Overcoming Weight Loss Plateaus

Why plateaus happen

A plateau is when the scale stops moving even though you're still putting in the work. It's usually down to metabolic adaptation, burning fewer calories than before, or a drop in how active you are. A lighter body simply needs fewer calories to run, so what worked when you started may not work now.

What to do about it

1. Take another look at your calories

Your body adjusts to what you eat. If progress has stalled, you may need to eat a little less, or track more carefully. In one well known study, people who said they couldn't lose weight on a low calorie diet were eating nearly twice what they reported, and that alone can stall progress (Lichtman et al., 1992).

2. Eat more protein

Protein helps you keep muscle and supports your metabolism. Your body also uses more energy to digest protein than it does to digest carbs or fat, so a higher protein diet burns a few more calories over the day (Westerterp, 2004).

3. Change your training

Run the same workout for months and you'll get less and less out of it. Go heavier, add some short, hard intervals, or bring in new exercises. In an 8 month trial of overweight adults, cardio did the most for fat loss, while the groups that also lifted held on to more muscle (Willis et al., 2012). Doing both covers both bases.

4. Sort out stress and sleep

High stress and short sleep throw your hormones off, which can make you hungrier and make it harder to lose fat. In one trial, dieters who got 5.5 hours in bed a night instead of 8.5 lost the same amount of weight, but much less of it was fat (Nedeltcheva et al., 2010). Cortisol, the stress hormone, has also been linked to storing fat around the belly (Epel et al., 2000). Aim for 7 to 9 hours of good sleep a night, and find something that brings your stress down, like meditation or slow breathing.

5. Try diet breaks

A diet break means stepping up to maintenance calories for a week or two between blocks of dieting. The research is mixed. In one trial, men who dieted in two week blocks with two week breaks lost more fat than men who dieted nonstop (Byrne et al., 2018). A similar trial in people who lift found no real difference (Peos et al., 2021). If a nonstop diet is wearing you down, a planned break is worth a try, but don't expect it to do the work for you.

6. Measure more than your weight

The scale on its own is a poor measure of progress. Track body fat percentage, muscle mass and your strength as well. Your weight moves around with water, digestion and hormones, so you want a few numbers to look at, not one.

Mistakes that keep people stuck

1. Doing only cardio

Cardio burns calories, but lots of cardio with no strength training can cost you muscle, and that slows your metabolism. Lift as well, so you keep your muscle and lose more fat.

2. Eating too little

Cutting calories hard can slow your metabolism and make weight loss harder, not easier. Go for a deficit you can live with and build your meals around nutrient dense food.

3. Not drinking enough water

Being dehydrated can cause bloating and water retention, so it can look like you're not losing anything when you are. Enough water also helps your digestion and metabolism.

Give changes time to work

Plateaus are frustrating, but they don't last forever. Make one or two of the changes above at a time, keep at them for a few weeks, and judge the result by your measurements and your strength as well as the scale.

References

1. Lichtman SW, Pisarska K, Berman ER, et al. (1992). Discrepancy between self-reported and actual caloric intake and exercise in obese subjects. The New England Journal of Medicine, 327(27):1893-8. PubMed
2. Westerterp KR (2004). Diet induced thermogenesis. Nutrition & Metabolism, 1(1):5. PubMed
3. Willis LH, Slentz CA, Bateman LA, et al. (2012). Effects of aerobic and/or resistance training on body mass and fat mass in overweight or obese adults. Journal of Applied Physiology, 113(12):1831-7. PubMed
4. Nedeltcheva AV, Kilkus JM, Imperial J, et al. (2010). Insufficient sleep undermines dietary efforts to reduce adiposity. Annals of Internal Medicine, 153(7):435-41. PubMed
5. Epel ES, McEwen B, Seeman T, et al. (2000). Stress and body shape: stress-induced cortisol secretion is consistently greater among women with central fat. Psychosomatic Medicine, 62(5):623-32. PubMed
6. Byrne NM, Sainsbury A, King NA, et al. (2018). Intermittent energy restriction improves weight loss efficiency in obese men: the MATADOR study. International Journal of Obesity, 42(2):129-138. PubMed
7. Peos JJ, Helms ER, Fournier PA, et al. (2021). Continuous versus Intermittent Dieting for Fat Loss and Fat-Free Mass Retention in Resistance-trained Adults: The ICECAP Trial. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 53(8):1685-1698. PubMed

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