Plateau Breaking

A plateau as two or more consecutive weeks of zero weight loss when you are following your program exactly (if you're cheating, it's not a plateau!). Make sure you know exactly what you're supposed to be eating and that you aren't eyeballing portions or adding a few too many extras, or the little bad habits that we can all slide into over time.

It can be so frustrating to feel like you're doing everything right, and not see the results reflected on the scale. Before you feel like giving up, try some of these ideas first and see if they help you.

First thing- have you been taking measurements? Especially if you're exercising, you might find that you are dropping inches and not pounds. If so, just keep doing what you're doing; the scale will catch up! Whatever you are doing is obviously working for you.

If you aren't losing inches either, then your body sometimes needs a bit of a shock to jolt it back into losing weight. Try these techniques for two weeks and see what happens!

1) Switch all your carbohydrate servings for fresh or frozen fruit, or starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes or butternut squash, instead of bread or grain products. You're still getting in your healthy carbs, but these are much better in terms of the glycemic index.

2) While low fat dairy is generally a great choice for protein, switch it up for just a few weeks to only have lean protein (preferably low sodium). Eat things like grilled chicken, or shrimp, or fish, or eggs.

3) Switch up your menu! Do you like to eat the same thing over and over? If so, make a change. Do something different to shock your system.

4) Switch your lunch and your dinner meals in your program, so if you normally have a small lunch and a large dinner, alternate that.

5) Start alternating high and low calorie days. If your caloric range is 1200-1600, eat one day around 1200 and the next around 1600! Make sure they're all high quality calories though, don't fill in with junk food.

6) If you're doing exercise, change it up. Are you mostly doing cardio? Try some strength training. Your body gets used to what you're doing and it becomes less effective over time.

7) And make sure you're getting in all your water and fresh vegetables!!!

If after four weeks you still haven't seen any results, it might be time to consult your doctor and make sure there aren't any medical reason why you aren't losing weight. While it gets harder to lose weight over time as you have less to use, these are tried and true techniques that should break through a plateau and get you seeing results again.