What Is a Fitness Plateau
Eventually it happens to all of us, if we exercise. After much success, we reach a point were no matter what we do, we can’t seem to show any additional improvement. If it is losing weight, you can’t lose that next pound. If it is strength training, you can’t add that last half inch of muscle definition. Hitting a plateau can be devastating mentally – so much in fact, many people just give up. Don’t let that happen to you; you can break through it. The first step is to understand what causes a plateau.
The Cause of a Fitness Plateau
A fitness plateau usually happens when you are close to goal. You are still working as hard as you did in the beginning, but the results have slowed over the course of time. This is to be expected when losing fat and/or building muscle. But as your body gets more efficient in what it does, eventually you reach a point where you burn about the same amount of calories as you take in, thus not showing any progress.
How to Overcome It
Breaking through a fitness plateau requires a combination of increasing the number of calories burned (through exercising) and reducing the number of eaten, or in other words re-establishing a caloric deficit.
Increasing Calories Burned
To burn more calories, you don’t have to work out longer, although that is one option. However, you can be just as successful at working out smarter. If your normal workout is endurance, try an interval routine instead. If you normally workout at a specific intensity, do the same workout, but kick it up a notch or two. Both of these strategies involve the same amount of time, but each will burn significantly more calories.
Reducing Calories Consumed
Track closely what you eat. And most likely you are doing that now, but you will have to scrutinize your choices even better. Look for processed foods that you may be eating and change them out for something more nutritious. A calorie is a calorie, but processed foods contain more calories per serving so if you are just tracking servings, you could be consuming more calories than you think. Relook your protein, carbohydrates and fat choices.
Focus your protein choices on chicken, pork, salmon, egg whites, beans and nuts. Make sure the fats you are eating are the good fats – poly and monounsaturated. Also don’t forget that you are also getting oil out of your nuts and salmon so factor that into your calculations. For carbohydrates, concentrate on eating fruits and vegetables.
So now you have some options for burning more calories, eat fewer and thus breaking through the fitness plateau. When you know the reason causing it, and can logically make some changes in your diet and exercise, it then becomes an obstacle that you can overcome.