If you’ve ever been on any kind of diet or exercise program you’ve experienced this.

When you start out you’re excited, motivated, and SEEING RESULTS and then at some point along the way you get stuck.

Whenever we start a new exercise program that’s when our motivation is at its highest. We are ready to go and we are in it to win it. In the beginning you are super motivated and start seeing results fast,however a few months down the road your weight loss stalls.

My recent video gives you some tips, tools, and encouragement to explain why we get stuck and how to get your scale moving again!

Why do we get stuck?

Whenever we start a new exercise program that’s when our motivation is at its highest. We are ready to go and we are in it to win it. In the beginning you are super motivated and start seeing results fast,however a few months down the road your weight loss stalls. We have an unrealistic relationship with weight. We think we gain it way too fast and we lose it too slowly.

There are so many things going on within our bodies when we start changing the way we are eating and our physical activity. There are many internal and external changes, It’s not just the things you see on the scale. Your blood pressure and cholesterol drop. You start sleeping better. Your joints and muscles are changing and getting stronger.

When you go from not exercising and not eating right to exercising and watching what you eat, you may get sore or experience food cravings.  Once your body starts getting used to the exercise program, you experience less soreness and start having more energy.

Your Body Hasn’t Had Time to Adapt

The first reason your scale may be stuck is because your body hasn’t had time to adapt. When you decide to make a change, you are ready to go from zero to 60 even if our body is not ready for that. We are ready to get results and your body doesn’t have time to adapt. Sometimes you get stuck before you’ve even started – soreness, injuries which cause you to not be as mobile or as active which causes you to get stuck.

All Bodies are Different

The second reason your scale may be stuck is all of our bodies are different. Everyone’s body responds differently to changes. A woman’s body is on a cycle. You definitely don’t want to weigh right before that time because you weight fluctuates. Most women see their biggest weight drops after their cycle. This can cause frustration but it’s just that normal rhythm that our bodies naturally have as woman.

Letting Bad Habits Creep Back In

Once you’ve been following your program for a while reality sets in. The longer we are in a program we start making subtle changes. We start picking up some of those old habits like adding in liquid calories or throwing extra butter on our food. About the time  you start telling yourself, “I’m doing good. I can afford this.” that’s when those habits start creeping back in. Those subtle changes add up over time and can cause you to get stuck or even worse can make you go backwards.

How to get Unstuck

Track Your Food and Your Workouts

We talked earlier about how when we start we are really diligent about tracking everything. However, once we get into a groove, we can get complacent. We start saying,  “Oh I won’t log today.” or “I’m going to reward myself with this cupcake.” Most of the time we don’t even realize we are doing those things because we aren’t being accountable. There are studies that show people who track/log their food vs people who don’t log their food in a weight loss program ALWAYS loss more weight, more inches, and more body fat. That’s the accountability factor. I am a big believer in food logging and journaling if you are trying to reach a goal.  If you’ve been losing weight and are now stuck, one of the questions I would ask you is, “Are you tracking everything?”. You may only need to do this for a few days to see what’s changed.  Track everything; what you’re eating, times you’re eating even your workouts, what you’re doing for your workout, how did you feel, how did you sleep? This is really just assessing what’s going on so, you can see what you are doing now versus what you were doing when you were seeing results. There may be some subtle changes that are attributing to you being stuck.

Challenge = Change

When your body gets into a routine that is when you start seeing less results. Are you doing the same thing over and over again?  Your body has gotten used to that and your body is not burning as many calories. As you lose weight you have to change the intensity  of your workouts to match your new fitter and healthier body to continue to see progress.  One thing we say around my gym is “You have to challenge it to change it!” 

Add intervals and weight training to your workout.

I was at a conference recently and they did a study on interval training. They found that cardiovascular, weight loss, and fat loss wise,  a 4:3 combination times 4 is a really good interval workout to get the best results. Let me explain, you work hard for 4 minutes and work moderately to light for 3 minutes for a total of 28 minutes workout.  Another thing you can add to your workout is weight training. A lot of times women are afraid to challenge themselves when it comes to weight training because we are afraid to bulk up. As we age, we lose muscle tissue and it is replaced with fatty tissue. Weight training is very important and it ALSO increases the amount of fat you burn.

Changes in Medication 

Have you had a change in medications later? Unfortunately there are some medications that can hinder your weight loss progress. It is very frustrating but sometimes you have to have those medications. One thing that helps me is being aware that they can affect you and you just have to be extra vigilant in my efforts to make sure it doesn’t affect me too much.

I want to end this post by saying being stuck is not the worst thing in the world. There is a worse alternative. You could be gaining weight.  I believe there is some celebration in being stuck because you aren’t going backwards. When you start again you are starting from your “stuck” spot rather than going backwards and having to start from the beginning.  Adjust your expectations. You are going to have some weeks where your body will change more especially when you are doing something new. It’s important to celebrate the strides you’ve made then set out to make the necessary changes to get the scale moving again!

Alli K

Confidence Call 

Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. —Vince Lombardi