by JJ Smith
Losing weight is a process that involves more than focusing on what to eat or what workouts to do. It involves dealing with inner struggles and personal issues. So many people have been trying to lose weight by following a diet or food regimen, when more than half of their challenges were internal (mental) and not physical.
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Stage Three—The Stall (The Weight-Loss Plateau)
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EVEN WHEN YOU are on track and the pounds are melting off, there will be a point at which your weight loss slows or stalls. This is perfectly normal; it happens to everyone seeking to lose weight.
I generally do not recommend tracking calories for weight loss, but understanding how your body burns calories will help you understand why your weight loss slows. For example, if you weigh 200 pounds, it takes 2,000 calories per day to maintain that weight. When you drop to 180 pounds, then it will take only 1,800 calories per day to maintain your weight. The less you weigh, the fewer calories you need to burn to maintain your body’s weight.
Therefore, when you decide to lose more and more weight, you need to take in fewer and fewer calories. Here is what happens: At 200 pounds, you decide to take in 1,500, instead of 2,000, calories a day—a reduction of 500 calories—which will produce a weight loss of 1 pound per week. When your weight drops to 180 pounds, and you consume the same number of calories, 1,500, you are now reducing your intake by only 300 calories a day. Since you must deficit 3,500 calories to lose a pound of fat, you can see how it will take longer to lose a pound than when you weighed more. At 200 pounds, you could lose 1 pound in a week, but at 180 pounds, it will take you about twelve days to lose a pound if you continue to take in the same 1,500 calories per day.
However, do not think you can starve yourself and lose more weight. Weight loss can also slow down if you drop your calories too much, because the body thinks that it is starving. The body has a mechanism to preserve itself in case of starvation: metabolism will slow down significantly when the body senses it is getting too little food. So, ironically, at a certain point in your weight-loss journey, you do best to eat in order to lose weight.
Keep in mind that it is normal for weight loss to slow for various reasons. This can be one of the most frustrating aspects of losing weight. You put in the effort yet you do not get consistent results.
Marcy was following all the right guidance, keeping a food diary, and losing about a pound a week. She was really feeling on top of the world, as if she had found the solution to her problem. Then, after three months, she stopped losing weight for no apparent reason. Nothing had changed in her eating habits or workout routine, but her weight stayed the same for weeks. The first week, she just kept pressing; but by the second week, she felt like giving up. She said, “This always happens to me. Maybe I am not destined to be slim. I can’t work this hard and not see results!”
I explained to her that losing weight was a process and that weight loss will fluctuate week to week, and sometimes the number on the scale can go up even if you have not changed your eating habits. The body is complex and will not always do what we want it to do. I went on to explain why weight loss can fluctuate throughout the week. She decided to keep pressing forward. She later lost 2 pounds in one week, after not losing any weight for an entire month. She continued losing after that. She became more patient through the process and did not quit. Just by changing her calorie intake every few days, she was able to trick her metabolism and begin losing again.
Throughout your weight-loss journey, you may actually see the number on the scale go up on some days. This is perfectly normal. Weight fluctuates due to three things in the body: water, fat, and muscle.
For many women, water is the biggest culprit, due to our hormones. Many of us gain 5 to 10 pounds of water weight during our menstrual cycle. For some, excess salt/sodium causes water to be trapped in the body tissues, making us weigh more and look bloated and puffy! So do not sweat it if your weight is a little up and down. You typically only have a problem when it is up every week, week after week!
Look into getting a Tanita scale; it will tell you your weight and the percentage of muscle, fat, and water in the body. This is helpful for people who work out!
Muscle weighs the most, more than fat, which means you can work out and build muscle and actually gain weight. But you are actually making progress by building muscle because it will help you burn fat all day long. If you are working out more than you used to and gaining muscle mass, the number on the scale might not move as much due to your gaining extra muscle. The more muscle you have, the more you will weigh, although you may be getting smaller because you have less body fat. Muscle tissue is also denser than fat tissue so although the scale may be moving slowly, rest assured that you are losing inches. You will also feel more toned, strong, and fit. If you lose muscle mass, your metabolic rate will begin to slow and you will burn fewer calories. In fact, 1 pound of fat burns about 2 calories a day to maintain itself, whereas 1 pound of lean muscle mass burns 30 to 50 calories a day to maintain itself. So just by maintaining more muscle mass, you will burn more calories throughout the day and keep your metabolism revved up. Putting on just 5 to 10 pounds of lean muscle mass will speed up your resting metabolism so you will burn more calories even when resting. So do not be afraid to work out and add more muscle as it will work to your benefit.
5 WAYS TO BREAK THROUGH A WEIGHT-LOSS PLATEAU
The process of breaking through a weight-loss plateau, the point at which your weight loss stalls, is mostly mental. Below I give you the five things you will need to do it.
The process of losing weight is about change, right? You are trying to do some things differently. You are trying out a new lifestyle and new eating habits. It is a process that you are trying to master. It is not, “Should I eat this or should I eat that?” It is about making the right decisions day in and day out that work in your favor. You are going to have to think about how you think about yourself, how you act, and what circumstances cause you to get off track. It takes extreme mindfulness.
Number 1: Trick Your Metabolism by Alternating Food Intake
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To prevent your body from adapting to a certain number of calories or a certain amount of food it expects to receive, it is a good idea to alternate how much food you eat each day during the week. This way you keep your metabolism constantly guessing. This means eating more food or a heavier meal a few times a week. Doing this will make your metabolism more efficient. It stays revved up in fat-burning mode. If you begin a habit of having green smoothies for breakfast and lunch and just a salad for dinner every day, that might seem like a great routine for losing weight. However, what will happen is that your body will adjust to the lower number of calories, and your metabolism will slow down in response. So, you have to mix it up and every few days, eat more than your normal meals to keep your metabolism revved up.
Everyone should have a basic understanding of how the body works with the foods we consume. You need to be aware that eating a heavier meal will probably provide you with more calories than eating a light meal. But knowing the exact calorie count is not critical to weight-loss success. Once you become aware of this, you can start listening to your body and adapting what you eat from week to week.
Number 2: Change Up Your Workout Routine
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When we move differently, the body uses different muscles, which helps to accelerate the body’s natural fat-burning capabilities. Try new movement patterns or workout routines to make your workout more challenging and interesting, even if it is for less time. When we change our routines, we end up burning more calories that last well beyond the time we spend working out.
There are all kinds of fitness routines to try. Just switch them up. You can try Zumba, line-dancing, spinning, cycling, swimming, or the elliptical trainer. Try a high-intensity interval training routine, like Tabata (which takes only four minutes). There are so many ways to keep it interesting and engage n
ew muscles that will increase your body’s ability to burn fat.
Number 3: Don’t Be Impatient
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It is a losing mentality to haul around 50 pounds of excess weight for ten or twenty years and then all of a sudden get mad because you have not lost 10 pounds in a month. Some of you have gotten spoiled with the 10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse; I developed a detox program that provided fast, healthy results as detailed in my bestselling 10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse book. You may have lost 10 to 15 pounds in ten days and want to continue losing a pound a day. People start saying, “Oh, my, the scale is up 2 pounds. What am I going to do?”
You must press forward. You have to stay in it to win it. You are in it for the long haul.
People today have no patience; they want immediate results. With the advent of cell phones, we all essentially have a computer at our fingertips. Everything is about instant gratification. However, the reality is, when it comes to weight loss, it is a journey, a process. It probably took you years to gain weight. Do not expect to lose it all in one month. That is too quick. It is important to understand that losing weight takes time.
If you know you are a naturally impatient person about everything, then accept that you are going to have to work very hard to be patient through this process. Normal weight loss is 1 to 2 pounds per week. That means by the end of the year—if you do not give up—you could lose anywhere from 50 to 100 pounds. Well, just think what 100 pounds looks like a year from now. Would that put you at your goal weight? Would you be in your favorite clothes again? Would you feel confident and have your sexy back? You have to keep that picture in mind, because you cannot overreact over 2 or 3 pounds when you are trying to lose 50. It requires patience.
Every time you stall, you have to mix things up. You have to do things differently to get the scale to move again. Do not be desperate for immediate results and then quit on yourself because you cannot lose 10 pounds in ten days. That is not realistic, and you need to have realistic expectations. Think about where you will be a year from now if you just stay the course.
Number 4: Celebrate the Small Goals
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I hear so many people say, “I need to lose 50 pounds.” That is a great goal. But before you get to it, you need to lose the first 10 and then 10 more. How will you reward yourself at each milestone? Are you getting a pedicure? Are you buying a new outfit? What are you doing to celebrate 10? Losing 50 pounds might be a few months or even a year away, but losing 10 is within the near future. You can see it. You can feel it. Focus on the near-term small goals.
You can use a journal to write down and track your small goals. A small goal for some might be drinking alcohol only on the weekends as opposed to going to happy hour three or four times per week. I am not a big drinker, but to some people, that might be a great goal.
You know what a small goal is for me? If I am going to have a burger (no bun, of course, because I do not eat white bread), I get a side salad instead of french fries. I am pleased with myself when I do that, because I want those french fries badly! When I decide to do something that is healthier for me, it does not matter if anyone else gets excited. I am excited about the small goals.
If I do Tabata for four minutes, that is a big deal for me. After years without working out at all, four minutes is something about which I can get excited. I feel as proud as though I ran a marathon. My mind-set is to celebrate every small goal.
Do not wait to celebrate when you lose 50 pounds, celebrate when you lose 10 or 20 pounds. Maybe buy a new outfit when you hit a weight-loss milestone. Stay small in your goals. Achieve them, and then celebrate your butt off.
Number 5: A Weight-Loss Plateau Does Not Mean You Failed
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You are going to have temporary setbacks on this journey. Do not take them as a sign of a character flaw or weakness. They just mean you are human and you are just like the rest of us. So many people think, when they fall off track, even if it is for a few days, that they are just weak. Actually, they are normal because most people fall off for short periods of time. You are not weak. You are human, and all of us on this journey are having our days and weeks in which we’re just messing up.
If you eat a piece of cake and feel like, “Oh, I shouldn’t have had a piece of cake,” do not lose focus, throw up your hands, and devour the whole cake. A piece of cake is fine. Enjoy it. Do not say, “I am so weak.” You are not weak. You are just like the rest of us, and we are all going through the same thing. We are all having the same struggle. The people who win are the ones who pick up the next day, press forward, and try their best to do better than they did the day before. And even if they do not, they try again. You only lose when you give up!
Next time you are tempted to quit and try a fad diet or magic weight-loss pill, remember why you started and keep going. Celebrate the journey. The journey to permanent weight loss is filled with both joy and frustration. Yes, we can all agree that it is frustrating to put in the effort and not see results. However, your ability to press forward and continue will ultimately determine if you will be a successful “loser” (really a winner) in the end. If you can learn to appreciate the process along the way, your journey will be that much more doable and rewarding. Weight loss takes time, energy, and focus.
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Stage Four—Reaching Your Ideal Weight
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I CAN RECALL TWO times in my life, in my twenties and again in my thirties, where I gained 38 and 40 pounds respectively and I tried several diets and was very committed to losing weight. I followed all the typical advice to “eat less and exercise more” but it just didn’t work for me. So, being a nutritionist, I designed a weight-loss system that has helped me and my clients shed pounds fast. I was able to go from a size 16 to a size 6. The day I got back into my skinny jeans, I jumped for joy as if I had won the lottery. Getting back down to the size I was in my early twenties felt amazing. It was such an important goal for me. I had worked so hard to learn what was causing my stubborn body fat, and my efforts paid off. I had a feeling of accomplishment, joy, and pride. I could not wait to celebrate with my family and friends who had supported me along the way.
I have personally watched hundreds of individuals not just lose weight but also get to their ideal weight. Kiana decided to lose 50 pounds before her fortieth birthday. She remained steadfast and was very successful. She hit her goal weight of 140 pounds and looked and felt great. She received much attention, praise, and support, for those who knew her well knew how much of a struggle it had been for her. Kiana described the feeling of getting to her goal weight as one of exhilaration and exuberance. She marveled at her new dress size, her figure from the side, and how people treated her once she was at her goal weight.
She savored all the benefits of her new size, like being able to cross her legs and not having to hide her belly when she sat down. This feeling of accomplishment motivated her to maintain her goal weight. She would run into people who were totally shocked by her transformation, and that kept her going as well. Her favorite compliment was “Girl, you look fabulous! You have lost a lot of weight!” This feedback was so motivating that each day she woke up and remained mindful of what she ate and how often she worked out. Kiana said she stayed on this high for three or four months after she reached her goal weight. She knew to keep up with the regimen that got her there and monitor her activities every day. After all, she did not want to let down so many people that she had inspired.
TIME TO ENJOY THE NEW YOU
Believe it or not, many people have a hard time adjusting to being thin. Just as we did not accept it when we were overweight, we may also struggle to accept that we are now slim. Our self-image does not always change just because we lose weight. I have lost four dress sizes over the past decade and yet I still see fat on my hips, thighs, and butt. If you called yourself fat, fluffy, or chubby, you will likely continue to see yourself that way for some time. Even though you know you are no long
er overweight, in your head you are still the fat girl or chubby friend.
When you become aware of this feeling of thinking of yourself as chubby even though you are not, this is a good time to take “after” photos so you can see your success. When you see yourself in a photo, there is a no way to deny what you look like.
Shopping for clothes and buying smaller sizes is another way to help you see your success. If you buy a size 6 or 8, you know for certain that you are far from overweight. That is confirmation that you have achieved weight-loss success.
WHEN THE HONEYMOON FADES
I personally have never met anyone who stayed the exact same size every day for a lifetime. Once you have maintained your weight loss for several months, the high will start to wear off. You might even gain a few (5 to 10) pounds back. Friends and family are used to your new size, so the compliments become less frequent. You begin getting weary of maintaining your weight and all that that entails: eating right, working out, and just being aware of what you put into your body.
