Plateaus are part of the journey. Plateaus are pretty much inevitable in any wellness endeavor your pursue. Often, you’ll see great progress and hit a wall. The wall is not a hard stop though. It’s a moment to pause, reflect, reset, and regroup.
What is a Plateau?
Our body is very adaptive. When we apply micro-stresses our body requires recovery to repair and as a result we will (likely) gain a positive adaptation. This is why the best results typically occur with a method of progressively overloading and challenging our body. Once our body adapts to a new set point we have to challenge our body more or reset our set point in such a way to try and start seeing progress again.
A plateau occurs when we stop seeing those positive adaptations or we stop seeing progress towards our results. Because adaptations take time and our body may take a couple weeks to adjust to the stresses and adaptations, we usually won’t classify a plateau until 4-6 weeks of no progress have passed.
Plateaus are frustrating because you feel like you’re putting in the work and not seeing changes. Often when we become frustrated and we aren’t seeing an return on investment in our efforts, we’ll give up and stop putting in the work towards the progress we want.
However, when we start thinking of a plateau as a signal, there are a couple ways we can go about responding to the signal that may help us kick start seeing results again.
3 Things to Try to Overcome a Plateau
Been 6 weeks and find yourself at a standstill? Try each of these, individually, for a week or two and see if you can breakthrough your plateau! (Note: these methods best correspond to plateaus when it comes to weight loss.)
Rest
You might be over-training and you’re not giving your body enough time to rest and recover. Every time we are exercising we are inducing stress on the body. When your body doesn’t have enough time to rest and recover from that stress your body can develop an even greater stress response to the stress. You go from acute stress you’re already inflicting on your body when you train to chronic stress. When you reach that state of chronic stress, your body’s resources are depleted and can’t keep up with restoring your body.
One of the only ways to overcome over-training is to rest and allow your body to replenish its reserves and repair itself. Our body is magnificent and resilient. When we give our body a break and stop bombarding our systems, we give our body a break from diverting resources to respond to all of the different stimuli and instead our body can send the proper resources to repair itself and get us back and better than ever.
Up the Calories Temporarily
Sometimes, if you’re losing weight rapidly, your body will throw on the brakes and put you in reverse as a survival mechanism. Back in the caveman days our body would employ survival mechanisms if our body sensed we were going into starvation mode.
In order to signal to your body that there’s no need to panic and your body isn’t in danger of starvation you can up your calories.When you increase your calories you signal to your body that food is not scarce and it does not need to worry nor employ survival mechanisms.
Once your body realizes it is safe, then your body will respond to when you do (gradually) reduce calories again.
Start Tracking
Lastly, if you haven’t been tracking your efforts, try tracking. Chances are if you actually were closely tracking you would be making progress. More often than not, if you haven’t been closely tracking and just eyeballing it, you’re probably are consuming more than you think you are.
When you start tracking every single thing you consume, correctly, you will more than likely see progress.
Plateaus are Part of the Journey
While plateaus are frustrating, they are not hard stops. Plateaus are a chance to mix it up and try something different. Your efforts may feel wasted and like they aren’t worth the effort if you’re not seeing the results you’re looking for, but plateaus are often a signal from your body. Use the signal as an opportunity check in with your body and see what it’s trying to tell you with a plateau. Often, the signal is to take it easy for a little bit and let your body adjust before you challenge it again. Other times, the plateau is a signal that you actually need to reign it in and track a little closer to make sure you’re adhering to your plan and have a reality check on your efforts.
Either way, plateaus are just part of the process. Do not ignore them. Tune in, listen, adjust. You can and will breakthrough your plateau!