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5 Ways to Break Through Weight Loss Plateaus

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Have you hit a weight loss plateau? It's time to learn why, and what you can do about it.

Fat was practically falling off your body just a few weeks ago, and now you're wondering if your scale is broken because no matter what you do, your weight won't budge.
What gives?
Why did your routine suddenly stop working, and what can you do to push through this weight loss plateau?

Understanding Weight Loss Vs. Fat Loss

"Weight loss" is a tricky little devil because it doesn't differentiate between changes in fat, muscle, and water.
The goal, of course, is to lose maximum fat and minimum muscle, and to keep water retention at a healthy minimum. When you step on the scale and register a pound lighter than the day or week before, you probably assume that you've lost a pound of fat; if you weigh the same or more, you probably assume that you've lost no fat, or gained. Unfortunately, it's not that simple.
Nothing swings weight up or down as easily as water retention, for example. If you eat a lot of sodium and carbs, and drink little water, you will retain quite a bit of water, giving you that puffy, smooth look. This can easily add 3-5 pounds in a day, which can be quite disturbing if you happen to hit the scale in this state. On the flip side, you eat little sodium and carbs and drink plenty of water, your body will flush water out, giving you a harder, more defined look, which might lead you to think that it was a great day of fat loss.
The unpredictability of water retention is one reason why I only weigh myself once per week, on the same day, in the morning, naked. Weighing yourself multiple times per week, or worse, per day, will quickly kill your confidence and mess with your head.
I also recommend that you choose a "weigh day" that doesn't contain a cheat meal, as this can often add a pound or two of water that will come out by the end of the following day (my experience, at least).

What is a True Weight Loss Plateau?

A true weight loss plateau is a situation where you're no longer losing fat.
I consider that I've hit a plateau if my weight hasn't changed in two weeks. As I'm only going for one pound of actual fat loss per week, no change on the scale after one week of dieting isn't necessarily a reason for concern-I could've lost that pound of fat but happen to be retaining a bit of water, or maybe my bowel movements weren't as regular in the prior day or two. No change in weight after two weeks of dieting tells me that I'm definitely stuck.

Some Fat-Loss Facts to Keep in Mind

Before I cover how to break these plateaus, I want you to know a few things about losing fat.

1. Weight Loss Plateaus Are to Be Expected

Just about everyone experiences weight loss plateaus. If you have no idea what I'm talking about and are able to reach single-digit body fat percentages with complete ease, count yourself lucky. It's very common for people to hit several plateaus on their journeys to a six pack because, well, the human body is just stubborn when it comes to shedding fat.

I've found that I can't get below 9-10% body fat on diet alone (you can only reduce your calories so much, or you begin to eat up muscle)-I have to add in cardio if I want to continue losing. When I bulk, I usually end off around 14-15% body fat, and I can diet off the first 5% or so, but then I hit a plateau that only 3-4 days per week of cardio can cure (20-25 minutes per session). Then, the next plateau for me comes around 8%. If I want to go lower, I have to up my cardio to 4 days per week, for 30-40 minutes per session.
Everyone I've trained and otherwise helped has experienced the same phenomenon, but the thresholds vary. I've known a few rare people that can diet lower than 10% without adding cardio, but most people can't break double-digit body fat percentages without a very strict diet and regular cardio routine.

2. The More You Lose, the Harder It Gets

The leaner you become, the longer it takes to lose fat healthily (the key, as you want to preserve as much muscle and strength as possible while losing fat). If you're at 25% body fat, it's very possible to lose 2-3 pounds of fat per week for the first several weeks. If you're at 10% body fat and are making a run for single digits, however, 2-3 pounds of fat per week would be impossible without dangerous drugs.
For me, once I get below 12% or so, I'm very happy to see just one pound of fat loss per week, and I have to work for it.

3. Your Body Has a "Comfort Zone"

Although it might sound a bit broscientific, it's the best way I can describe a phenomenon experienced by me and millions of other athletes around the world. The body seems to have a weight (and, accordingly, a body fat percentage) that it is most comfortable at. Your natural appetite tends to maintain this weight and if you eat less than this, you feel hungry. If you eat more than this, you feel quite full.
For some, this "comfort zone" is relatively fat, while others settle into a weight that is quite lean. For me, for example, I find that my body is most comfortable around 11% body fat (which would currently put me at about 200 lbs). I don't have to watch my calories too closely and I can cheat several times per week, and I'll just stay around 11%.
Now, maintaining a weight under this comfort zone requires constant work in the form of restricting calories and doing cardio. Getting fatter than this requires regular overeating, and if this continues for too long, the comfort zone creeps higher and higher.

5 Ways to Break Your Weight Loss Plateaus

Alright, now that you know the difference between weight loss plateaus and fat loss plateaus, here are three surefire ways to stoke your body's furnace again to keep the fat coming off.

1. Re-Calculate Your Daily Caloric Target

Your metabolism slows down as you lose weight because your body doesn't need to exert as much energy to maintain its now-slimmer physique.
If you don't adjust your calories to account for this, you may hit a plateau. The easy way to avoid this is to re-calculate your daily caloric target after every 15 pounds of weight loss. As you'll see, the target creeps lower and lower.
There are many formulas out there for determining how much you should eat to lose weight, but here's a simple one based on the Katch McArdle:
1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight
1 gram of carbohydrate per pound of body weight
1 gram of fat per 5 pounds of body weight
That simple macronutrient formula will put you in a moderate caloric deficit and allow for steady, healthy weight loss. To turn it into calories, simply multiply the protein and carbs by 4, and the fats by 9.

2. Control the "Hidden Calories"

Most weight loss plateaus are caused by nothing more than "calorie creep"-that is, eating more calories than you think. This, combined with an ever-slowing metabolism, is a guaranteed formula for stagnation.
Calories can creep in from many places. Purposeless snacking, eating out at restaurants (they load calories into meals with butter, oil, sauces, etc.), overdoing it with condiments, and drinking alcohol are all common ways to add enough calories to stall your weight loss without making you feel like you're completely "off your diet."
The sad truth is a mere 200-300 calories too many per day can completely halt fat loss. To put this into perspective, that's only a couple handfuls of nuts, a few tablespoons of fatty salad dressing, or a small bag of chips. Yup, fat loss is that finicky. It's not very complicated, but it requires absolute precision.
So, to overcome the "calorie creep," you simply have to know exactly what's going into your body every day. You can keep a food journal, or you can do what I do: calculate what you need each day, break it down into daily meals, and eat the same thing every day, every meal. I don't have the time or patience to work a bunch of variety into my diet, so I embrace the simplicity of choosing nutritious foods that I like, and eating them over and over.

3. Increase Your Cardio

If you know that your daily caloric target is good and you have absolutely no calorie creep, then you should increase your cardio.
You can add another day if possible (I don't recommend more than 4 days per week if you're also weight training), or add time to each day (I like to add 10 minutes to each session and see how my body responds).
The idea is to just tip the scales a little bit more in the direction of fat loss and observe the results. If the first round of extra cardio doesn't do it, add more (another 10 minutes to each session, for instance), and you'll get there.
Oh and do HIIT cardio, please.

4. Embrace the Cheat Meal

Yup, believe it or not, the cheat meal actually helps you lose fat.
How?
Well, first there's the psychological boost, which keeps you happy and motivated, which ultimately makes sticking to your diet easier.
But there's also a physiological boost.
Studies on overfeeding (the scientific term for binging on food) show that doing so can boost your metabolic rate by anywhere from 3-10%. While this sounds good, it actually doesn't mean much when you consider that you would need to eat a anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand extra calories in a day to achieve this effect.

More important are the effects cheating has on a hormone called leptin, which regulates hunger, your metabolic rate, appetite, motivation, and libido, as well as serving other functions in your body.
When you're in a caloric deficit and lose body fat, your leptin levels drop. This, in turn, causes your metabolic rate to slow down, your appetite to increase, your motivation to wane, and your mood to sour.
On the other hand, when you give your body more energy (calories) than it needs, leptin levels are boosted, which can then have positive effects on fat oxidation, thyroid activity, mood, and even testosterone levels.
So if it's an increase in leptin levels that you really want, how do you best achieve it?
Eating carbohydrates is the most effective way. Second to that is eating protein (high-protein meals also raise your metabolic rate). Dietary fats aren't very effective at increasing leptin levels, and alcohol actually inhibits it.
So, if your weight is stuck and you're irritable and demotivated, a nice kick of leptin might be all you need to get the scales moving again.
Have a nice cheat meal full of protein and carbs, and enjoy the boost in your leptin levels. It can help your weight loss!

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5. Lift Heavy Weights

If you're familiar with any of my work, you know I'm a big fan of lifting heavy weights. Well, among the many benefits of lifting heavy is the fact that it helps speed up fat loss.
A study published by Greek sports scientists found that men that trained with heavy weights (80-85% of their one-rep max, or "1RM") increased their metabolic rates over the following three days, burning hundreds more calories than the men that trained with lighter weights (45-65% of their 1RM).
So hit the weights and hit them hard if you want to jack up your metabolic rate and in turn, speed up your fat loss.
And if you want to score extra points, focus on compound lifts like squats and deadlifts, because these are the types that burn the most post-workout calories.
Summary
I hope you found this article helpful and remember that the journey to a lean, muscular body is a marathon, not a sprint.
Have you ever experienced a weight loss plateau? Were you able to break through? If so, what did you do? If not, did this article give you a better idea as to why? I'd love to hear from you at my blog, Muscle For Life!

Hi,
I'm Mike and I believe that every person can achieve the body of his or her dreams, and I work hard to give everyone that chance by providing workable, proven advice grounded in science, not a desire to sell phony magazines, workout products, or supplements.
Through my work, I've helped thousands of people achieve their health and fitness goals, and I share everything I know in my books.
So if you're looking to get in shape and look great, then I think I can help you. I hope you enjoy my books and I'd love to hear from you at my site, http://www.muscleforlife.com.
Sincerely,
Mike

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Michael_S._Matthews/1436524

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Chicken tikka masala recipe

For those days when only a curry will do; we've cleaned it up a bit to get the fat and calories counts down too”

Allergy Information

Wheat-Free
Gluten-Free
Nut-Free
Dairy-Free
Sugar-Free
Vegetarian
Vegan

• Preparation time: 45 mins
• Cook time: 30 mins
• Total time: 1 hr 15 mins
• Yield: serves 4

How often do you wish you could go out for a curry without having to worry that it's got wheat or gluten in it? Tired of just having boiled rice, poppadoms, mango chutney, and steamed vegetables while everyone else eats curry? This chicken tikka masala recipe is really good; I think so good you may never miss the curry house again... the only downside is you'll have to make it yourself.
There are numerous variations of the chicken tikka masala recipe, and a lot of them have calorie and fat counts that will blow your eyebrows off before you even taste them. This recipe is, I think, one of the healthiest versions around so you can tuck in more often..
Serve with rice, mango chutney, and poppadoms (check for wheat & gluten free poppadoms) and you'll be in curry bliss.

Ingredients (Measures: Metric | US)

Tikka masala marinade

2.5cm [1"] ginger root, finely grated

3 [3] cloves garlic

225g [³⁄₄ cup] low fat natural yoghurt (unsweetened)

1 tbsp [1 tbsp] lime juice

1 tbsp [1 tbsp] coriander leaves, chopped

¹⁄₂ tsp [¹⁄₂ tsp] chilli powder

¹⁄₄ tsp [¹⁄₄ tsp] ground tumeric

large pinch [large pinch] garam masala (see our homemade recipe)

pinch [pinch] salt

Chicken tikka masala

4 large [4 large] chicken breasts, skinless and chopped into pieces

2 tbsp [2 tbsp] olive oil

1 large [1 large] onion, chopped

4 [4] cloves garlic, finely minced

2.5cm [1"] ginger root, finely grated

¹⁄₂ tsp [¹⁄₂ tsp] ground tumeric

¹⁄₂ tsp [¹⁄₂ tsp] chilli powder

1 tsp [1 tsp] ground coriander

250g [1 cup] chopped tomatoes

¹⁄₂ [¹⁄₂] green pepper, chopped

¹⁄₂ [¹⁄₂] red pepper, chopped

Directions

To make tikka masala marinade:

1. Put all the marinade ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly together. Marinade is then ready for use.

To make chicken tikka masala:

1. Put the chicken pieces into the tikka masala marinade. Ensure that they are well coated and leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and sauté the onion until it is soft but barely browned. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 2 minutes.
3. Stir in the turmeric, chilli and coriander. Mix well.
4. Add the chopped tomatoes and peppers and sauté for 2-3 minutes more. Remove 1/2 cup of mixture and purée, then return purée to saucepan.
5. Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade, making sure that a generous amount of marinade stays on them. Add to the tomato mixture and mix everything together.
6. Cover the saucepan with a lid, bring contents to the boil then turn heat down and leave to simmer for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7. Serve with rice, or in a bowl with wheat & gluten free naan or poppadoms for dipping. Mango chutney also adds a tasty finishing touch.

What the Diet Industry Isn't Telling You About Weight Loss

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At any given time, more than half of U.S. residents are trying to lose weight. With overall body weights increasing, along with the rates of diseases that have been correlated with higher weights, many people feel that dieting is their only option for good health. Unfortunately, not everyone who wants to reduce is doing it in a healthy way. Weight loss is an industry worth more than $60 billion dollars in the United States, and much of that industry is dedicated to selling products rather than keeping people healthy. Here's a look at what you may not know about losing weight.

Types of Weight Loss Techniques

There are many methods available for trying to lose weight. Restrictive diets are among the best-publicized. These include calorie restriction, in an attempt to take in less energy than you expend, as well as diets that restrict food by type, such as low-fat, low-carbohydrate and low-sugar diets.
In addition to using restrictive diets, some people also attempt to significantly increase their activity. This has a similar effect to that of a calorie-restricting diet, but it increases the amount of energy spent rather than decreasing what goes in. Increased activity tends to require greater schedule and lifestyle changes than simply changing your eating habits, but it comes with added benefits such as increased strength and better cardiovascular health.

Last, and potentially more profitable for the weight loss industry, are devices, supplements and other products intended to produce weight loss. These include diet pills, natural weight loss supplements containing acai, African mango and a range of other substances, plus belts and other devices. The basic principle behind some of these products has been shown to help with reduction when it's combined with other mainstream methods, but the majority of diet pills and other products don't do much to help. They can even be harmful to your health.

Weight loss Effectiveness

With more than 50 percent of the population paying attention to weight, you'd expect the pounds to be coming off. Most people, however, are experiencing little to no weight change. Some people even find that their weight goes up after they attempt to reduce. Depending on the study, statistics show that between 30 and 60 percent of dieters not only regain all the weight they lose while dieting, they actually become even heavier than they were before they started the diet. These patterns hold true across a wide spectrum of weight-loss techniques. Only about 10 percent of all dieters are able to maintain their loss after several years, no matter how much weight was lost during the dieting period.

Out of people who do lose weight effectively, the most viable target is a loss of about 10 percent of their highest weight. That's the number recommended by the National Institutes of Health for people who are obese or overweight. Losing more than this can be difficult and is rarely effective.
Many people attribute this lack of effectiveness to poor willpower on the part of the dieter, but recent research has shown that the problem is more complex than this. A 2011 study in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that losing weight changes the way the body produces hormones associated with metabolism. This means that people who attempt to reduce are hungrier and suffer from higher appetite levels than they did before the loss. This lasts for at least one year after weight loss, making it far more difficult for someone who has dieted to maintain a lower weight than it is for someone who has never undergone a weight loss program.

Dangers of Dieting

It's not just poor rates of effectiveness that make weight loss a complicated subject. Trying to get rid of fat can also be dangerous. This problem is greater with extreme diets that promise to take off a lot of weight very quickly. These diets can encourage loss of muscle instead of fat. They also increase the risk of heart disease, a slowed metabolism, and other health problems. Liquid diets, extreme calorie deprivation, and fad diets that eliminate whole categories of food are the most dangerous; but any kind of diet can be hazardous to your health if you repeatedly lose and gain weight, or "yo-yo."

Diet pills can cause serious health problems, too. These weight loss supplements are usually made to be taken for only a short period of time and often contain large amounts of caffeine and other stimulants. This type of diet pill can increase anxiety and irritability, produce insomnia and other sleep problems, and even cause cardiovascular problems in people with existing heart weakness. Fat blockers can produce intestinal discomfort and other digestive problems. They can also produce malnutrition by blocking the body's ability to absorb important vitamins and minerals. Diet pills that work as appetite suppressants can raise your heart rate and blood pressure. Even herbal weight loss supplements can have unpleasant side effects, especially in people who are allergic to some of their ingredients.

Weight Isn't Everything

These questions about health and effectiveness are often met with the assertion that fatness is fundamentally unhealthy, so everyone should try to lose weight. In fact, while there are several diseases and conditions associated with higher weight, they aren't necessarily a direct result of it. While fat people are much more likely to suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure and other metabolic problems, the correlation reduces significantly if those fat people are active and eat a good diet. Thin, sedentary people are actually at greater risk than people who are fat but otherwise in good physical condition. You may be fat and unhealthy, but your weight isn't the biggest factor. However, that doesn't mean that weight loss isn't effective.

Who Should Reduce?

Studies show that if you have diabetes, pre-diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol, your condition will probably improve if you lose about 10 percent of your body weight. Losing more weight than this doesn't seem to provide additional benefit, though it could help you wear smaller clothes. If you have any of these conditions, it's important to be careful how you lose the weight and to do it only in conjunction with good diet and regular exercise. These seem to be the most important parts of staying healthy, no matter how much weight you carry.

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The Healthiest Option

What the diet industry doesn't want you to know is that most diet pills, weight loss supplements, and diet programs don't work very well and can even hurt your health more than being fat. If you're interested in being truly healthy, your best option for weight loss is to look at your activity level and the nutritional content of your diet. Work on making fresh vegetables at least half of your diet and take up moderate exercise at about a half hour per day. That's what the U.S. government recommends for optimum health.
If you do decide to reduce your caloric intake, use a balanced diet that doesn't cut out any important food groups, and look for weight loss of no more than one to two pounds per week. This rate is more likely to produce permanent loss without serious health side effects because it's so slow that your body has the ability to adjust more effectively. You may not be able to drop a dress size in a month, but you'll feel better and stay a whole lot healthier in the long run.

Jordan Pete is a research writer and has authored three popular books on weight loss and dieting. For a free 14 page report that will teach you how to effectively lose weight without starving yourself, visit http://dietpillsreporter.com/.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jordan_Pete/1354921

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