Why does weight stay the same when losing weight?
In desperate attempts to force your body to lose weight, you again and again ask yourself the question of why the weight has risen and does not go away? Nutritionists believe that the main reason that weight has stopped during the period of weight loss is a slowdown in metabolic processes. Due to the depletion of the daily menu and a decrease in the number of calories consumed, the body subconsciously “hibernates” and switches to a modified calorie consumption regime.
Other reasons why the weight has risen, experts include:
- hormonal imbalances (typical for women with very large body weight);
- fluid retention in the body, water balance disorders;
- lipid metabolism failures due to poor nutrition before the diet;
- lack or complete absence of physical activity.
Why doesn't weight come off when exercising?
It happens that you continue intense physical training and even increase the load, but the weight has risen tightly. There may be several reasons why weight does not come off when playing sports:
- you lose fat mass, but gain muscle mass;
- classes are structured incorrectly: the load is either excessive or not enough;
- exercises are performed with errors;
- you don't pay attention to your heart rate and because of this, your workouts are ineffective in terms of fat burning.
Before starting any type of training, be sure to calculate your fat-burning heart rate zone and carefully monitor your heart rate during exercise. Excruciating overload does not produce any results in terms of weight loss, because when the pulse exceeds 160 beats per minute, the body stops supplying oxygen to the tissues, and fat burning processes stop. Be sure to monitor your heart rate and ensure that it does not leave the fat-burning zone.
Why does your weight stay the same when you diet?
You chose a diet, planned your diet, and everything seemed to be going well, the kilograms were falling off every day, and suddenly there was a plateau on the diet. Why did I gain weight while losing weight? The reasons may be as follows:
- too slow removal of water from the body;
- too strict diet;
- functional restructuring of the body;
- slowing down metabolic processes.
If the reasons for your weight gain are related to fluid retention, then stop consuming salt to force your body to lose weight again. Remember that if you drink little, this does not lead to the removal of fluids, but to their accumulation. If the amount of calories coming from food is too small and does not cover their daily consumption, you need to reconsider the caloric content of the diet in order to speed up metabolic processes.
Why weight doesn't come off with proper nutrition
You have switched to the principles of proper nutrition, but you cannot force your body to lose weight again. Why doesn’t the weight go off on PP? If you are actively involved in sports, and previously such activities were not regular, then the reason for the plateau effect on proper nutrition may be that you began to gain muscle mass while simultaneously losing fat. The process of building muscle mass can be accompanied by water retention, which also does not contribute to weight loss.
Why volumes go away, but weight stays
Don't focus on quickly losing extra pounds. If the weight remains stable, the volume decreases - the weight loss process continues and there is no reason to panic. A plateau can be due to a huge number of reasons, up to the phase of a woman’s menstrual cycle. The body is a very complex system, and a slim body is not the only result that you will achieve with the help of a diet. Make an effort and force yourself to have a positive attitude if you want the weight to start falling again.
Sometimes a huge role in the fact that the weight has risen is simply a psychological infusion. Do not torture yourself with fasting and other grueling methods, just switch to a split diet with a sufficient level of protein and slow carbohydrates. Add more tasty and healthy products to your menu. To keep yourself in shape and have excellent skin condition, you just need to walk for an hour or an hour and a half a day in the fresh air.
Why weight is “worth” when losing weight and what to do about it
The process of losing weight usually takes a lot of time. Depending on the initial data (height and weight) of a person, his lifestyle and nutrition, results are achieved in different ways. However, even athletes who adhere to proper nutrition and exercise regularly have moments when the weight suddenly rises. This phenomenon is called the “plateau effect” - in this case, weight, as a rule, does not increase or decrease, but remains stable.
This moment is a turning point for those losing weight: some give up and quit the diet, while others look for ways to deceive the body and move the weight off the ground.
It is these methods that we will talk about.
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Why does weight matter when losing weight?
As a rule, the best results in losing weight are achieved in the first 2-3 weeks: the weight comes off quickly because the body is being rebuilt. After this, the results begin to decline or stop completely. This happens because the body gets used to a new way of life.
But don’t rush to get upset: in fact, the plateau effect for the body is a new point at which weight stabilizes. This means that, if you linger a little at this stage, the excess weight will no longer come back (provided you have the same correct lifestyle).
The plateau period can last 2-4 weeks, or can reach several months. During this time, you can lose motivation, break your diet and quit training, so it’s better to think about how to overcome the plateau effect and continue to get rid of extra pounds.
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Reasons why weight stays the same with proper nutrition
- Insufficient water intake;
- Too strict diet;
- Low physical activity;
- Incorrect calorie counting;
- Consumption of large amounts of salt in food;
- Too heavy dinners;
- Non-compliance with healthy eating habits: for example, insufficient protein consumption, too much carbohydrates.
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What to do if you are losing weight: 10 effective ways
- Drink water. Water improves metabolism, and its lack leads to fluid retention in the body, which can cause the numbers on the scale to rise. Calculate your daily intake (30 ml x your weight) and drink it every day.
- Do an intense cardio workout. The body gets used to a monotonous diet and exercise, so this method can help shift the weight.
- Increase the amount of calories for one day - just like with a workout, in order to invigorate the body. After this, you need to return to your normal routine.
- Arrange a fasting day. A fasting day involves light meals throughout the day with a total calorie content of 1000-1200 calories. The next day, return to your normal diet.
- Change the number of meals: if you are used to three meals a day, try eating more often; if you eat 5 times a day, try eliminating snacks.
- Going to a bathhouse or sauna will help speed up your metabolism and increase calorie consumption.
- Try intermittent fasting - eat your calorie allowance, but only at a certain time.
- Remove dairy products from your diet - they can lead to edema, which means extra numbers on the scale and additional volumes.
- Change your training program. The body gets used to a certain type of load and stops spending as much energy on it as at the very beginning of training.
- Change your daily routine. Lack of sleep can negatively impact your metabolism and weight.
Experts also recommend not weighing yourself every day; this will help avoid breakdowns at such turning points.
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How long does the plateau effect last?
When the weight has stopped due to the plateau effect, it can be very difficult to maintain the mood to continue working on yourself. This stage of weight loss, depending on the reasons for its onset, can last from three weeks to three months. The most important thing during this period is to continue to adhere to the correct diet (or switch to it from a strict diet if it caused a plateau), continue to train and ultimately ensure that the extra pounds begin to disappear again.
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How to get your weight off the ground
You continue your diet and training, but are stuck in the plateau effect. How to make your body lose weight again? First of all, review your diet. If the menu is too meager and you get fewer calories than you burn, then your metabolism needs to be artificially accelerated. This can be done in several ways, which will be described in more detail in the next section of the article.
Change your training program. Add jogging or daily walks outdoors to your gym routine. Do morning exercises - long-term heavy exercise is not necessary; 6-10 simple exercises or yoga poses immediately after waking up help greatly speed up metabolic processes. Add unusual physical activity: in the warm season, you can ride a bicycle to work, for example. Also, visiting a bathhouse, sauna or spa is great for accelerating your metabolism.
Changing your diet
If you can’t force your body to lose weight again, then you need to reconsider your diet. When the cause of weight frozen at one point is an overly strict diet, zigzag calories for weight loss can help speed up metabolic processes. There are several options here:
- “gluttonous” or fasting day - sharply change the number of calories consumed up or down to start accelerating metabolism;
- “food swing” - calculate your daily calorie intake and deviate from it by 200-300 kcal, either up or down;
- switch to split meals - frequent meals, snacks every three hours;
- please your body with something forbidden - once a week, scheduled, allow yourself to eat any of your favorite unhealthy foods - a piece of cake, a portion of fried potatoes, whatever you want.
Carefully monitor not only the number of calories, but also the percentage of protein, fat, carbohydrates and the amount of sugar. Drinking alcohol and sugary drinks is strictly prohibited. The number of calories you consume should always be re-evaluated in accordance with the stage of the diet and daily exercise, because as you lose weight and body size, you begin to need fewer calories to maintain vitality.
Restoring the body's water balance
Maintaining water balance in the body is equally important. Do not forget that limiting water consumption leads to stagnation and not elimination of fluid in the body. Therefore, the daily norm of at least two liters must be observed by you, and we are talking only about water, excluding tea, coffee and other liquids. Severely limit or completely eliminate salt from your diet, because it retains water in the body.
Changing the training program
To continue losing weight, change your usual exercise program. Alternate aerobic and strength exercises, or completely change the type of exercise. Alternate the treadmill with swimming, walking with cycling, aerobics with yoga. The main thing is to continue active training, because otherwise you will not be able to get out of the period of stopping the loss of kilograms and force your body to start losing weight again.
Ways to overcome a plateau
How to overcome a plateau? There are several strategies that will gently shake up your body and get you back on track to losing weight.
Continuation of the diet
We have already found out that a dietary plateau is a normal physiological reaction of the body. If you are following a healthy and nutritious diet, just stick with it. Sooner or later your metabolism will adjust and you will see the desired results.
How long you need to wait depends only on your body. On average, changes begin within 1–1.5 months.
To make this happen faster, use the following ideas:
1. Try doing a fasting day once a week. Use any mono-diet - limit yourself to 2 kg of apples, 2 liters of kefir or 5 small portions of buckwheat without salt.
If you are losing weight following the principles of proper nutrition and eating nuts and honey, you can simply remove these products from your menu once a week.
2. Exercise in the morning. It is absolutely not necessary to go for a run; you can limit yourself to a few stretching exercises. They will help activate your metabolism and speed up weight loss.
3. Treat yourself. A cheat meal is a planned diet violation. It is usually used by professional athletes, as it makes it easier to accept constant restrictions and speeds up the metabolism.
You can also use this idea. Once a week, allow yourself 1 unhealthy meal. It could be your favorite dessert, grilled meat, or a bowl of macaroni and cheese.
The main rule of a cheat meal is to limit yourself to only 1 meal, relieve emotional stress and be able to stop at the right moment. After this, immediately return to your normal diet.
This strategy is suitable for those who adhere to proper nutrition and conduct moderate training 3-4 times a week. But, it will not help those whose plateau arose due to a reason such as a strict diet.
Sports activities
In order to overcome the plateau effect on healthy eating, you do not need to make any changes to your usual diet. Adjusting the sports program will be quite enough. For example, add variable-intensity cardio twice a week.
Below is an example of a 45-minute interval session that can be done on any cardio machine:
- Low intensity warm-up – 5 minutes.
- 15 minutes of medium intensity.
- 1 minute high intensity.
- 2 minutes of medium load.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 4 more times.
- 10 minutes of moderate to low intensity cool down.
This approach to getting out of a plateau is suitable for those who love to exercise and do not have problems increasing their appetite with regular exercise.
Visit to the SPA
Continue to train and diet, but add a visit to the SPA center or bathhouse to your schedule. It's best to go there immediately after a strength training session and try not to overeat that day.
Procedures based on heating the body increase the need for oxygen and nutrients. This speeds up metabolic processes in the body.
How many of these procedures per week are needed to overcome a dietary plateau? There is no exact answer to this question, since each organism is individual. On average, 1-2 times a week is enough. If you combine them with self-massage and a contrast shower, the result will appear faster.
This method can be recommended when many methods have already been tried, but the stage of stagnation in losing weight has not ended. Warming is contraindicated for those who suffer from any chronic diseases of the cardiovascular system.
