There’s nothing more frustrating than watching what you eat, working your ass off in the gym, and not seeing progress! First off: You’re not alone. Our bodies are tricky, and tons of us experience the same thing.
When you’re working toward any health and wellness goal, progress is usually easier at first, and then things slow down—or stop. If this is true for you, it’s probably time to pause and evaluate whether this is a plateau, or you’ve fallen off track. Either thing can be fixed!
A “plateau” can mean many things, depending on your goal. If you’ve been on a weight loss journey, losing consistently, and all of the sudden you can’t shed any more pounds, that’s likely a plateau. If you’re working toward a performance goal, you can also reach a stalemate where you can no longer increase strength or endurance. Since we’ve seen (and been asked about) more of the former, we’ll focus on weight loss plateaus in this post.
What Fitness Plateaus Really Mean
The first thing you should do when you reach a plateau in fitness is high-five yourself. Seriously. You’ve established a consistent enough rhythm and lifestyle that your body has caught up with you. It may seem like a defeat, but it’s actually the result of thousands of victories! If you hadn’t worked incredibly hard to date, this plateau wouldn’t have happened. Congrats!
Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves and take a good look at the details of the habits you’ve created. Nine times out of ten, you can find a misstep along the way, or something that can be improved. So let’s do some detective work!
1. Identify any nutrition gaps.
Nutritional deficiencies can take your well-oiled machine of a body and turn it into the Tin Man. Make sure you’re getting all of the essential needs that your body has to be healthy. Typically, if someone I’m training is off their nutrition game they’re suffering from low-level hydration, or not enough vitamins and minerals, protein, and essential fatty acids. To find out where you stand, consider getting your diet analyzed by a dietitian (typically cost around $100-$150). Also, check out this excellent post by Dr. John Berardi of Precision Nutrition. It includes an infographic with tips about how to fix a broken diet.
2. Try tracking your calories.
This is a BIG one. We eat more than we think. According to eating behavior expert Dr. Brian Warsink, the average person makes well over 200 decisions about food every day. Breakfast or no breakfast? Sugar in our coffee or not? Leftovers at work? The list goes on. This means that we can often mindlessly eat much more than we think. How often are we grabbing snacks (even healthy ones) here and there and not paying attention to how many calories could be adding up? If you’re in a plateau, consider measuring this temporarily to see if it can get your goals back on track.
3. Make sure to plan your workouts.
Take a sober look at what you’re doing at the gym. Are you going in with a plan? Or do you find yourself wandering and Facebooking between sets? There are some workouts that I’ve done where I see the clock and think “what the heck have I done in the last hour?” If I’m asking that, there’s a good chance that I haven’t done enough. Going into the workout with a plan will help you to focus and be efficient and effective with whatever time you have. Check out the Anytime Fitness App for a fitness plan and workouts that fit your level and goal(s). In addition to that, consider seeing a personal trainer to up the ante!
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