I'm still following the same program, but I've stopped losing weight! What's going on?

Most people reach a plateau, a time when they do not lose nor gain weight. If this happens for a few weeks at a time, it is time to take a step back and consider:

1) The body adapts to exercise and reduces the amount of energy it needs to fuel that activity. This is why using steady state (same pace, all the time) is only effective for calorie burning for a short few weeks. The body adapts and can do the same amount of work, using less calories. It becomes more efficient.

2) You may have stopped counting your calories and they have crept up because you have not been recording them. It is proven that people who write it down lose twice the weight as people who do not write down what they eat.

3) You have reached the point where your calorie expenditure now equals your calorie input. There is no deficit and therefore no weight loss.

4) You are not drinking enough water. Water fuels most body processes! We are all 60-70% water! Nothing but big bags of water! LOL Water is important.

How do you fix that?

1) Use that interval setting on the cardio machine or create your own interval program. 2 minutes at moderate intensity, 30 seconds at all out effort, back to 2 minutes of moderate until your heart rate is back down and you can carry on a conversation again, then back to 30 seconds of all out effort. Scale back, even lower if you like then kick it up again. 20 minutes is enough and can burn as much as a 40 minute steady state session. Remember, it takes about the same amount of caloried to run a mile as it does to walk a mile, the difference is that you get there faster running!

2) Get out that nutrition log and start keeping track! Simple as that.

3) Time to decrease calories again and increase the exercise. Add 10 more minutes to the cardio and drop 100 calories a day. When you stop losing, step back re-evauate and get going. However, there really is no need to drop below 1500 calories in my opinion. It may just be what you are eating and when you are eating it. 1800 is a better calorie level to stop at.

4) Get the Nestea water flavour powder. Many varieties to choose from, sweetened with Splenda. I like to stay away from aspartame sweetened products. Aim for 4 litres a day for an active person.

Continually change your workouts every 4 weeks to make your body keep working hard. Drink enough water to float a boat and write it down! Get going and have fun doing it.