How to Turn Plateau Into Progress You just finished an article on Fitness

With his wedding just 6 months away, Born Fitness client Chris (aka Sparta) decided to get serious about fat loss.

There’s nothing quite like a deadline to get your butt in gear. Sparta was highly motivated, crushing gym workouts and diving into tracking his food (something that works well for him).

But, after reducing weight initially, Sparta’s progress stalled…and stalled. The scale didn’t budge for nearly 6 weeks.

The funny thing? This isn’t abnormal.

Most people freak out when the dimensions gets stuck and assume something is broken. Yet, plateaus are a part of the means of long-term, sustainable weight reduction.

Sometimes the dimensions isn’t moving just because your body is adjusting to alter. Your body needs time to recalibrate to your recent lower weight. This is a process generally known as set point theory.

But, when the dimensions is stuck, it may well still be frustrating. So Sparta’s story is one among patience and reward. When things don’t keep going your way, don’t quit. As you’ll be able to see, Sparta reaped the rewards.

What led to Sparta’s plateau-busting success? Patience, an incredible plan by Coach Natalie, and just a few minor adjustments led to major results.

Don’t Trust Activity Trackers.

First, he learned to not depend on activity trackers. Many people (like Sparta) use these tools to gauge how much they’ll eat and still be in a deficit.

Activity trackers are notoriously inaccurate, so if you happen to use them to regulate what number of calories you’ll be able to eat per day, you’re prone to overeat and gain weight.

A study published within the Journal of Personalized Medicine found that the numbers given for energy expenditure (calories burned) by a wide range of wrist-worn devices were off by 27.4% to 93%.

In the study, the Fitbit Surge provided essentially the most “accurate” reports on calories burned, but it surely still overestimated what number of calories you burned by a median of 27.4%. Yikes. (For context, The Apple Watch was overestimated by 40%.)

Here’s why this can be a big deal. Fat loss occurs if you eat fewer calories than you burn (irrespective of what weight loss program or workout program you follow). This is tough for many individuals, but it surely’s much harder if you happen to’re overeating the calories you think you’re burning during your workouts.

Let’s say your FitBit reports that you simply burned ~650 calories during your workout (you bought after it) and you made the decision to reward yourself with a 600-calorie meal. After all, you earned it. On the surface, that is high quality.

But, in keeping with the research above, you likely only burned around 435 calories in the course of the workout, meaning you simply overate by 150 calories. And that’s using essentially the most accurate tracker within the study.

Additionally, if you happen to’re also tracking your macros, most fat-loss calorie equations already include your activity of their formula. They’ve factored in your workouts (and each day movement) so that you don’t should. So, if you happen to’re adding calories out of your workout, it signifies that you’re much more prone to overeat.

This isn’t to say that activity trackers aren’t invaluable. Your workout data can function a benchmark as an alternative of a calorie measurement. This will provide you with an excellent idea of if you happen to did kind of activity than yesterday (or last week).

But, don’t let this data factor too heavily into the variety of calories you eat. Keep your weight loss program plan consistent.

Coach Natalie asked Sparta only to make use of the activity tracker as a “movement metric.” By comparing how much he moved from daily and week to week, he could ensure he was staying lively outside the gym. These non-workout “workouts” are a fat loss “hack” that works wonders.

Time to get real (with yourself).

More importantly, Sparta made a mental shift.

With Coach Natalie’s help, he took a step back and leaned into identifying what habits were keeping him stuck. He quickly realized he wasn’t being honest with himself.

“I used to be making excuses about my weight loss program. I at all times appeared to justify eating like a garbage barge since it was “infrequent” (Narrator: It wasn’t), or a “special day,” or…or…or. What I spotted was I eat after I get bored, and I’m inherently lazy, so I might at all times go for what was easiest.”

Together, Sparta and his fiance worked to carry one another accountable. He also limited eating out to once per week and recreated routines from pre-COVID (when he would prepare meals to take to work) that worked in his recent work-from-home reality.

The results?

“Honestly, it feels good to get my sexy back. I now have more energy, more strength, and I’m quite a bit leaner. In general, my attire is more fitted, which can be more confidence-boosting. And after I walk past a window, I now see someone who looks healthier. And my ass looks higher too.”

Interested in learning more about coaching? You can explore our personalized coaching program here.

B.J. holds a B.S. in Health and Human Performance and multiple certifications, including Precision Nutrition Level 1 and BioForce Certified Conditioning Coach. Over his 14-year coaching profession, he’s been fortunate enough to educate a wide selection of clients. From online clients seeking to get in great shape to CEO Nate Checketts (Rhone) and CEO Marcelo Claure (Softbank), and skilled skateboarder Sean Malto. Before starting his training profession, he was a sports science lab research assistant.