In honor of 2 clients whose birthdays it is today, here are 6 “BIG” reasons you’re not losing fat quick enough and 6 “Sunny” tricks to break through the plateau.

6 “BIG” Reasons You’ve Stopped Losing Fat

1. You’re not getting enough sleep to allow your body to recover from the previous day.
2. You’re eating starchy carbohydrates (bread, potatoes, oatmeal, pasta, quinoa, rice, etc…) on non-workout days and/or during meals not following a workout.
3. You’re drinking beverages containing calories of more than zero.
4. You’re overeating or under eating which is causing your body to gain weight or hold its weight.
5. You’re not moving enough. There are 7 days in a week and you should move during each of them. Some days you train hard, some days you train moderate and some days you train easy.
6. You’re too comfortable with your routine. Remember Hans Selye and his General Adaptation? Prolonged exposure to the same stimulus leads to exhaustion or in non-technical terms plateauing.

6 “Sunny” Tricks to Break Through the Fat Loss Plateau.

1. Sweat 60 minutes per day. You can still have hard, medium and easy days (an hour brisk walk on a Sunday, will get you to perspire)
2. Shake up your routine and start a new program. Brian Tracey, a NY Times Best Selling author says, “Eat That Frog”. Start doing what you know and think you should do, not what you want to do.
3. If you think you’re starving yourself and still not losing weight, then eat more food, more frequently. If you know you overeat, cut your meal in half and eat the rest 2.5 – 3 hours later.
4. Substitute veggie and fruit carbohydrates for starchy carbohydrates. Starches are rocket fuel and if your overweight or over fat you have plenty of rocket fuel.
5. Eat starchy carbs 1-2 hours after a workout.
6. Sleep more. Yeah, it’s easier said than done, but if you really want something, you’ll do whatever it takes. Right?
   

So, figure out how many hours of sleep you need to jump out of bed in the morning. Then subtract that number from when you need to wake up. That’s your lights out time. Then subtract 1 more hour and that is the time you need to start winding down. Brush your teeth, wash up, change your clothes, tuck your kids in, read a book, stretch, you can even eat a last meal, etc… Skip anything that is going to get you overly excited or stimulated (caffeine, emotional programs, e-mail, etc…)

Here’s a little something I just came across. A new study, published in July of ’08 out of Denmark says,

“short sleep appears to be strongly associated with obesity and altered metabolic function, and sleep and growth hormone (GH) secretion seems interlinked.” (Rasmussen, 2008)

So not only could your obesity be a cause of poor sleep, but it also affects growth hormone which contributes to decreased body fat. The study did conclude that after subjects lost weight, their growth hormone secretion returned to normal, but they didn’t sleep any better. Go figure.

Here’s my anecdotal 2 cents. If you train hard and move a lot, you sleep great, like a log actually. Hit the pillow and down for the count.

Cheers and Happy Birthday to “Big” and “Sunny” Suzanne.

Your personal coach,

Mike Alves

mikealves.com/change.html

p.s. I realized after writing this blog post I gave you the “fish”. Would you prefer, the how to as well as the answers? Let me know.

Rasmussen, MH, Wildschiodtz, G, Juul A, Hilssted J. Polysomnographic sleep, growth horomone insulin-like growth factor-I axis, leptin, and weight loss. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2008 Jul; 16(7): 1516-21.