How To Beat A Weight Loss Plateau
If you've ever reached a point that seemed no matter what you did, your weight wouldn't budge, you've reached a plateau. That's one of the most common problems people face when they're trying to lose weight and often a reason people come to Habitat for Health and Fitness in Lakeland, FL. Not every plateau is the same. In some cases, you may not be losing weight, but are making progress. You may be replacing fat tissue with muscle tissue. Muscle tissue is denser and weighs more per cubic inch than fat tissue does, so you're actually losing inches and look thinner, which is the ultimate goal of weight loss.
Are you doing the same old routine?
Plateauing can occur if you don't change your routine. The more you do an exercise, the more adept your body becomes at doing it. It's muscle efficiency. While efficiency is normally a good thing, when it comes to exercise and burning calories, that's not true. It can stall your weight loss progress. At best, you won't be getting as much out of each workout and at worse, you'll level off weight loss and plateau. Varying your workout routine periodically can help you keep continuous weight loss progress.
Are you including strength training in your workout.
Not only is muscle tissue denser than fat tissue, it also requires more calories for maintenance. That means the more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you'll be burning 24/7. Strength training not only helps you burn calories, it helps burn fat, while building muscle tissue. Unlike aerobic training that burns both.
Maybe you're not varying your caloric intake enough.
The more you weigh, the more calories you burn. It takes energy to carry the extra weight and as you start to shed those pounds, every time you move you'll be burning fewer calories. Consider the number of calories burnt if you're walking a mile carrying ten pound weights, compared to walking a mile not carrying the weight. Of course, you'll burn fewer calories without the weights, the same is true for shedding weight. If you are eating the same number of calories and working out just as hard each day, as you get thinner, your weight loss will slow. Adjust your caloric intake as you shed weight.
- Maybe you've cut your calorie intake too low for too long. Consider a cheat day. Those are days when you eat a little more, but don't over do it or do it too often. Cheat days can help keep your metabolism higher.
- Is your workout routine well rounded? If you're constantly doing cardio, you may be burning muscle tissue, which can slow your progress. You need all types of exercise, strength, endurance, flexibility and balance.
- Are you getting adequate sleep. Lack of sleep can actually stimulate the production of ghrelin---the hunger hormone and diminish leptin---the hormone that makes you feel full.
- Are you drinking an adequate amount of water? Studies show that drinking water before a meal boosts weight loss. Water acts like a diuretic and flushes your system and helps fill you up, not out.
For more information, contact us today at Habitat Health & Fitness
It's not always easy for parents with small children to come to Habitat for Health and Fitness in Lakeland, Florida, every day or other day. That's when home workouts, especially those short enough to be done during nap time, can be a huge benefit to fill in the gaps. Some workouts are only a few minutes of intense exercise and others last longer. Depending on how long nap time lasts, choose one that fits in your schedule. You'll feel revitalized and ready to go when you get your workout in for the day.
Lots of clients at Habitat Health and Fitness tell me how good they feel after a workout. They note that not only do they feel like they have more energy, they feel less stressed and happier. There's a reason for that. Exercise helps burn off the negative stress hormones that affect your body throughout the day and keep you with the feeling of a knot in your stomach. But there are other ways fitness helps with mental health and studies that show the positive effect.
Many of my clients start out just wanting to get fit and end up wanting to develop that beach body everyone envies. It's all part of feeling good about yourself when you start to see results. I've heard some crazy ideas about what to eat when bulking up, which even extend to some fallacies about using snack foods to help put on weight or soda. Everyone has different builds and metabolisms, but one thing is certain, if you're human, your body is constantly changing with every change you make and year you add. My advice to those who want more bulk, "Remember, what you do today will affect your tomorrow."
I hear all sorts of buzz about different types of diets at Habitat Health and Fitness in Winter Haven, FL. One of the more popular ones is the Paleolithic Diet. It's a diet that would have us eat like our cavemen ancestors in the Paleolithic Era. That era was before man learned to farm, and is thought to be a more natural match genetically than today's diet.
Clients in Lakeland, Florida say that road trips often throw off their healthy eating and exercise program. There are several ways to combat that problem. For exercise, stop every hour or two and simply walk or even do simple exercises. Plan the trip ahead to make stops at places that offer healthy food and take healthy snacks for the car. In fact, you might even map out a grocery or farmer's market along the way. Preparing ahead of time is important. Snacks can help prevent you from overeating and making desperation stops at fast food chains.
Will you get faster results if you workout every day? It all depends on what you consider a workout. If you're lifting weights every day, STOP! You'll actually be losing ground rather than gaining it. When you lift weights or do strength building exercises, it makes micro tears in the muscle that need time to heal. When they heal, they get bigger and stronger. If you don't give that time to heal, which means you won't get stronger and often go backward, getting weaker in the process.
People who come to Habitat Fit in Lakeland, Florida, know the importance of regular exercise. It's a keystone to fitness, right along with a healthy diet. It isn't healthy to workout hard once every month or so and remain inactive the rest of the time. For good health, any exercise, irregular or not, is better than doing nothing at all. However, to reach your fitness goal, you need consistency.
If you've made it your new goal to get fit, you probably want to find the best possible program to achieve that goal. Finding workouts for beginners can help solve that problem, but you still have to identify how much you should push yourself and how many repetitions to do. It's one reason people love having the services of a personal trainer, to help them through that phase of exercise. However, if you're working out on your own, don't push yourself too much the first few days. Spend more time focusing on the right form than how much you can lift, how long you can workout and how many reps you can do. You'll be glad you did.
If you expect your visit to the gym to be filled with gorgeous fit people all wearing the latest Spandex workout clothes and drinking exotic smoothies, you'll really be surprised when you come to Habitat Health and Fitness. Some people avoid going to the gym because they think they have to dress and look a certain way. That's just not true here. You do have to be dressed for comfort and movement, but there are no fashion police here. All our clients are focused on their fitness and dress comfortably and ready for action.