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Has your Weight loss Stalled or Plateaued?

When you go on a weight loss program, you reduce the amount of energy (Kilojoules or Calories) consumed. This allows you to begin and continue to lose weight. Sometimes after a period of time on an energy reducing program you may find that your weight loss slows or stops.
There are several reasons why this may happen and this is different for everyone, these include; 

•  If you are not sticking to the weight loss program 
• Undiagnosed insulin resistance, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, PCOS or thyroid disease 
• Even diagnosed insulin resistance, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, PCOS or thyroid disease on or not on meds. Also these conditions with medications unchecked and monitored – dose may be incorrect and be preventing weight loss, particularly in thyroid disease. 
• Slow Metabolism 
• Steroid medications 
• Skipping meals, snacks 
• Overdoing the exercise or for some people lack of exercise 
• Females: having your periods 
• Lack of bowel function 

Plateauing is a natural part of your weight loss!

Your body has been designed to adapt to change – really really well! It doesn’t like change and it has many systems and processes built into it to reverse changes from occurring. Usually this is a good characteristic, for example, sweating on a hot day helps keep our body temperature at a stable 36.8 degrees or when our blood clots after we accidentally cut ourselves. Can you imagine what would happen if the body didn’t react to these changes?

It’s a natural expectation then, that there will be efforts by the body to reduce your weight loss by slowing down your BMR. Your metabolic rate (also called Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR) is a measure of the amount of energy your body burns while it is at rest. Have you wondered why you sometimes get tired very easily when your weight loss stalls? This is an example of your body trying to minimise change.
Despite this, there are other things that can slow down your metabolism, these include:

• Age 
• Inactivity 
• Thyroid disease 
• Skipping meals 
• Insufficient fluid intake 
• Reduced muscle mass (Males have a larger muscle mass, this is the reason why males lose more weight than females) 
• Having the same energy intake each day, same meal plans – same routine 
• An efficient metabolism also requires the smooth running of many complex body processes that rely on sufficient antioxidant vitamins such as vitamin C and the B vitamins. Supplements to correct any deficiencies may be useful. Are you taking Simply Balanced every day?

Weight loss is perceived by the body as a change – a very slow one in comparison to the above two examples but a change nonetheless. We all know, and our doctors remind us at every visit, that we need to keep to a healthy weight range. Weight loss in overweight people is an example of a positive health change that the body fights against so we have to come up with some strategies to maintain this positive health change and stay on track to reach our healthy weight range.The thing we have on our side when treating a weight loss plateau is that there is a time lag between the body recognising the reduction in weight and then acting to reduce this change in weight. We at Tony

Ferguson Weightloss have found that getting the body to focus on changes other than body weight can distract the body long enough to allow the weight loss to continue.
Here are some changes to your day that we have found can kick a person off a weight loss plateau and stop the stalling:

1) Try substituting your fruit serves between meals with a protein rich snack like a boiled egg or lean meat. Do this for at least 4 or 5 days.

2) Replace a sachet with a non-sachet meal using the same “normal food” choices you usually have as your non-sachet meal. In other words, have only one sachet per day for 4 or 5 days and use the Tony Ferguson Weightloss   Program Book to choose normal food for meals 2 and 3.

3) Add exercise to your routine:

•  Increasing your energy output will disturb your energy balance as well as building a bit more muscle mass which will raise your BMR. 
• Resistance training: this can build muscle mass which burns energy at a faster rate 
• Interval training: this can help your body burn more calories. Interval training is doing fast or hard activity for a few minutes, then slower activity for a few minutes and continuing this pattern for the entirety of your work out.
  
• 4) If you already exercise – change it! If you do high resistance low repetition work, switch to higher repetition low resistance work. If you walk mostly the same route at the same time, change the time of your walk and change your route, throw in some stairs or a small hill or 2.

4) If you already exercise – change it! If you do high resistance low repetition work, switch to higher repetition low resistance work. If you walk mostly the same route at the same time, change the time of your walk and change your route, throw in some stairs or a small hill or 2.

5) What if you are overdoing the exercise?

• Light to moderate exercise is recommended while on the Tony Ferguson Weightloss Program e.g. walking, swimming, light gym work 
• If you are overdoing the exercise you may be burning up too much energy compared to what you are consuming. This may put your body in starvation mode and lead it to conserving energy by slowing down its metabolism.
• This is what happens when you don’t provide your body with sufficient energy to run on. 
• It may be a good idea to vary your exercise routine, i.e. changing your activities as to prevent your body adjusting to the one routine.

6) Swap your meals around and make sure you have mid meal snacks. Swapping your meals around can help to break the routine and keep your body guessing – it will be less able to adjust if you keep changing the routine. Having small regular meals throughout the day also helps to increase your metabolic rate.

7) Speak to your Tony Ferguson Weightloss Practitioner about varying your energy and carbohydrate intakes.

8) Small things that can help increase your metabolism:

• Ensure adequate fluid is consumed. Dehydration can contribute to inefficient metabolism by means of body temperature regulation. Dehydration leads to a drop in body temperature causing your body to store fat as a way to help raise or maintain the temperature. So ensure you consume your 2 Litres per day and in small regular bouts. 
• Ensure you have adequate fibre intake. Fibre can help increase your metabolism and also helps increase the rate at which food transits through your digestive system. It should be noted; sometimes the body needs time to adjust to its new weight. This may be a lag period of a couple of weeks to a month. During this period it can be difficult to lose weight and it is recommended to go on a maintenance type of program or use the one shake a day plan.

It should be noted; sometimes the body needs time to adjust to its new weight. This may be a lag period of a couple of weeks to a month. During this period it can be difficult to lose weight and it is recommended to go on a maintenance type of program or use the one shake a day plan.