascular health.
Learning techniques to reduce your stress has many benefits for your mental and physical health, including your weight loss journey.
Stress management activities include:
- Deep breathing
- Yoga
- Running
- Meditation
- Journaling
Depending on your stress levels, you may also reach out to a therapist.
#7 Adjust Your Fitness Routine
Increasing and altering your workout regimen can help break through a weight loss plateau. As weight decreases so does your metabolic rate.
Try incorporating the following into your fitness routine:
- Aerobics (cardio)
- Resistance training
- High-intensity interval training (HIIT)
- Strength training
Adding weight training with pushups or lifting twice a week helps build and preserve muscle mass. Just make sure to give yourself appropriate recovery time and work different groups of muscles.
If you already exercise regularly, add one or two extra workouts per week or increase the intensity of the ones you already perform. Changing things up also keeps your body guessing, which helps burn extra calories.
Finding activities that you enjoy makes a big difference in building and maintaining a fitness routine as you make progress with your weight loss journey.
Contact Soza Weight Loss today at (504) 475-9817 to get started on your weight loss journey!