There comes a time in every journey where we hit a plateau. You broke through the initial hard parts of creating new habits by addressing the things you needed to change. You adjusted your schedule and made them easier to perform while limiting access to the detrimental norms that were keeping you from your best self.
You’ve put the cookies away; stopped buying fast food (as often); steer clear of the chip aisles at the grocery, and you’re seeing the results of your increased veggies and protein in addition to the weight training that’s turned from enemy to friend.
But you’ve hit the wall.
The number on the scale isn’t falling anymore.
Your workout progression has stagnated and you’re not seeing progress.
Aggravation sets in and you feel like throwing in the towel and picking up that cheeseburger you saw on the sign on your way home from work.
But you also know that you’ve put in so much work and it’s not worth giving up when you’ve come as far as you have.
What can we do to break through the plateau!? Let’s look at a few ways to breakthrough training and weight loss plateaus.
- Adjust the program
This is probably the easiest way to bust through a plateau! One thing people don’t realize is that when you’ve been doing the same thing for a while (4+ weeks) in regards to training and nutrition, your body adapts. As much as we think we want variety and change all the time, the body is naturally designed to run as efficiently as possible. When you go through your training and keep your nutrition at a certain level, yes you will see progress and change initially, but that adaptation is the time when your body is basically screaming, “Woah, something’s different! We have to work harder! Let’s go boys!” But as you continue on the program, it recognizes that it’s doing similar workouts; it’s taking in similar calories; it learns and builds itself into an efficient machine that is able to perform that work with those calories and doesn’t require as much energy to do the same work. Therefore you hit a plateau.
This will be the time that you go through your log to see if it’s time to change the program – adjust your training plan; adjust your nutrition schedule; work on a new habit you’ve been putting off.
No one is ever going to be 100% efficient in their nutrition and training and there will always be something you can adjust to work on. Heck, after a while, it can be re-visiting a habit that worked and now that you have a new baseline to work off of, it may benefit to re-introduce back in for new results.
- Take some time off
Another reason we plateau is when we’ve been running on a program or diet for so long that our body has reached its efficiency limit. You can only handle so much before your body needs rest.
Similar to an athlete, they have “in season” training and “off season” training. They don’t go balls to the wall all year – they would burn out. Sometimes the best way to break through a plateau is to eliminate the rigidity of the structure and enter a period of maintenance in which your goal stays in place, but you back off the strict structure you’ve been following. Allow your body and its systems a chance to relax and reset before diving into the next phase of your training. This doesn’t mean stop by any means, but release the gas pedal a little bit and lower the intensity to a manageable point.
- Prioritize rest/recovery – De-Load Week
Along the same line as adjusting the program or taking time off, maybe you enjoy keeping it going despite the lack of results, one of the most often neglected facets of a training or nutrition program is rest/recovery. It is during the down time that our body repairs itself; utilizes the nutrients we’ve fed it; and creates the progress we’re looking for. If you’ve been going Hard AF for weeks or months without a break, it may be time to prioritize rest and recovery for a week or two to allow the body to re-achieve its homeostasis.
- Re-visit Your Goal
Beyond adjusting the program, maybe it’s time to re-visit your goal as a whole. You’ve been pushing to lose weight and you’ve seen results but the scale isn’t going down anymore. Maybe it’s time to shift your focus from weight loss to building muscle. One of the benefits of building muscle is that it tends to use fat stores as energy. The adjustment to your goal could be the key to unlocking that next step in your evolution.
- Remember the Non-Scale Victories
You’ve taken names and kicked butt so long and been so focused on that scale number and not seeing it go down has been ruining your mental health. WHY WON’T IT JUST GO DOWN?! After taking a deep breath, let’s remember that the scale is a single tool in our belt. Sit down and take stock of yourself. How do you feel on a day-to-day basis? How are your energy levels daily? How do your clothes fit? How is your confidence? How is your sleep? What things have others noticed or complimented? How is your training? How is your mental health? Taking stock of the non-scale victories is a great way to help break through plateaus and keep your mind on what’s actually happening and keep from falling into a “woe is me” rut.
You are a kick ass person who puts in a lot of hard fuggin work. But like I mentioned, your body is literally designed to be as efficient as possible. You may want to burn calories, but it’s trying to keep them as best it can. It will develop ways to be efficient, which is why when you do the same workout; eat the same meals; etc; over time your body learns how to burn the least amount of calories and your progress hits a plateau. When this happens keep these tricks in mind to help you bust through to the other side.
-Adjust the program
-Take some time off
-Prioritize rest/recovery
-Re-visit your goal
-Remember the non-scale victories
What are you going to do to break through your plateau? Sound off below and let’s keep the progress moving forward!