If you’re on a diet
program and have recently noticed that the weight you were losing has seemed to
have slowed and it seems like it’s been forever since you’ve shed a few pounds,
it might be time to consider that you are stuck in a diet plateau.
Many people will face a diet plateau at
some point or another as they do tend to be incredibly common along the weight
loss journey. This is especially
the case if you’ve been using a lower calorie diet for an extended period of
time as the body will be fighting hard to help keep you from starving to death.
But, if you approach the plateau in the proper manner, you should be able to
bust through it relatively easily and get back on track to maximum success.
Let’s go over a few of the smart diet tricks that you can use to bust through
any plateau you face.
Zig-Zag Your Calorie Intake
The very first thing that you should do is
zig-zag your calorie intake. What this
does is essentially tricks your body. At first it may have thought it caught on
to you and slowed its metabolic rate down to the amount of food that you were
eating. But, if you then add a much higher calorie day into the mix, you
confuse it. Now it’s getting more fuel, so it may start to speed up again to
compensate for this. Your body does try and maintain homeostasis as best as
possible, so it will speed up and slow down with just three to five days of
intense dieting. By having some low and some high calorie days throughout the
week, you never give it this consecutive period where receiving the same amount
of fuel, day after day.
Eat More Variety
The second dietary strategy that you can
use to bust through a plateau is to try and consume as much variety as you
possibly can. Don’t gravitate to the same three foods over and over again. Mix
it up, as long as they stay healthy. While
this won’t have an incredibly huge impact on your progress, it still can make a
difference and every little bit will add up.
Add A Two To Four Day Diet Break
Finally, if you’ve been dieting intensely
for quite some time, it may just be time to consider a two to four day diet
break. Sometimes a one day high calorie day isn’t enough to get things
kick-started again and you instead need to elevate calories and keep them there
for a longer period of time. A short break off your diet and eating at
maintenance levels can be just the thing to get you out of the plateau and on
track again. So next time you feel like
your progress is moving slower than it should, consider these strategies. Using
them should get you moving forward again so that you don’t end up any more
frustrated than you already are.
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