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by Jim Coughlin Hi Jim, I have a question regarding plateaus. I have lost a little under 50 pounds over the past 4 ½ months however almost all of it occurred during the first 90 days. I have stepped up my cardio and every two weeks I switch my whole routine, so my exercise is definitely varied and yet I seem stuck at this weight and in the plateau. I might lose 3 pounds one week, but the next week I gain it back. People say I appear thinner and my clothes do fit better then they did even two weeks ago however, the scale says the same exact thing... and it has for over a month. I know you say to not worry about scale weight... and I agree for the most part, to not worry if there is no change in a given week... however nothing for almost a month! Please help I don't know how to get past this. Thanks, Jess JC: Thanks so much for your email Jess and congratulations on your weight loss so far. This question regarding hitting a 'plateau' is VERY important and I believe is something that almost everyone goes through regardless of their fitness level. Now before I give you the answer, please understand that I am not trying to come down on you. I know it has got to be VERY frustrating to lose 50+ pounds and then all of a sudden...boom...you hit a brick wall. Freakin sucks. The last thing you want is to be criticized for your efforts. Please know that I think you're doing a phenomenal job and if you follow these simple tweaks I'm gonna give you...you'll kill it even more! Alright, from what you just mentioned in the email, I believe there are couple things you can improve on to get rid of this plateau. And it goes back to basics. The first thing to tweak is your cardio routine. You mentioned that you stepped up your routine. Well, this can have many meanings and brings up many questions. Are you doing it 4 days a week as opposed to 2 days? Are you increasing your duration per session? Are you walking or jogging or running or doing some other form of cardio? Are you increasing your heart rate more than you previously did? There are SO many ways you can 'define' stepping up your routine, but I'll make it very simple for you. The BOTTOM LINE when you want to lose weight is burning calories. Period. So this should be your ultimate goal with your cardio routine. This means quite simply to do cardio as MUCH as possible. I recommend doing it everyday. Clients absolutely hate when I tell them this, but it works like magic if they're desperately trying to lose weight. If you're doing some type of cardio everyday for let's say 45 minutes, not only are you potentially burning 400 calories (depending on intensity) or more each session, but you're elevating your metabolism for many hours afterwards. This is key for effective weight loss. Now, I know what you're thinking. "Everyday...I don't have time for that." Well, that's understandable. However, you must consider your goals here. In order to drop weight efficiently, you must be putting your body in the BEST position to do so. It's a numbers game. If you do cardio 7x a week for 45 minutes at a time as opposed to 3x a week for 45 minutes a time...I think you can figure out which is better for weight loss. If you're roughly burning 400 calories a session...the first routine would burn a total of 2800 calories a week. The second routine...1200. That's a difference if 1600 calories burned. Pretty simple, right? Now, if you ALREADY are doing cardio everyday, your next goal would be to increase your duration, and then, possibly your intensity. So hypothetically speaking, instead of doing a 45 minute walk-jog, you can try a 1-hour walk-run. So now, you're burning roughly 600 calories a session 7x a week. If you do the math, that's 4200 hundred calories a week! A difference of 1600 calories compared to the other routine. Whoah...that just reeks of losing weight...wouldn't ya agree? Again, it's a numbers game. More is better. You mentioned that you're changing up your routine every two weeks. That's great. But I would say that the most important factors for effectively doing cardio when trying to lose weight should be in this order. 1. Frequency (7x a week or as much as possible) BTW, if you're strength training 3x a week, just do your cardio at the opposite time of the day. So if you're strength training is in the morning, do your cardio at night. Strength training at night - do your cardio in the morning. This way, you'll get to recover between your workouts and not overdo it. Alright, now I want to talk about your nutrition. I'm sure you're shocked that I'm bringing this up (laughs)...but seriously, this IS the primary reason you could be hitting a plateau. As I've said in the past, if you're trying to lose weight, you don't want to cheat more than 1 meal per week. Pretty strict I know, but I would go so far to say that EVEN if you're eating 'semi-healthy'...you STILL could risk hitting a plateau. Let me explain.
Many people think that just because they eat healthy, they should or are going to lose weight. Unfortunately, this is not the case. You could be eating the healthiest foods on earth - lean meats, fruits, vegetables, egg whites, cottage cheese and so on, but if your portions are too big, you're waiting too long to eat between meals, you're not eating the correct combination (protein/carbs/fats) of foods, you're not drinking enough water, I assure you, this will get in the way of your results and possibly cause you to plateau with your program. Yes, everything you do DOES matter. So you must be honest with yourself. Are you doing everything you can with your nutrition program correctly to lose weight? Only you know the answer. Now, let's say you ARE following everything I just said...BUT, you're only doing this 5 days out of the week. For the remaining 2 days, anything goes with your nutrition. Well, believe it or not...this too CAN make a difference. I know this may irritate you, but I'm talking from my experience with clients in the past. If you want to lose weight, you must be on the ball practically every day with your nutrition program. And if you are going to splurge...make it 1 meal per week. This eliminates all likelihood of your body hitting a plateau and not losing weight every week. As I said yesterday, I have a nutrition program called "Nutrition Secrets to Success" that goes over all this in specific detail. Lastly, I want to talk to you about your strength training. And since there are so many factors when it comes to effectively strength training, I'll try to be brief so I don't overwhelm you. In order to be successful and avoid hitting a plateau with your strength training you must: -- Train as intensely and as long as YOU can within a 1 hour period. Now, if you can only do very simple exercises to start, that's ok. As you get stronger and your endurance increases you can move on to something more challenging. Also, if you can only start off at 15 minutes, that's fine, but you'll eventually want to increase your duration to 30min to 45min to eventually 60. -- Document your exercises, reps, resistance/weight for every session so you always know where you left off and you can improve on your progress the next time you workout. This tip has ensured that my clients have never adapted to a program I put them through. -- Change up your strength training workout every 3-6 sessions. Again, this is a perfect way to keep your body from adapting. If you're keeping your body off balance, you'll always to be moving forward and getting results. I think these 3 tips should really help you, but as I said yesterday, this is only a small piece of the puzzle. My course "The In-Home Personal Trainer: Platinum/Gold Edition" discusses everything I just mentioned here...plus gives you a GAZILLION things more! Not only that, but the program will motivate you unlike anything you've ever experienced. Hitting a plateau is easily the number one reason people give up and become frustrated. And that's why I have designed my program so it's completely "plateau-proof." You'll always be seeing results if you follow my detailed instruction and guidance that I painstakingly lay out for you throughout the course. For more information about my platinum/gold course, go here - http://www.fitnessandresults.com/tihpt_platinum_gold.php If you just want to get The-Home Personal Trainer book PLUS a bunch of free stuff, go here - http://www.fitnessandresults.com/the_inhome_trainer.php Well, Jess and to anyone out there who is stuck with their program, I hope this helps. Stay tuned for more Q&A next week. Yours in Total Fitness & Maximum Success,
Jim Coughlin
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