Posted by Chip
Train and diet hard enough and stay in a caloric deficit long enough, your body often adapts to preserve energy fat, stalling the process. It’s pretty common…it’s really another sign of overall progress. Assuming you have been on target (not skipping cardio, not eating more food than on your plan, etc.), what to do if you have hit a plateau?
First off, take care of things that can hinder fat loss and get on point. Stress/cortisol, lack of or poor sleep quality, poor digestion, etc. can affect both recovery and fat loss.
If you are burned out from the process, consider a small break — de-load, drop some cardio, add back some food — and get your body and mindset back. Diet breaks can improve gym performance, have a greater effect on hormones, and your mind than a single re-feed day.
Otherwise, some tried and true approaches:
(1) Increase cardio. You only need a small bump up.
(2) Re-feed. A day with some extra carbs can sometimes do the trick — those extra carbs provide a nice mental break, increase glycogen stores in the muscle and insulin levels and can help drop cortisol. You can often see a weight drop the next day or two.
(3) Carb cycling. Building on the re-feed concept, go 3-4 days with low carbs and have one day with slightly higher carbs. Generally, the extra carbs are structured — not an excuse to binge.
