September 19th, 2023

Coach Sophie

It feels like a tale as old as time to hear about someone’s success in losing an initial amount of weight or accomplishing a certain milestone in their fitness journey and then reaching a place of stagnation there – the familiar but difficult plateau. Goodness knows I’ve hit my fair share of these, whether it be a place where the scale no longer seems to budge, or more currently with weightlifting and feeling stuck at certain weights. While it is easy to become discouraged in a plateau because everything you’ve seen work in the past has now stopped, there is value to knowing what is causing the plateau and steps to take from there (which a coach can help you identify and work through!).

Most commonly, weight loss plateaus come from metabolic adaptation. This simply means that your body has adjusted to whatever measures you’ve taken to lose weight by either decreasing your metabolic rate or subconsciously encouraging you to be less active to conserve energy! And while it is frustrating, it’s also normal! Our bodies are not designed to handle being in a caloric deficit (required for weight loss) for a sustained amount of time (i.e. 3 months +). So where do you go from here?

1. There’s a possibility that your food tracking has gotten more lenient with time and that you are consuming more food than you realize. This is why it’s so important to be transparent with your coach about what you’re eating so that we can see if this could be a cause for a plateau. This is also a good opportunity to become more diligent about tracking food through macros and/or being more aware of serving sizes.

2. You could need an additional drop in calories IF they aren’t too low already. Based on your height, weight, age, overall hormonal health, and activity level, your coach can determine whether it is safe for you to enter more of a deficit as your body needs less calories after losing weight.

3. Your calories could be too LOW! This is unfortunately very common in modern diets with women specifically eating way under their caloric needs. When we diet for extensive periods of time, our metabolisms slow down so much that it becomes near impossible to lose weight. This explains why so many women eat so little yet don’t see the scale budge. If this is the cause of a plateau, our coaches are trained to work with you to get your metabolism back to a healthy place so that you can eventually enter a deficit. Though it can be frustrating to not immediately enter a deficit, the beauty of building a strong metabolism to begin with is that future weight loss and weight maintenance can be SUSTAINABLE! This is also a season to celebrate because as you increase your caloric intake and restore metabolic health, you’ll have MORE energy, BETTER workouts, BETTER sleep, and generally feel healthier.

4. Your calories might be good, but the nutrition is still off! If you feel you are eating a lot of processed foods and lacking in real, whole foods, it could be a good time to prioritize whole foods. If our bodies are lacking in vitamins and minerals provided in whole foods, our metabolism is likely not functioning optimally as those vitamins and minerals are key cofactors and transporters for healthy bodily functioning.

5. It could be time to switch up your workouts! If everything is on point nutritionally, it could be a good time to switch up your workout style or rep ranges to give your body a change of pace. I know I love to cycle between lifting weights, yoga, F45, walking, and pilates just to incorporate different types of movement styles into my life and keep my body agile and strong in the long run!

6. If your plateau is unresolved by all the nutritional and exercise programming from your coach and you’ve been mostly compliant, there could be underlying hormonal or health issues causing your body to plateau. While as coaches we are not medical care providers, we might recommend getting some lab work done so you can identify any hormonal/GI/thyroid type issue that could be going on. Lab work is never a bad idea either (I get mine done annually) as it gives you insight into what is going on inside your body.

These are the main reasons we hit weight loss plateaus and, while no one wants to hit one, having a coach there to guide you through your plateau is super helpful! If you are nearing the end of your three month transformation and you want to keep working with a coach to guide you out of a plateau or out of a deficit, definitely look into our Next Level program too