In our earlier blog Strategies To Smash Your Workout Plateau – Part 1, we looked at some powerful strategies. Here’s a list of some more actions you can take to revamp your results.
1.Change Up Your Workouts
If you’ve been doing the same kinds of workouts for a while, switch them up to include:
- More intense workouts (keep under 30 mins)
- Different kinds of workouts, even just changing the way you do certain exercises can work
- More or sometimes less workouts during the week
If you’re not following a workout plan, it’s time to start! And if you already have a workout programme, working out another 1-2 days a week OR increasing the intensity or length (keep below 30 mins ideally) of your existing workouts can help rev up your metabolism. So can adding resistance (strength) training to your routine.
Research suggests that resistance training is the best form of exercise if you want to lose weight. Resistance workouts help your body maintain its muscle mass, which not only keeps you feeling fit and strong but also helps boost your metabolism. Remember muscle drives your metabolism. This is where it can be especially helpful to work with a coach who can help you create a plan that challenges your body just enough, without overstressing your body.
2.Check Your Stress Levels
Having an overload of stress in your life can really put a damper on your results. First, it can trigger food cravings and make you want to eat for comfort. It also can disrupt your sleep (more on that shortly). But it also works on a more insidious level, increasing your body’s production of cortisol (a stress hormone).
When you have too much cortisol in your bloodstream for too long, it can make your body store belly fat (especially in women).
Stress is inevitable, but research has shown that learning HOW to manage stress can help with weight loss. Coaches can help you identify what’s stressing you, as well as assist in creating a plan to manage it – before it manages you!
3. Sleep More
Not getting enough sleep is like a triple whammy for your results.
- It can lower your metabolic rate.
- It can release hormones that make you feel hungry.
- It helps promote fat storage.
Do your best to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night, which seems to be the sweet spot for keeping your hormones balanced.
4. Your Body Needs A Break
If you’ve been in a calorie deficit (eating fewer calories than your body would normally need) for a long time (several months), your body might need a little break to reset. This doesn’t mean STOPPING your plan. The goal is to MAINTAIN your results for a month or two, and then restart again when your body is rested.
Three steps to a mini-vacation from your weight-loss plan:
- Boost your calories and in particular consume more protein
- Make sure you get enough sleep and rest
- Change your fitness goals to get stronger and add back lost muscle (depending on your previous program). You may need to reduce the level of aerobic fitness to help with this.
5. Check With Your Doctor
If everything checks out – your food intake, your workouts and activity level, your stress, sleep, etc. – and you’re still not seeing progress, it can be worth making an appointment with your doctor to see if you have an underlying condition affecting your results.
Possible issues that can affect weight loss include thyroid or adrenal gland problems, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), sleep apnoea, menopause, breastfeeding, and quitting smoking.
We hope these strategies will help you not only to break through a plateau, but also feel AMAZING. Because as you’ve seen, it takes a total-body approach to create healthy results that last a lifetime.
If you want to learn more about Breaking Through Your Plateau, checkout our Free guide here.
