How to Break Weight Loss Plateaus

Whether you're currently dealing with a weight loss plateau, have frustrating memories of plateaus that made you give up & gain all the weight back, or your plateau right now is that you can't even get your body to start losing weight... I got your back. Been there, done it. Here are 10 things you can do to get your weight moving if you actually have weight to lose and you're not trying to force your body to go lower than it wants to be.

1. Change up your workouts and keep your body and muscles confused.

Gone are the days when we were younger and could do the same Jane Fonda workout the entire summer break in college and lose 20 lbs. Or just take walks every day and keep dropping pounds. You should not only be varying the exercise you're doing throughout the week but you should switch up the types of exercise you do periodically if you’re either getting injured or stagnating in your weight or fitness results.

Pick one of these that you’re not doing yet: Barre, Kickbox, Kettlebell, Pilates, Spin, TRX, total body fitness classes, or get a personal trainer (*who specializes in fitness for women over 40) and tell them what you’ve been doing so they can design the right program for you).

Keep moving your body in different ways. This is such a wonderful way to stay as independent, flexible and strong as possible as you age too!

2. Just as importantly, get enough recovery & restore time.

You can actually stop getting results from working out too much, as well as doing the wrong kind of exercise which I’ll explain more next. Be sure you’re getting at least 48 hours between strength workouts in your 40’s and 72 hours between them in your 50’s and over. Your body needs time to rebuild the muscle that’s been torn down during the workout.

Muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does. So you want to be building muscle, not only for that weight loss metabolism but also to actually get the strength that you’re working hard for. So rest.

You can and should take gentle walks, and also do 20-30 minute HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts a couple days a week. But space everything out. They all have different purposes.

3. Do age-appropriate workouts.

Cardio simply is not the magic pill that it was when we were under about 35. Every body is unique, so yes sometimes we still hear the simple calories-in-calories-out math working for some women as they age, but in general it’s not as simple as that. Particularly once you plateau. That probably means you’ve lost all you’re going to lose from cardio / taking walks. Your body needs muscle.

You need muscle mass to get your metabolism fired up, and we lose muscle starting at 35. So depending on your unique body, if you have a high body fat percentage like I did, all the cardio in the world isn’t actually burning fat. Make sure you’re doing strength training twice a week properly. If you don’t know how to do this, find classes or a trainer to teach you.

Other key factors about working out effectively over 40:
- cardio can break down muscle, especially too much cardio. Shorter high intensity intervals (HIIT) are effective and safe.
- if you’re pretty stressed, you want to do any cardio & HIIT early in the day because it can make your stress even worse, which affects your weight and sleep.
- yoga and Pilates are typically very good for mobility and assist with muscle build but you need “resistance training” (i.e. weights or something you’re pushing & pulling besides your body weight) for best results and bone density.

4. Reducing stress is a must.

Cortisol (the stress hormone) is what I call “the mother of all hormones.” It will not only cause belly weight and a sluggish metabolism, but it interferes with your other hormones and your sleep, which also interferes with weight loss.

5. Sleep well.

Whether it’s that you don’t sleep long enough or you don’t sleep through the night, this is likely part of the problem with your weight struggles. Sleep is also very important for your cognitive function as you age.

6. Be sure you’re eating natural, clean-ish food and not just tracking calories or carbs.

All calories are not created equally. First of all, as mentioned above, cardio, which burns a lot of calories, won’t necessarily help your body, your health or your weight loss. So don’t worry about how many calories you’re burning in a workout. The right types & frequency of workouts is what matters. Don’t exercise to get rid of food or “earn” food. Exercise is for your health. Separate it from eating.

Second, 1500 calories of well-rounded natural foods that keep your blood sugar stable and nourish every system in your body will do way more for your weight loss and health than 1500 random calories that keep your body undernourished, riding a blood sugar roller coaster, and still craving.

7. Eat enough. Don’t slash calories too low. Stop extreme approaches.

This is so important, and was such an old-school way of doing things. When you eat too few calories your metabolism will shut down because your body thinks you’re in a famine and need to conserve energy. The other problem with this is you realistically sticking with it. This is one of the main causes of plateaus, yo-yo dieting, slowing the metabolism, and eating disorders.

The registered dieticians I follow say that 1200 calories are what a toddler needs a day. Not a grown woman. According to health.gov, women in their 40’s and above need at least 1600-1800 and above depending on their activity level.

Please don’t slash your calories too low.

8. Take the slow & steady approach and give your body ways to keep adapting.

If you start off on day one and week one doing the hardest workouts and attempt to eat “perfectly,” your body will adapt to that. Then where are you gonna go? You have no room for improvement. Besides, your brain will most likely rebel against that because it was too much change too soon and this will be yet another extreme attempt that didn’t last.

So start with some tweaks and keep tweaking. Keep changing up workouts and increasing the frequency and intensity. Maybe reduce your calories a bit (depending on how many you’re eating now) and change out some of the processed foods you’re eating. Then keep improving your nutrition. Your body will never be able to get lazy. You’ll keep it guessing and that metabolism humming.

9. Get your hormone levels checked.

I’d suggest starting with the other tips first, because they can help you balance your hormones. If you’re still gaining weight or it’s above where you’re comfortable, talk with your doctor about checking your hormone levels (including adrenals, DHEA, and thyroid).

10. Last but not least: have a realistic weight goal and time frame.

You might not really be plateauing. Your muscles may be toning and you may be decreasing in inches. This won’t always show on the scale. Don’t weigh yourself daily, and even if you weigh weekly, take it with a grain of salt. Take your measurements as well.

Weight loss can be very slow at our age. So focus on consistency and measure your progress by the healthy choices you’re making, not by what the *$%#& scale says. Give it time.

And if you’re doing everything on this list but not losing weight, you might’ve had a weight loss number that was too low. When you follow the healthy habits here, with time & consistency you can be assured that your weight will fall to just where it’s meant to be. Don’t do unhealthy things just to try to get the scale to move. That just won’t last and it’ll hurt you in the end.

Thoughts?

This can feel like a lot and you don’t know where to start. Do you need some help taking the right steps in the right order? That’s my thing! Click here to schedule a free consult call so we can talk about what you’re experiencing and see if the Self Care Sisterhood is right for you!

You got this sister!
♥ Debbie