It’s inevitable. Anyone who has lost a large amount of weight (more than 10-15 pounds) has hit one or more weight loss plateaus. The weight loss plateau is a very annoying period of body adjustment where your body “catches up with itself” so to speak. I hit two or three of them when I lost my 38 pounds and I learned a lot from each of them. I mostly learned patience!

There are two types of plateaus that occur. The first plateau is the short plateau, lasting two weeks to four weeks. The short plateau is the kind that all active “dieters” run into throughout their weight loss efforts. It is not necessary to make adjustments for this type of plateau, because your body is simply readjusting to your new weight. Over time (2-4 weeks) you will naturally start losing weight again, as long as you continue your healthy diet and exercise program. Patience is all you need to get past a short plateau.

The second type of plateau is the long-term plateau, which lasts for longer than four weeks. If you go for more than four weeks without losing weight, AND you are continually following a nutritious diet and exercise program (in short, you are doing everything perfectly), then you need to make some changes. A plateau lasting for longer than four weeks is because you are no longer asking your body to go beyond its point of comfort.

Let me explain this further. When you first start a new way of eating and a new exercise program, everything is a total shock to your body. All of a sudden you are filling the body with good, healthy good, full of nutrients, and you are pushing your body so it responds to physical activity. You burn a high number of calories because it requires a ton of effort just to do simple exercise. Over time, you adjust and become more efficient at exercise, and it no longer requires the same amount of calories that it once did. If you do not change your activity, and continue to eat the same amount of food, you will eventually stop losing weight. The same principle applies to food. If you cut your calories down to 1500 per day, and lost 15 pounds this way, your new weight may use those 1500 calories for maintenance now, rather than weight loss. It’s as simple as calories in = calories out.

So how do you break out of this long-term plateau? There are several things you can try, but the most important thing to remember is CHANGE. Any change is worth a try to shake things up a bit. Let’s start with food intake. Have you been taking in the same number of calories or fat grams since the beginning of your lifestyle change? If so, then you need to throw your body off, and there are a couple of ways to do this.

You can cut your calories or fat grams by a bit more (not a lot) to adjust for your new weight. You can try going off your healthy eating plan completely for 3-4 days. You can actually try increasing your calories or fat grams a bit per day. You can switch from eating three square meals per day to six smaller meals throughout the day. You can eat your largest meal in the morning and smaller meals at lunch and dinner. You can increase your water intake.

In the exercise department, you need to find ways to further challenge your body. You can try many different strategies. You can completely change your exercise method. If you only walked before, you can switch to cycling. You can introduce cross-training into your program. If you only walked before, alternate with cycling or aerobics. You can exercise for 5-10 minutes longer each day. You can exercise harder during your normal session time. You can introduce interval training, where you alternate intensity levels throughout your workout. You can add another day of exercise to your week. You can switch the time of day you exercise. You can start lifting weights. You can vary which activity you do first.

As you see, there are many different ways to try and break a plateau. I recommend that you start by trying two or three at the same time. If they don’t work, then next week try some others. It takes some experimenting to find out what will work for you, at this particular time in your weight loss journey. The steps I took to break my first plateau didn’t work to break my second, so be prepared to pull out something else from your arsenal. You can expect your new method will become effective within two weeks. If you are not seeing any results, then you need to change your method again.

If you are close to your goal weight (or ideal weight within reason) and none of these methods work, then you need to look at two factors. Have your body fat tested. It is very possible that you are already at your ideal body fat level and your body is not going to allow any further losses. Accept your new weight and congratulate yourself for the long, hard road you just traveled!