How To Win At Losing

Hitting A Dieting ‘plateau’ – Where You Get Stuck At A Certain Weight, No Matter How Hard You Try – Is Common, And Frustrating. We Ask The Experts How To Get Past It, And How To Keep Those Kilos Off

- Sharon Stephenson

Hands up if this sounds familiar: you start a weight-loss plan and for the first few weeks the kilos practically drop off.

But then one day a few months or so in, the scale stalls. You wonder if it’s broken. Because no matter what you do, it won’t budge. You’re still religiously sticking to your exercise and eating plan – the one that helped you get such good results in the first place – but now it’s not having any impact.

Welcome to planet plateau, where your body gets comfortable with a certain weight and can refuse to lose any more.

“The human body is quite smart and adaptable when it comes to shedding weight,” explains nutritionist Lisa Ashley. “During the first few weeks, a rapid drop is normal, partly because you’ve made quite major changes such as limiting portions, cutting out certain foods and beverages and exercising more.”

But this effect is temporary and as you lose weight, you’ll also lose muscle which helps to keep up the rate at which you burn calories (your metabolism).

“As you lose weight, your metabolism declines, causing you to burn fewer calories than you did at your heavier weight,” says Lisa. “This slower metabolism will slow your weight loss, even if you eat the same number of calories that helped you lose weight.”

In other words, when the calories you burn equal the calories you eat, you reach a plateau. So what can you do? Turnover for expert strategies on how you can break out of a weight-loss plateau.

THE PERSONAL TRAINER

PT/health coach Arna Scott started her own business a year ago mainly because she wanted to re-frame the way people (especially women) see weight loss.