Weight Loss Tips: What to Do When You Plateau

Have you ever felt like you were doing everything right, working really hard, and after an initial weight loss, the scale just doesn’t budge any more? Well, this is really, really common, and so I’m going to help you move through this with confidence. So that’s our topic for today. What to do if weight loss stalls.

So when someone comes to me with this complaint, doc no matter what I do the weight isn’t coming off any more… the first thing I always ask is, how do you know?

Because, if your bathroom scale is your indicator, it might not be telling you the truth. You see, your weight isn’t your best indicator. It’s entirely possible to be losing fat and GAINING weight. You might be adding muscle mass, or holding onto water weight for some reason. So I always recommend using body composition analysis as a way of knowing whether you are losing fat. Another way of course, is to use what I call the pants-o-meter… this is where you find a non-stretchy pair of pants and just try them on every couple of weeks. If they’re getting looser, you are losing fat… and that’s all you really need to know.

But what if all the correct indictors like the body composition report or the pants-o-meter show that fat loss has indeed stopped? What then?

Here are some common weight loss saboteurs that can really stall things for you.

1. Overexercising. I have people come in telling me they are doing strength training in the morning and cardio at night, spending an hour and a half or 2 hours in the gym every day and it’s not helping. Guys, that’s too much exercise. That’s way too much stress on the body. A stressed body is not going to release fat. Remember that, a stressed body is not going to be willing to let go of fat. So you need to cut back. 30-40min a day is plenty of exercise if done smartly. Alternate your strength and cardio. Don’t do both on the same day.

The other problem that happens with exercise is what I call the “Exercise Halo Effect.” I may have made that term up or I may have heard it somewhere, I’m not sure! But it’s real. When people exercise, they consciously or unconsciously give themselves permission to eat more – more treats, or bigger servings. So watch for that.

2. Alcohol. Alcohol goes straight to the liver for processing, and each molecule of alcohol turns into a molecule of triglyceride fat, molecule for molecule. I did a FB live where I explained this in detail. I’m not saying you can’t have an occasional drink, but if you’re drinking every day, you are just replacing any fat you have lost. I’ve had people make significant changes in their body composition just by switching out their daily wine for herbal tea… they are shocked at how much better they feel and and how much fat they lose quickly!

3. Not enough quality sleep. If you’re not getting at 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night, your body will not release fat. Sometimes people have undiagnosed sleep apnea, so if you snore, or if you have hypertension or if you wake up groggy, this could be the issue for you. If you suspect sleep apnea, talk to your doctor.

4. Unrecognized carb/sugar intake. That mid-afternoon trip to the candy bowl at the office, even if it’s “just a little” will spike your insulin and slow weight loss down. Sometimes these little habits sneak back in and we don’t even recognize it. So I always recommend writing down everything you eat or drink for about a week… if it goes in your mouth, it goes on paper. That will bring awareness and you can make some decisions about what you want to keep and what might be sabotaging you.

5. Stress. We’ve all been through so much stress lately. Covid stress, homeschool stress, zoom stress, stress from racism and riots, stress from fires, hurricanes, now there’s election stress. The more you watch the news the more stressed you will be. And if there is some personal stress you are dealing with, like financial or relationship stress, or if you’re dealing with grief…. Expect your weight loss to stall. Occasionally stress will cause weight loss but the vast majority of time in my experience, stress causes weight gain. So just hang tight and do the best you can to take good care of yourself. Meditate regularly. It really helps to disconnect from all the chaos.

6. Insulin resistance. This is where the body’s insulin levels run high, and it’s very common. There is medical treatment for this. I often see people will be able to lose 10 or 15# just by switching from processed food to wholesome food, but then weight loss stalls, and when I dig into their labs or their family history, I find reasons to suspect insulin resistance. Often we can get the body releasing fat again by adding medications. This is where you want a skilled obesity medicine physician on your team, one who really understands all this. If you don’t live in western Washington, go to www.abom.org and click on the link that says find a physician/verifiy credentials to find someone like me near you.

7. Medications. Some medications cause weight gain or can slow weight loss. Steroid medications like prednisone and many psychiatric medications are notorious for causing weight gain. If you suspect you are taking medications that can cause weight gain, talk to your doctor about switching to something else if possible. Don’t just accept weight gain as a side effect of medications. Obesity is a serious disease, causing 300K deaths every year in the US alone. If there’s an alternate to a medication that causes weight gain, you need to switch. Sometimes there isn’t, but oftentimes there is… and you want to be frank with whomever is prescribing the medication and let them know that this is a side effect you are not willing to tolerate unless absolutely necessary. I think too often health care professionals prescribe medications without really understanding just how devastating this side effect can be for people.

Ok, so those are some things to be thinking about if you notice weight loss stalling on you. I think the most important thing to remember is that your body needs to feel safe and well-nourished in order to release fat… so good self-care is an absolute must!!

I have an online program called Journey Beyond Weight Loss where I teach you everything you need to know to lose weight and keep it off. We open the program for enrollment 3x/year.. and our next enrollment period will be in late January. I hope you’ll join us then!

That’s all for now – have a great day everyone!

Dr Angela