I was doing some research on weighing more then once a week and came across this motivating article. She has some great points, read below:
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Beating the Diet Blues:
Have you ever found times during dieting that you get discouraged and down and you just want to give up. I can’t tell you how many times I have been there in my quest down the dieting road. What do you do when you get there and how do you move forward with your diet and have success?
I have found the major cause of the diet blues is what is called: The PLATEAU -- The plateau comes at a different point in dieting for each individual but it always comes. This is how it works. You cut your calories down to 1200 a day (1500 for men), you are losing weight steadily and then all of the sudden your body stops. It isn’t losing weight at the same rate it was before. It has hit its plateau. For me this happens at about every 15-20 lbs (for some it may occur every 10 lbs). No matter how many days I continue on at my 1200 calorie diet I don’t lose a thing. At this point I get the blues, because I’m hungry and I’m not seeing any results from my efforts. I feel like dieting isn’t working for me. I want to give up. More then anything, I want to eat chocolate. Instead of giving up I went to go find out if this happens to other people and it does. In fact it is a common thing that every adaptive body should do if it is working right. When your body hits its plateau there are 3 things you can do to shake it up.
1) Take a 1 week break and VARY your Calories. For example on day 1 - you will eat 2000 calories (2300 calories for men), on day 2 - you will eat 1200 calories (1500 calories for men) , on day 3 - 2000 calories , on day 4 - 1200 calories, day 5 - 2000 calories, day 6 - 1200 calories, day 7 - 2000 calories. On your 2000 calorie days make sure that most of your extra calories are coming from high protein sources. Protein helps to build muscle and allow your body to lose fat. (On a regular basis during your normal 1200 calorie diet days you want to make sure approximately 20% of your calories come from protein.) At the end of this week, go back to your regular 1200 calorie diet. The break and High Protein will have shaken things up enough that your body should be ready to go.
2) Vary your exercise, if you are doing mostly Cardio exercise now is a good time to add in some strength training exercises, if you are doing mostly strength training switch over to cardio. The reason for the switch is to help build different muscles. After a while your muscles don’t require as much energy to do the same exercise. They have become strong enough to do it and don’t burn as many calories to complete the task. So when you switch you are building different muscles and will again start to burn higher calories which will help speed the weight loss process. (If you haven’t been exercising now is a good time to start that morning walk. Exercise is a great way to burn extra calories along the way and speed up the weight loss process).
3) Eat more frequently. Although your calories will be the same at the end of the day you will eat more often in the day. Instead of 3 meals a day, try eating 5 or 6 times a day. This means smaller main meals and several snack times. This will keep your blood sugar levels stable, giving you more energy during the day while helping to control your hunger. This should help to boost your metabolic rate.
The last tip I’ve learned that will help out with the plateau blues is how frequently you weigh yourself. I only allow myself to step on the scale 1 time a week. I know that each week I should lose approximately 2 lbs. Even though it is fun to see that ½ lb come off every 2 days, I can’t get on the scale that often because I get too discouraged when the scale doesn’t move the way I want it to. Once a week seem to be enough. Every Sunday morning I get to step on the scale to see if all my work that week has paid off. The plateaus may last 2 weeks but I will only see it the one Sunday I weigh my self and then my body is back to losing weight the next time I’m on the scale. There isn’t time to get discouraged when you weigh your self less frequently.
When you’re Plateau hits don’t let the diet blues come your way. Vary your routine a bit and stay away from your scale and with in a week or so you should be back on track down the happy successful trail of weight loss.
By: Shawntel
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I Hope you enjoyed this article as much as I did, and for the record I had my mother hide my scale, so now I can only weigh in once a week!
