Did you reach the so-called weight loss plateau?
Maybe you are following a strict diet and have lost weight at the beginning, but ultimately you see your sacrifices become useless because you don’t lose weight anymore.
Have all your efforts to lose weight, all your renouncements to succulent dishes, all your willpower become in vain?
What’s A Weight Loss Plateau?
Fortunately, the reality is a little different: it is your body that is refusing to lose any more weight because it wants to keep its energy intake and consumption in balance.
Instead of helping you lose weight, your strict diet is actually slowing down the weight loss process.
Your efforts to lose weight become frustrating.
This may be a physiological problem at the start of a diet, but it is just as likely to happen when you have reintroduced old habits into your daily routine.
It is quite normal for a person’s weight to fluctuate from one day to the next, even noticeably. What must not happen, however, is for these weight fluctuations to continue for more than a month.
If you go on a major diet and don’t lose any more weight, you need to know that you have reached the so-called weight loss plateau and that, if you don’t know how to overcome it, you may not be able to lose weight for several months.
This can have devastating effects on your intention to lose weight until you give up dieting altogether!
Fortunately, you have come to this web page, where you will learn how to overcome this unforeseen obstacle to your goal of losing weight.
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Understanding When Weight Loss Plateau Happens
There are a number of signs that can make your ears perk up and let you know when you are on a weight loss plateau. Here are some of them:
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You are eating too little: if the diet is too strict and we have cut out a lot of calories, we will certainly lose a lot of weight at first, but at some point,1. we will come to a standstill. As already mentioned, our body will protect itself by ‘storing’ as much fat as possible.
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You are often tired: if you feel exhausted during your diet, you must realize that something is wrong. It may be that you are exercising too much, or that you are depriving yourself of food too much. Maybe it’s your reason for not considering losing any more weight at that moment. In such cases, your body, to protect itself, and your brain will react by blocking the weight loss.
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You only move when you are exercising: it is clearly a good thing to exercise every day for half an hour or more at home or to go to the gym and train intensively 3 or 4 times a week. However, the fact is that you are most likely spending 10/12 hours a day sitting down and this is not good for obvious reasons.
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You are eating less healthily: if you ate well at the beginning of the diet, you have recently reintroduced some bad eating habits. You may have increased some portions or started eating some forbidden food that makes you fat again. Maybe even in small quantities… Also, watch out for snacks!
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You may, for example, no longer feel hungry despite the diet you are on. Hunger often helps you know that you are on the right track to losing weight.
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Overcoming the weight loss plateau
To succeed in winning your battle against the weight loss plateau, you need to identify as early as possible what mistakes you are making and change your strategy regularly.
Let’s take a look however at some weight loss plateau breakers to overcome your stalemate in dieting. We divided the tips into 3 sections, which correspond to the 3 M’s of fitness: Metabolism, Movement, and Mind):
Metabolism & Weight Loss Plateau
Wrong Type & Distribution of Food
What can lead to weight loss is also the incorrect distribution of food, as well as its type. food must meet certain requirements for weight loss and also be well distributed throughout the day.
Monitor carefully what you eat and how much you eat
Sometimes people don’t realize that they are eating too much or that they are eating foods that slow down or stop weight loss. Experts have found that many people often underestimate the amount of food they eat.
Tracking all the calories and nutrients you consume will help you to analyze your real diet and not just your estimated diet by eye.
This way you can make the necessary changes to overcome the weight loss plateau. Also, just the act of recording everything you eat is a great way to accentuate your weight loss plateau.
So, you have to be careful to track everything and not leave anything out of your calculations. Avoid making estimates by eye and markdown everything little bits of food everything you ingest counts!
Excess of Carbs
Perhaps you already know you have to avoid excessive intake of carbs and you are already following this important advice about carbohydrates. Almost all researchers agree that a low-carbohydrate diet has a great effect on weight loss.
Excess of Proteins
Sometimes the weight loss plateau can be exceeded by increasing protein intake.
The Hormonal Issue
There is also another aspect that needs to be considered, namely the hormonal profile of the person who wants to lose weight: if there is a hormonal imbalance, it needs to be eliminated in order to achieve the desired results.
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Avoid Alcohol to Avoid Weight Loss Plateau
Perhaps an obvious thing, but it bears repeating here for those who can’t do without it you must avoid alcohol intake because this will greatly sabotage your slimming efforts.
Salty Foods Can Cause Weight Loss Plateau
Be careful with salty foods, this can lead to water retention and therefore make you lose little weight compared to the effort you put in, as you said. If you eat in restaurants or elsewhere you don’t know how much is living in the food and this can become a problem.
Not Enough Water
This is well known but you may have forgotten it every day you have to drink a lot, at least 8 glasses of water. This is important again for water retention because if you drink too little your body will tend to retain the little water that is present and therefore stop losing weight.
Too Much Water
As we have said above, drinking 8 glasses a day is also important. If you drink more than this limit you risk not losing weight, so try to keep the amount of water you drink constantly throughout the day.
Losing Weight too Quickly
One of the most frequent causes of this dietary blockage is that you lose weight too quickly. The diet may work at first but then stop at some point. This is why excessive dieting can make it very difficult to lose weight.
If you lose weight in the wrong way, you may affect your lean mass and then your body may react by blocking the weight loss.
For Women: Water Retention & Menstrual Cycle
Women may feel watery because of the monthly cycle. do not be influenced by these frustrations error of food caused cycle tip and make averages for four weeks of the month.
Then compare only the averages for when there is no cycle so that you have a weight variation that is not influenced by the cycle itself.
Constipation
This is another obvious reason for a weight loss stop.
Constipation can be due to a multitude of causes, and the way to solve it must be strategic and include a series of changes that we have already seen:
- eating fruit and vegetables (an important source of fiber),
- reducing stress,
- getting enough sleep,
- avoiding junk food,
- drinking plenty during the day.
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Movement & Weight Loss Plateau
Insufficient Exercise & Physical Movement
Maybe you are doing regular fitness sessions every day with excellent and targeted exercises, but then during the rest of the day you are sprawling in front of the computer or the television and you never move a finger.
a problem that affects many people is also insufficient or unsuitable physical activity, for example, if you are very overweight, free body exercises or swimming or better exercises with weights are important.
In these cases, it is necessary to understand that losing weight will not be a matter of a short time and simple diet changes but rather a strategic change of your habits.
Here, this is what you must not do!
The solution is very simple: try to increase the movements for the rest of the day, outside of the planned exercises.
For example, walk the dog, do chores in your garden, take the stairs and not the elevator… The list of activities you can do during the day is endless, you just have to choose the ones that suit your situation.
Excessive Training & Cortisol Raise
Here’s also one more thing to bear in mind: too much training raises cortisol in the blood. That’s why it’s better to train seriously no more than three or four times a week.
Mind & Weight Loss Plateau

The Weight Loss Mindset Is Crucial!
Psychology Can Cause Weight Loss Plateau
Another important aspect that can influence the blocking of the diet is the psychological aspect: you must not feel deprived of food and therefore somehow block yourself at an unconscious level.
Checking Your Weight Every Day
One of the most common mistakes is to check your weight every day, but this must be done carefully because you risk being conditioned by weight changes that are contingent and have nothing to do with real weight loss.
It’s ok to weigh yourself every day but without giving importance to the weight change in a single day and then calculate the average daily weight loss at the end of the week.
Excessive Expectations for Your Diet
a further mistake is listening too much to your diet you can’t expect in a few days or even a few weeks to shed an immense amount of kg… Then people get depressed if this doesn’t happen.
A correct expectation is to lose about 1% of your weight in a week; you can even get to 2% but you should not expect that this is the normal goal.
Let’s say that if you weigh 100 kg and lose one and a half kilo in a week, it would be great!
Stress & Weight Loss Plateau
Stress can be a cause of water retention! We’re talking about the stress that everyone has such as work, family, children, but also stress related to diet.
So you don’t have to worry too much or go crazy because you’re not dieting or because you’ve made a mistake in your diet or because you have to exercise you’re not doing it.
Avoid feeling too guilty about anything food-related. To overcome moments of stress of any kind, try to practice relaxing things as often as you can, such as meditation, walking, reading, or anything that allows you to be relaxed and content.
Lack of Sleep & Water Retention
Lack of sleep can also be a cause of water retention. Experts know that poor sleep is a cortisol booster. A solution is quite simple you have to sleep 7 to 9 hours per night or make up for it if you can’t do so during the day with a nap.
Checking Your Weight at Different Times and Conditions
Of course, it’s important to always weigh yourself without your clothes on at the same time for example before breakfast. Otherwise, you were in a few discordant and incorrect that can influence your attitude towards the diet.
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The good of Water Retention
There is also a positive aspect to not losing weight that unfortunately rarely happens: the increase in muscle mass.
This happens especially if you work out when you have never done so before.
Weight Loss Plateau Breakers
Here are some foods and nutrients that help weight loss (just in case you are keeping an eye on calories, but eating the wrong food): broccoli, green pepper, apples and pears, spices, chili peppers, soups, citrus fruits, calcium, and Omega 3 rich foods.
Read more about these foods on the following page: “The 20 Most Weight-Loss-Friendly Foods on The Planet”.
How to Beat a Weight Loss Plateau with Intermittent fasting
Intermittent fasting is a great way to overcome dietary stalling.
You need to reach at least 16 hours of fasting: for this is sufficient to eat dinner at 4 pm and remain without further food intake for 16 hours which means that breakfast will be taken not earlier than 8 am the next morning.
Longer periods of intermittent fasting are not recommended without medical supervision.
For a more detailed discussion of this method visit the following page: Intermittent Fasting 101 — The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide
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