Why You’ve Hit A Weight Loss Plateau
So you’ve hit a plateau and you aren’t sure why, there are numerous ways to push past this. But the main reason is you are eating too many calories compared to how much you move. Now you may sit there thinking it's your slow metabolism, granted this may be a possibility as your metabolism is made up of BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), your NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) your EAT (Exercises Activity Thermogenesis) and your TEF (Thermic Effect Of Food).
To explain these in a little more detail your BMR is basically your coma calories. If you were in a coma this is how many calories you would burn everyday. This is actually were you burn most of your calories the average woman’s BMR is 1400 the average mans is 1800.
Your NEAT is your daily movement such as walking, climbing stairs, standing up and sitting down, fidgeting and so on.
Your EAT is your exercise regime wether that is weight training, running, zumba, whatever it may be.
And TEF this is the calories burnt when digesting food.
By understanding this you can see that it’s not you’ve been dealt a duff card in the metabolism section, it’s actually down to you. Your BMR depends on your, height and weight, the heavier and taller you are the greater your BMR. Now your NEAT is completely down to you, if your routine is along the lines of, drive to work, sit down in the office all day, drive to the gym sit on a bike, drive home and sit in front of the telly then your "metabolism" (NEAT) is going to be letting you down. You need to be more active throughout the day, you need to start moving more, start taking the stairs, park further away from work or walk to work if possible.
If you have hit a plateau it’s because you aren’t moving enough for the amount you eat. If you have previously lost weight but are now at a halt it’s because you now weigh less. Therefor you burn less calories which means you need to gradually lower your calories until weight loss starts again or you can make more effort to move a bit more.
Are you just tracking weight or are you tracking measurements and photos to? If you are just tracking your weight maybe you haven’t even hit a plateau maybe your body fat levels are decreasing but the sales just aren’t shifting. Try tracking your progress through measurements and photos to they are much better tools to track progress and don’t deceive like the scales do.
A study shown that people under calculated their calorie intake by 47% and overestimated their exercise levels by 51%, so there is a strong chance you aren’t even eating in a calorie deficit. No calculator is an exact science even the most accurate test can be out by 10%, and food labels aren’t even 100% accurate. So if you aren’t losing weight with the amount of food you are eating right now, lower it slightly until weight loss starts again.
This doesn’t mean drastically cut your calories below your BMR though remember weight loss needs to be healthy and our bodies need a certain amount to function optimally.
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Thanks for reading :)