“How do I get past a weight loss plateau?”

Whenever I hear that question my first instinct is, “is it really a plateau?”

For some a plateau is when the scale weight isn’t moving at the speed it use to move at before. For others it’s staying at the same weight for 3 days, and for some it’s staying at the same weight for months.

I think the first step to getting past a plateau is to be honest and ask yourself whether it really is a plateau. Personally I define a plateau as my weight staying the same for over 3-4 weeks while I’m doing the exact same things.

Exact. Same. Things.

If there’s been ‘cheat days’ or events here and there I don’t consider it a plateau. I like think of it as breaking even. I worked hard, and went out the celebrate so the ‘damage’ and ‘hard work’ broke even.

But there certainly have been times where I was doing everything right, and my weight just wouldn’t budge.

By definition if you’re not losing weight, then you’re not in a caloric deficit.

So how do you get past it? You gotta create a caloric deficit by either:

1) Eating less. Audit your everyday foods and cut another 100kcal, maintain it for a week and adjust from there.
2) Moving more. Exercise, or more steps, or just simple being more active such as walking, taking the stairs etc.
3) Being mindful of bites, licks, and tastes. They seem harmless but can easily add up.

Plateaus happen naturally and not because you did something wrong, but it’s likely that you lost enough weight that your old caloric deficit is now your maintenance calories.

So the simple answer?

Gotta create that caloric deficit again.