Break Through Your Weight Loss Plateau Before Summer
Hey Angels and Alphas,
Whether you’ve been exercising a few months or a few years, you’ve probably already reached your first weight loss plateau. Maybe you’ve even broken through your first weight loss plateau, too!
You joined a gym, burned off some extra calories, and you’re seeing your efforts pay off. You’ve stopped drinking soda, and if you’re stopped ordering Pizza every other day. But for some reason, you feel stuck – you’ve reached a plateau in your weight loss results.
And with Summer right around the corner, you want to be looking (and feeling) your best. That’s why today, we’re going to talk about the 3 easiest ways you can push forward on your weight loss efforts and get that perfect bod you wanted for the hot season.
You might be at a great, healthy weight right now, but you just have trouble eliminating the 10-15 extra pounds that are still lingering. As you’re losing weight, it can be very tempting to cut calories to the maximum lowest so you can lose weight even faster. But the downside to this technique is that your muscles can also be used as energy and this will gradually slow down your metabolism to spare energy.
So whether you’re just above your dream weight right now or you’re dedicated to start losing weight, here are 3 quick ways to overcome your weight loss plateau.
#1 – Prioritize sleep.
A full night’s sleep is essential to your body losing fat. That’s because it serves as a reset to your hormones. Even the slightest bit of sleep deprivation leads to increased cortisol levels, and when that happens, say hello to more fat accumulation in the midsection and say goodbye to your weight loss results.
Not only has poor sleep been linked to higher hunger hormone levels, but it also leads you to retain more fat. Especially if you’re the type of person to have a midnight snack or get up in the middle of the night looking for something sweet, you should know that this could ruin your sleep and be detrimental to your weight loss progress.
Instead, focus on getting a full, uninterrupted 8 hours of sleep and see how much better you’ll feel.
#2 – Focus on low-energy-density foods.
Busting through a weight-loss plateau doesn’t really happen by eating less than you’re eating now – it happens by cutting out processed foods and focusing on whole foods like veggies, beans, high-fiber fruits, lean proteins, and other high-water, low-energy-density foods that help your body receive less calories (but higher quality calories) with each meal.
This way, you’re ultimately eating less calories, but you’re getting in all the important phytonutrients you need to keep your body functioning optimally. If you make at least a third of your plate full of green veggies, high-fiber fruit, or other high-water foods, you will be filling up on micronutrients without racking up calories aimlessly. Which brings us to our final tip…
#3 – Ultimately, it all comes down to calories in vs calories out.
If you’ve been watching what you eat and exercising more, but your weight isn’t dropping, there’s probably an underlying reason that you’re not getting your numbers right somewhere along the way.
Poor sleep and high-energy foods are just two of the reasons this might happen, but if you want to be sure, consult with a nutritionist or physician so you know for certain you’re getting your calories counted up right.
If you can set up your calorie intake in a way that leads to more calories coming out than calories coming in, and you do it through setting your body up right with proper sleep and low-energy-density foods, you should have absolutely no problem to bust out through your weight loss plateau and make this your hot bod Summer in no time.
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