Plateau. That evil word that strikes fear into all those trying to shed a few pounds. Everyone knows that hitting one someday is inevitable. People deal with hitting a plateau in different ways. Some get discouraged and finally give in. Others keep doing the same thing hoping for different results.
Not me! I used the tools and information that Turbulence Training has provided me, along with some sage advice from Mike in a comment, to bust through my 3 week plateau and pass up one of my mini-goals.
Let me first give you my numbers from today's weigh-in (last weeks numbers are in parentheses). Then I'll talk a bit about some specific things I did to "break on through to the other side" (stealing from the late, great Jim Morrison). I'll have my before/current pictures up later tonight.
- Weight - 187 pounds / 85 kg (191/86.82)
- Chest - 38.25" / 97.16 cm (38.75/98.43)
- Waist - 37.125" /94.30 cm (38/96.52)
- Bicep - 12" / 30.48 cm (12/30.48)
- Thigh - 22.5" / 57.15 cm (22.5/57.15)
- Calf - 14.25" / 36.20 cm (14.25/36.20)
- Lean Body Mass (LBM) - 142.69 pounds / 64.86 kg (142.38/65.17)
- Body Fat Weight - 44.31 pounds / 20.14 kg (47.62/21.65)
- Body Fat % - 23.70% (24.93)
The mini goal I mentioned? That was to break 190 and get into the 180's for the first time in quite a few years. As you can see, it's time for a new mini goal.
Looking over these numbers again, I am still on cloud nine. My LBM went up, so I put on some muscle, and my weight still dropped by 4 pounds.
Going back in my records, it looks like I've lost over 5% of my body fat. When I started taking measurements at the beginning of my 2nd week, my body fat percentage was 28.92. Looking at my "before" pictures and my week 2 photos, it's obvious I lost quite a bit of weight. But to be conservative, I'll say I started at 29% body fat.
FIVE percent body fat, gone in 11 weeks! I'm only a bit under 4% away from having body fat measurements in the teens. I can say with 100% assuredness that I haven't been that lean in at least 15 years.
Alright, alright, I'll stop gushing about how happy I am and get into what I did to get here.
This is just speculation, but I think the biggest change I made was cutting out as much sugar in my diet as possible. Being an admitted chocoholic, that was tough, especially with Easter this last weekend and my wife's birthday celebration too. Through it all, I was able to curb my sugar intake significantly.
I only allowed myself 1 chocolate easter egg (a Dark Chocolate Carmel Crunch Egg, that was real good), and a half of the birthday brownie. I skipped the chocolate ice cream and kept away from my kid's easter baskets.
The rest of the week I avoided sugar like the plague. The longer it went into the week, the easier it became. And to think, just 3 months ago I'd be scarfing down a hole box of Little Debbies. Now I'm worrying about a few extra ounces of chocolate or jelly.
After addressing my sugar intake, the next thing I had to look at was the rest of my diet. The weak spot in my daily diet had become my evening snack. Somewhere along the way, I'd let a treat become a regular meal.
That treat was peanut butter (natural PB of course) on a slice of whole wheat bread with a precisely measured serving of chocolate milk.
Being successful can lull you into a false sense of security. I wouldn't say I got cocky, but I sure did lose track of what got me to the point I was at. That treat snack became a 400-500 calorie meal that I ate every night.
The carefully measured servings of peanut butter and chocolate became rough guestimates. I guess I should have known when the chocolate milk was almost as black as the cup I use that I was over doing it a bit. Nope, I just enjoyed that sweet sweet drink of the gods without thinking twice.
The final aspect of my program that I determined to be holding me back was the intervals. Now it's not the intervals themselves that were hurting me. It's that I had become complacent and was on the 3rd week of doing the exact same interval routine.
Obviously, my body had adapted to getting beat up on for 30 second 10.5 MPH intervals and was coasting on me. In order to break out of this rut, I upped my work sessions to 45 seconds at 10.5 MPH. I'll tell you what, my body was sorry it ever tried to stop me, because those new 45 second intervals kicked it's (and mine) butt.
If you read back over the 3 areas that I had to modify to get past my plateau, you'll see a common thread. That would be that I had become complacent. I had figured I had this weight loss stuff down. After all, I'd knocked off 16 pounds in 8 weeks pretty easily (though not without putting in the hard work).
I let myself get lazy and I started slipping into some old habits. The exact same habits (while smaller in scale this time) that got me to 208 pounds. I was taking the easy way out, not measuring, not counting, not putting in 100%.
So if you've reached that plateau and you're stuck you need to do a few things.
- Take a hard, honest look at your diet - what can be changed/removed (sugars)
- Evaluate your workouts (you are keeping logs right?) - are you adding weight/reps/speed/time each time you do your exercise. Your body will adjust if you don't and you'll be stuck.
- Are you getting 7-8 hours of sleep? If not, your body could be releasing hormones that may be preventing you from losing weight.
Those are just a few, the first two being specific to my situation. The bottom line is, if you've reached a plateau, you need to be honest with yourself and evaluate everything you're doing. With just a few adjustments you should be right back on track busting through that dreaded plateau.
