You’ve worked long and hard in the gym. You have changed the foods your eat, increased your fiber intake, drink only water throughout the day and cut your calories down to the recommended amount for losing weight and yet, you just cannot seem to convince your body to lose any more of the weight. There are solutions out there for people who have hit the brick wall of weight loss and they WILL jump start your metabolism.
When the human body gets nearer to the ideal body weight, it often resists losing those last few pounds. Slower and slower changes on the scale, or even weeks without any changes at all can be one of the hardest obstacles to overcome in the weight loss journey . Take pride in the fact that the healthier your body becomes, the more resistant your body will be to losing more weight . That means you are healthier now than ever before.
Homeostasis is the term for this plateau you are sitting upon. When the body decides it does not want to lose any more weight, you need to jump start that metabolism and get the ball rolling down hill all over again. Even though you have certain goals for your body; a fitter you, a leaner you, a healthier you, your body may be very comfortable where it currently rests. Convincing your body that you are right, may take quite an effort, but it is something you can achieve.
Repeating the same exercises and diet changes that brought about your weight loss will eventually become a learned process for the body. Once the body learns what you are doing, it will stop reacting in the same weight loss way. Your caloric intake, for instance has been cut in order to lose weight. But, as you lose weight and inevitable gain muscle through exercise , the body may actually need more calories in order to break the plateau. This is the hardest thing to swallow for many people. Increasing calories to lose more weight may seem like an oxymoron, but it really can work.
On the flip side of the coin, adding more exercise or increasing the intensity of your current exercise regime can help to jump start your metabolism. Your body can quickly learn the moves you use in your routine each day. The key is muscle confusion. When you confuse the muscle by changing up the exercises you are doing each day and the intensity at which you perform these exercises, your body will never see it coming and keep burning that fat.
5 Ways to Move Those Scales: DOWN
There is nothing more heart breaking than realizing the same exercise program that helped you to lose all the weight, is the same one that is causing you to stop losing weight. The first thing to understand is that plateaus happen to everyone who is trying to lose weight. At first, you may be convinced that a new, stronger routine is necessary, you need to eat less food and cleaner food, but this may not be the best choice for ending that plateau.
What is a plateau?
A plateau is a natural part of the weight loss and muscle building process. The body is constantly trying to regulate its performance. The stage a body rests in during this regulation is termed homeostasis. At the heart of all body process is homeostasis. The body wants to keep a pattern of behavior that is constant and unchanging. When you change up your eating habits, the body quickly adjusts. When you add in some exercise, the body adjusts to that too. The ever adjusting nature of the body requires constant change on your part to keep the body guessing all the time.
When the body adjusts to your current routine and enters homeostasis, fitness instructors term this the adaptive phase. The adaptive phase is simply the phase of a routine when the regime needs to be adapting to continue working for the body. The time between adaptive phases will vary from person to person based upon their personal body composition, level of intensity and the activities chosen. The body can adapt in as little as 2 weeks or take up to 12 weeks to learn what you are up to. As a general rule, the more fit the body has become, the ore quickly the body will adapt to the routine.
Habits are comfort spots for people. When it comes to fitness, there is no room for the habit. From time to time, each exercising habit you have assumed needs to be changed and adjusted to keep the body from adapting to that exercise.
The Four Phases of Fitness
There are four phases the body will go through during a fitness regime. These phases include:
The Foundation Phase – This phase is all about building the base for your fitness routine. The time this phase will last will depend upon the person and their fitness abilities.
Adaptive Phase – During the adaptive phase, which is commonly begun when a plateau occurs, the regime will be learned and mastered. This phase will traditionally last between 1 week and 12 weeks.
Growth Phases or Mastery Phase – The time crunch is on after the adaptive phase moves into the growth phase. Once the exercise regime is mastered, the body instantly begins to learn those movements and adapt. This phase will last only 1 to 4 weeks.
Recovery Phase – At the end of the day you need to rest and so does your body. After working hard through these fitness phases, your body will need 1 to 4 weeks to recover and prepare to start the phases all over again.
As a rule, athletes will practice training regimes in 4 to 6 week blocks. The phases are always started at the beginning and when the body begins to plateau that signal the need for a recovery phase and a restart of a new regime.
If you were to place the body’s reaction to these fitness phases on paper, you would clearly see the body approaching the plateau. Similar to a ski slope either up or down, depending on your goals, as the slope of the line begins to level off and remain unchanged, the recovery process should begin and a new regime planned.
Keeping the Slope Moving
Joe Weider recognized the fact that the slope needs to continue on a constant upward or downward movement with few levels during the process. He created the Weider Principle of Muscle Confusion and that method has been adapted by many physical fitness regimes and routines today. Let us compare the Power 90 ® and the Power 90X ®. These two programs may look very similar, but practice differing levels of timing.
Foundation Phase – Power 90® begins with workouts one and two. Power 90X® begins with a fitness test. Adaptive Phase – Power 90® keeps with the function of phase 1 and only adapts the program as needed (up to 12 weeks on the same program). Power 90X® is constantly changing with only 1 to 2 weeks on the same fitness regime. Mastery Phase – In both regimes the body is allowed just a short period of time with rapid gain. Recovery Phase – Power 90® has no recovery phase due to the variable nature of the adaptive phase. Power 90X® calls this phase the transition phase and utilizes this time to create a new fitness regime. Plateau – When the Adaptive Phase is extended for too long a period, plateaus can occur. Here are 5 tips to help you beat that plateau and see renewed gains (or losses).
Lay Back – Easing up on the exercise routine by decreasing the intensity can help to give the body time to rest and prepare for the next hit of hard activity.
Kick it Up – On the flip side, if your fitness regime is already a bit lax, kick it up a notch. Push the body and you will see results.
Focus on Your Diet – Everyone diet has faults. Focus on the foods you are eating and cut out those foods that are slipping in and causing the plateau to stick around too long.
Workout in the Morning – Morning cardio routines of 20 minutes or so can boost the metabolism all day long. The stored at will be used as fuel since you have not eaten yet in the morning.
Add 500 Calories or Subtract 500 Calories – If you are trying to build muscle, give those muscles a bit more fuel. If you are trying to lose weight, cut out 500 calories per day. A 500 calorie deficit per day adds up to 1 pound of lost weight per week.
Take these tips; learn about the body and hopefully you find the end to that plateau.
