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.
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:
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.
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…
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.
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:
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!
Tracking your macros without adjusting them as you go brings several benefits. Here are just a few:
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.
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:
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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