Healthy living is not a program.
It’s a lifestyle that positions you to reach your goals (weight loss, increased strength, overall wellness) and stay there.
So what if you’re eating healthy, exercising regularly, checking all the boxes, and you hit that infamous week where the scale doesn’t budge?
You think you’re plateauing—so just adjust your macros, lower your caloric intake, and tighten down on the rules, right?
Wrong!
Healthy living is a process, and you can trust it. Unless a medical issue is at play, healthy living will lead to a healthy body.
The biggest myth people believe about weight loss is that you have to starve yourself in order to be successful. My suggestion? Skip the starvation strategy and stick with something sustainable.
Today, we’re going to talk about the proper way to look at the weight loss journey and why adjusting your macros is not the answer to your weight plateau.
I’ll show you how you can get to your goal weight, take care of your body, boost your wellness, and stay healthy for the long run.
Don’t Trap Yourself In A Caloric Cage
Too many people think that losing weight requires much more restriction than what’s actually necessary, and many of the weight loss tools we use encourage this thinking. Picture this:
- You use a BMI tool to enter your height, weight, age, activity level, current weight, and goal weight. It spits out the number of calories you need to consume daily in order to reach your goal weight. In the first week, you drop 3 pounds.
- You’re pumped! You update your weight on the app or tool you’re using, and it instantly adjusts your BMI. This means your caloric limit just dropped too. So you make adjustments to your meal plan for next week and set out with good intentions.
- You drop another 2 pounds! You update your app, your BMI drops, and so does your caloric limit.
- Sooner than later, you’re suggested caloric intake is lower than you can sustain for long. You’re having trouble staying full on limited calories. You’re picking foods that are less healthy for you (like that sugar-free, low-fat yogurt) just because they fit within the tight calorie cage your app is suggesting, so you’re not feeling satiated.
- Your cravings are much stronger now that you’re hungry too. Your body may even stop losing weight, and you’re starting to think that this whole weight-loss idea isn’t going to work for you after all.
Guess what? You’re right—At least partially.
Weight loss strategies like that won’t work for you, and in reality, it doesn’t work for anyone. They’re simply unsustainable and unhealthy.
The Mindset and Myth You Need Kick To The Curb
When we don’t see weight drop as fast as we’d like, it’s tempting to cut back on calories. In that moment, you’ve been hoodwinked by one of the biggest myths around weight loss—the less you eat, the more weight you lose.
Thank goodness this is not the truth!
In fact, reaching and maintaining a healthy goal weight is more about macro, insulin, and glucose management than it is about caloric management.
Let’s say adios to this myth and move onto more successful practices! Weight loss doesn’t require living a calorie prison, but it does require consistency and patience.
Let’s talk about it…
What A Real Plateau Looks Like…
If you’ve hit a week where the scale doesn’t budge, let me put your fears to rest. You haven’t hit weight loss “plateau”. Allow me to tell you what a real plateau is:
A plateau is when someone is working out and eating right and experiences no weight loss, no inches lost, and no body composition change for four consecutive weeks.
Sometimes we can be so stuck to our scales that we don’t realize all the other changes happening in our bodies. Just because the number on the scale doesn’t drop doesn’t mean your body isn’t steadily moving toward your goal.
Who cares what the number is, after all, if you feel and look great? Trust the process, give your body a chance to change, and you’ll find that you can stay healthy and fit for life.
What To Do If You Hit A Real Plateau…
Nutritional awareness is powerful. We don’t often recognize a lot of what we’re consuming. That said, I frequently advise my clients to stick with their macros during a plateau. A healthy lifestyle always wins in the end, so stick to your game plan and don’t abandon ship when it gets tough. Then, tick through this list and try one of these solutions:
- Pack On the Protein: Protein can boost our metabolic rate more than fat or carbs. It also can positively affect our hormones and can help us feel more satiated after a meal. If you’re experiencing a four-week body stall, consider increasing your protein intake.
- Stress Management: Stress triggers food cravings and increases cortisol, which can keep our bodies from losing belly fat. Managing stress levels can help our bodies release excess weight easier.
- Intermittent Fasting: To be clear, intermittent fasting is an eating schedule, not a restrictive diet. It doesn’t change what you eat, or how much you eat, but when you eat. In addition to its many health benefits, intermittent fasting increases metabolism and fat burning.
- Get Those Sleeping ZZZ’s : Sleep is instrumental in our mental, emotional, and physical health. Insufficient sleep can affect our hormones, metabolism, and interfere with our weight loss.
- Increase H2O: Hydration has a huge impact on weight management. Water increases our metabolism, enhances our physical activity, flushes out toxins, and helps us feel fuller for longer. Aim to drink at least half of your body weight in ounces each day.
While these five tricks can help you more quickly move past a plateau, know that even when the scale isn’t moving, your body is improving. A healthy lifestyle is healing and beneficial for all of our body’s systems and functions.
During a plateau, try not to compare yourself to other’s results. Know that what you have set for yourself is great for your body and best for you!
Stick To The Plan and Keep Tracking Macros
Tracking your macros without adjusting them as you go brings several benefits. Here are just a few:
- Nutritional awareness is insanely valuable. It allows you to know what to enjoy and what to avoid in order to reach your weight loss and health goals.
- Tracking macros helps you know with certainty what’s gone into your body and how it’s impacting the way you feel and look.
- This knowledge will help you make the right decisions as you meal plan and the right changes if you do hit a plateau.
Pursuing your health should never feel like a punishment. If your health goals include weight loss, make it your aim to maximize your weight loss at the highest caloric level possible.
Should You Ever Change Your Macros?
There is a time and a place to move your macros around. Here are the three scenarios that tell me it’s time make an adjustment:
- When your plateau just won’t budge—If what you’re doing has stopped working, and you’ve given the five solutions above time to work, it may help to either increase or decrease certain macros. Sometimes we don’t realize how much of each macro we’re consuming each day. If your plateau won’t budge, track your macros carefully and see if any are too low or too high.
- When your practices no longer feel sustainable—Sustainable lifestyles are what we can stick to. Remember, whatever you do to lose the weight, you have to keep up to keep it off. Make sure your macros are at levels that feel sustainable to you for life. No crash diets allowed!
- When your practices no longer work for your lifestyle: As our lives change, it’s okay to change our macros to match. For example, your nutritional needs look different if you’re 22 and in college vs. if you’re 32 and pregnant. You know your body better than anyone else. Be honest with yourself about whether a change in macros is helpful or harmful to your health, and use your self-knowledge to make the best decision for you.
Take Seven Weeks Off the Scale
In my LEAN Program, we take a break from the scale and measurements for the full 7-week program. It’s a freeing experience for many of my clients and helps them peel their eyes away from the numbers and set them on their healthy, sustainable goals.
With this shift in focus, they’ve found that the pounds drop off and stay off for good.
If you’re in the market for a team that can support you in this journey, snag a spot in the LEAN program so that you too can feel and look your best.
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