There are so many beautiful words with the term “plateau”: platform shoes, plateau plateau, plateau glacier … but I had to go again choose the most complicated: the weight loss platform.

What is a weight loss plateau?

Suddenly nothing works anymore. Nada. Standstill on the scales for two weeks. So there it is, the dreaded weight loss plateau , the stagnation in losing weight. I exercise, I have a balanced diet and watch my calories, but I still don’t lose weight. And that’s exactly where I’ve got now.

I knew that such a weight loss plateau would come, but it is still frustrating and requires a lot of patience to stick with it and not give up everything. But what can you do?

What are the reasons for a weight loss plateau?

A diet is basically nothing more than a forced famine. In the Stone Age, this still made sense, because if there wasn’t a hunted mammoth available, the body had to survive longer periods of starvation. The body willing to survive notices a reduced energy supply, stops everything and does not give away a single gram without a fight.

It can get even worse and you gain weight! Guilt is our body’s survival reflex. If you are in a calorie deficit for a long time and your body fat percentage drops, the body will do everything it can to get more food back into it. The hormone leptin signals the body to release appetite-increasing hormones and to reduce energy consumption. Hello slimming plateau!

How to overcome the weight loss plateau

But what’s next? Only with honesty! I asked myself the following questions:

Am I still on course?

How well have I followed my nutrition and exercise regimen over the past few weeks?
The will to lose 20 pounds is still there, but I’m no longer within my allotted time window. I’m losing weight more slowly than I thought, namely just so much. Various family celebrations with cakes and a few evening restaurant visits did not allow me to gain weight, but also did not let me lose any further. In addition, I no longer really entered all meals in my fitness app. So it may be that at times I ate more calories than I thought. That brings us to point two of my list …

Correct the course and set new stimuli

Nothing changes if you do everything as you have done before. So I’m going to change the following:

1. Food diary .
   I will not continue to follow a radical diet, but rather eat a low-calorie, but balanced and healthy diet. BUT: From now on I will enter everything I eat into the app of my fitness tracker (* advertising link ). This gives me a better overview of the calories I have consumed and consumed.
2. Intermittent fasting / partial fasting .
   Since evening meals are not particularly good for my weight loss plans, I will start with 16: 8 partial fasting . You can eat for 8 hours and then fast for 16 hours. Either you skip breakfast or dinner – for me it will be dinner. So I will fast from 4 p.m. and then eat again from 8 a.m. Let’s see how it works, I’ll report. My report on 5: 2 partial fasting is available here.
3. New stimuli for fitness training.
   I will continue my fitness program with strength training and endurance elements with a few new exercises to set new stimuli. Maybe I’ll buy myself a pair of running shoes, but this thought still needs some time to mature, because I know I hate jogging.

Stay tuned and stay on course

In the next seven days I will implement my course corrections and really stick to it. If nothing moves on the scales by then, I’ll treat myself to – Attention, here it comes: a FRESSTAG or CHEAT DAY! But really only one. Approved by my trainer. Maybe my metabolism just needs a kick or a big shock to get back to work more actively. I hope that will not be necessary, but what can you not do to achieve your goal.