Has Your Weight Loss come to a screeching halt?!
If so, I know how frustrating that can be! Maybe you’re exercising more and eating less! You feel like you’re doing everything right, but the number on the scale won’t budge! Ahhh - it’s a weight loss plateau! What else can you do??
Let’s clear it up for you once and for all so you can start seeing results again ASAP !!
What Causes a Weight Loss Plateau?
The problem is EFFICIENCY! Usually it’s something we love, but when it comes to weight loss it’s no good! Basically, as you exercise and tweak your diet, your body adapts. As you lose weight, your body requires fewer calories to get through the day. Plus, if you’re restricting calories for a long time, your metabolism can slow down, which means you’re burning even FEWER calories!
There are some additional reasons you might stop losing weight:
You’re eating more than you think! At the beginning of your weight loss journey, you probably tracked religiously! More recently, you’re not as strict and you’ve likely let small increases in calories creep into your day. Some extra peanut butter on your sandwich or another small serving of cereal could add up to hundreds of calories per day. Get back to tracking, and you might just get back to losing!
You're a ball of STRESS! We hear it all the time, but stress is SO detrimental to weight loss. When stress is high, cortisol (the “stress hormone”) is high. This hormone impedes fat-burning and revs up belly fat storage. Obvs - this is NOT the goal! Although stress is a natural part of life, learning to manage it AND get good sleep will go a LONG WAY in helping you meet your weight loss goals. Also, feeding your body good nutritious food will help reduce stress levels.
You’ve lost muscle. If you’ve lost weight quickly, dropped your calories too low, not eaten enough protein and prioritized cardio exercise over strength training, it’s likely that you’re losing muscle weight. WHO CARES? Losing FAT benefits our health in many ways, while losing MUSCLE
You’re not eating ENOUGH! Yes, of course, eating TOO MUCH can cause weight plateaus, but undereating might be your nemesis! When you start a diet that SUDDENLY restricts your calories, your body will conserve energy, not burn it. Maybe you dropped some weight initially on this diet, but it hasn’t continued. You actually need to eat a bit MORE to boost and sustain your metabolism.
Try REVERSE DIETING to kick your plateau to the curb and start losing again!
It might sound crazy, but slowly increasing your calories and macros with HEALTHY WHOLE FOODS, can help heal your metabolism. This strategy can help your metabolism reset and increase up to a higher daily intake without gaining weight (i.e. you can eat MORE and not gain weight).
After you add back in some healthy whole foods and boost your metabolism, you can THEN cut a SMALL number of calories and macros to create a deficit without starving yourself!
If you’re no longer losing weight, your body just might need a BREAK! Give it that break by feeding it some extra whole healthy foods and PUSH PAST THAT WEIGHT LOSS PLATEAU!
Why Does Reverse Dieting Work?
If eating more and staying lean sounds like sorcery, keep reading! There are actually common sense reasons that reverse dieting works. As you implement reverse dieting, you’ll notice that:
You can prevent a BINGE before it starts! When you don’t eat enough, your body is hungry all the time! A starved body will eventually be forced to EAT! Unfortunately, when you’re starving, you DON’T CARE what you eat! You just know that you need FOOD! BUT - if you gradually increase your calories, you can avoid those binges because your body is getting the fuel it needs!
Keep your metabolism steady! Jumping back and forth from too many calories to too few calories shocks your metabolism … and it makes you more likely to gain weight. Take your time increasing calories through reverse dieting and allow your body time to gradually adjust.
Rev up your metabolism so that you burn more calories every day! Slowly adding in calories can heal your metabolism AND even increase it! After reverse dieting for a few weeks or months, go BACK to calorie or macro counting .. and start losing weight again!
Supercharge your well-being and increase your energy! Your body needs fuel to get through the day! AND - it needs ENOUGH fuel! Too little food (fuel) and you’ll be tired, grumpy and possibly more likely to get sick! For women, cutting out food can also adversely affect our hormones! Reverse diet to FUEL YOURSELF with the nutrition you need to stay healthy!
Need Help with Reverse Dieting?
So, do you think this reverse dieting thing might be a fit for you?
Do you want to try it, but not sure HOW?
Grab my FREE five-day meal plan that is macro-balanced and might be MORE FOOD than you THINK you can eat! Try it out and let me know how you feel!
