Plateaus and Pitfalls: Overcoming Weight Loss Obstacles

by Renee Cloe
ACE certified Personal Trainer

I'm eating a low-calorie, low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. I'm exercising 5 times a week. I'm doing everything right and I'm still not losing any weight. Why not? That's the million dollar question asked by plateau campers everywhere. They seem to be doing everything right and yet it's not working. There are several factors that can trip up your best weight loss efforts. If you can identify and conquer them, you'll be well on your way to long-term leanness.

Let's start with your exercise program. Been doing the same thing for a while? Getting bored maybe? When your routine becomes ho-hum, your body quickly adapts to it and your results are less dramatic. So, if you always do the same aerobic activity at the same intensity, or you always do the same circuit of weight machines in the same order Stop that!

To keep seeing results you need to present yourself with new challenges. It's important to try new things, choose activities that you genuinely enjoy, and exercise at an intensity that challenges you. Whether youre trying something new or just spicing up the old routine, you want to achieve a gradual and progressive increase in intensity. This might mean incorporating an occasional hilly route into your bike rides, intervals of slow jogging into your walks, adding some free weights to your machine workout, or signing up for a spinning class instead of reading magazines on the stationary bike. Just keep it interesting. Boredom and complacency can unravel your best-laid plans.

Weight training is the cornerstone of a lean body and a fast metabolism. The more lean muscle you have, the more calories your body burns throughout the day. If youve been doing tons of cardiovascular activity, but slacking on the weights, that could be one of your sticking points. On the flip side, if youve been faithfully pumping iron but you cant get shed the fat; perhaps a little more aerobic activity is in order. The two modes of exercise compliment each other. The weights strengthen and tone the body, and the cardio defines it. Together with stretching, they form the basis of any well-rounded program.

The other critical factor in successful weight loss is, of course, your diet. The old bodybuilding adage is that success is 80 percent diet and 20 percent training. In other words, you can have the best training routine around, but if you're not eating right, your results will still be minimal.

Take a good hard look at the way you've been eating. Have you been taking in too many calories? Too few? Do you diet and deny yourself all day only to binge at night? Are you consuming an overabundance of highly processed carbohydrates? Is your protein intake adequate for your size and activity level? Have you perhaps gone overboard by trying to eliminate all fat from your diet? Do you eat large quantities of "good" foods without ever feeling truly satisfied? Can you remember the last time you ate a fresh vegetable?

If your results with a traditional low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet have been less than stellar, you may want to do some research into Paleolithic nutrition, The Zone, or the Mediterranean diet. These diets are based on an adequate but not excessive amount of lean protein, an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables, and small amounts of monounsaturated fats like those found in nuts, seeds, and olives.

Whichever eating plan you choose be sure to adjust it accordingly depending on how you feel and how your body responds. Don't ever blindly follow a rigid "diet" based on someone else's rules and guidelines. Be flexible and focus on small positive changes. Balance, moderation, and common sense are key.

Some suggestions:

• Drink plenty of water.
• Eat several small meals and snacks a day (4 - 6 if your schedule allows) to keep your metabolism in high gear and help to stabilize your blood sugar throughout the day. Don't go more than 5 hours without eating.
• Make sure that your protein intake is adequate. Your protein needs are based on the size of your lean body mass and your activity level. People with more muscle mass or more intense training routines require more protein. For a protein recommendation in grams, multiply your weight in pounds (1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds) by one of the following numbers:

0.4 Current RDA for sedentary adult
0.5-0.75 Recreational exerciser, adult
0.6-0.9 Competitive athlete, adult
0.8-0.9 Growing teenage athlete
0.7-0.9 Adult building muscle mass
0.8-0.9 Athlete restricting calories
0.9 Maximum usable for adults

(Nancy Clarks Sports Nutrition Guidebook, Second Edition Lemon 1995; Lemon et al. 1992; Walberg et al. 1988)

• Choose mostly lean protein sources such as chicken, fish, egg whites, low fat dairy, and soy.
• Watch your intake of highly refined carbohydrates such as waffles, fat-free cookies, rice cakes, and white bread. Try to replace them with heartier grains or legumes such as oatmeal, beans, lentils, and sprouted or whole grain breads. These are higher in fiber, protein, and other nutrients and they hit your blood stream more slowly, giving you a longer lasting source of fuel.
• Don't be afraid of heart healthy monounsaturated fats like those found in olive oil, nuts, seeds, and avocado. The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish are quite beneficial as well. A little bit of fat will slow the entry rate of carbohydrate into your blood stream, keeping blood sugar stable and helping to reduce hunger, mood swings, and cravings.
• Include a little protein, carbohydrate, and fat with each meal or snack. You'll be more satisfied with your food and less likely to get hungry between meals.
• Eat a variety of different foods and don't get obsessive! Eat well the majority of the time and enjoy some occasional treats.

The final, perhaps most important, component of weight loss success is your attitude. Pay special attention to your mental and emotional connections to food and exercise. If you find yourself sitting on the sofa, watching television and eating ice cream rather than working out, ask yourself why. There has to be some benefit to it, some payoff that, at the time anyway, seems greater than your long-term goal of health and fitness. You have to identify and acknowledge your fitness downfalls before you can do anything to change them. Remember that you cant continue doing the same thing the same way and expect different results. If what youre doing is not working, make changes!