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Hitting a Plateau

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You've been eating right, moving more, and losing weight, when suddenly you hit a plateau and the weight isn't coming off anymore.

As you lose weight, your body needs fewer calories to maintain itself. So be sure to recalculate your daily calorie requirements from time to time. For tips on how to do this, see our tutorial Calculating Daily Calorie Needs.

When you are losing weight, you are likely losing muscle as well as fat. This is especially true if your daily calorie deficit is more than 500 calories below the amount needed to maintain your weight.

Because muscle burns five times as many calories as fat, muscle loss slows your metabolism and can bring weight loss to a halt. The best way to counter this is to increase your activity, most importantly weight bearing activities that build muscle.

To get off a plateau, first check your daily calorie needs. Be sure you aren't eating too much for your new, lighter body. And be sure you aren't eating so little as to cause muscle loss. Eating too little also causes your body to protect itself from starving by using hormones to create hunger and prevent fat loss.

Some additional points to monitor:

  • Keep a food diary to confirm your eating habits.

  • Keep your metabolism running high by not skipping meals or going longer than a few hours without eating.

  • Eat adequate lean protein to help build and preserve muscle. Choose legumes, nuts and seeds, low fat dairy, poultry without skin, fish, and lean cuts of other meats.

For additional ideas relating to your specific situation, post your story and get help from others in our free forum Please Help Me, I'm Stuck!

Healthy regards,
Megan Porter, RD