Habits and Strategies to Do When You Hit A Weight-Loss Plateau

Even the fittest person or most disciplined eater has hit a plateau with their weight loss or fitness goals. These plateaus happen when we need to make a few changes to our routines. Here are few strategies to help you shake things up!

Keep your meals well rounded so you cut down on snacking

Mindless snacking or even having too many healthy snacks can cause you to hit a weight loss plateau. Make sure you are keeping your meals nutrient dense with protein, vegetable and healthy fat at each meal so you can stay satiated until your next meal. Here are a few easy Paleo snacks under 200 calories.

Keep your carbohydrate commensurate with your exercise level

Be conscious of how much and what kind of exercise you are doing. Running long distances? Exercising for 1 to 2 hours at a time? On your feet for a physical job at work? Great! Keep up those healthy carbs like sweet potato, squash and fruits. However, perhaps you sit at a desk job from 9 to 5 and are easing back into a fitness routine. You may not need as many dense carbohydrates as the person training for a marathon. Be conscious if you are loading your plate with starchy veggies and skimping on the greens. Start your plate with lower sugar/starch vegetables and work around them, adding your dense and higher carbohydrate vegetables on the side.

Ditch sugar for good

If you are still hanging on to sugar and sweeteners, try ditching all forms of added sugar for a couple of weeks.  Even if you are having healthy sugars, they could be contributing to a plateau of your health or weight loss. Cutting out sugar, coconut sugar, honey, molasses and maple syrup will not only help you cut a few added calories to dishes but will also help you identify where you may have been hanging on to crutch foods or sweets out of habit.  Don’t worry—this is not forever, just try it for two weeks to bust through your plateau.

Consider Interval Training

Changing your fitness routine to include bouts of high intensity interval training (HIIT) exercises like burpees, push ups, squat jumps and more can help take your fitness to the next level. HIIT training is also often effective for helping bust through fitness and weight loss plateaus by challenging your body and muscles in new ways. UPG founder Joel shares more fitness advice at ImpossibleFitness.

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