Slowly but surely you've lost ten pounds. But now, the scale is stuck and won't budge. What gives? Don't blame it on a slow metabolism. Hers Muscle and Fitness explains why plateaus happen in the June 2007 issue:
There are two reasons why: First, you're smaller, so your metabolism is matching the "new" you; second, your body thinks it's starving, and as a result, thyroid hormone levels drop and your resting metabolic rate may drop 10%-25%, so you aren't burning as many calories in a day as you were before you lost the weight. And here's what most of us forget: when we lose weight, we become lighter, meaning the amount of calories we burn in everyday activities drops as well. Eventually, your metabolism adjusts to your new, smaller body.
"At some point you come back to energy balance--where your output and input are the same--so you stop losing weight," Robert Keith PhD, RD, FACSM, explains. "That's the sticking point or plateau a lot of people talk about."
If losing more weight is your goal, you'll have to either exercise more or restrict your calories more, but be wary--if you're already at a healthy weight, be honest with yourself in analyzing whether you truly need to push to lose even more.
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