Here's a short checklist of reasons that your fat loss progress may be
stalling.
1) Too Many Carbohydrates.
This doesn't mean you have to eliminate carbs from your nutrition plan.
However, any additional carbs above and beyond those needed to saturate
your muscles with glycogen have a good probability of being stored as
body fat. Weight training does require a higher carb intake. But most
people don't train intensely enough for the amount of carbs that they
take in.
2) Skip The Late Night Carbs.
Don't believe the conflicting research. The fact remains, carbs eaten at
night are less likely to be burned off as fuel and are more likely be
stored as body fat.
For get the pasta, potato or rice at your evening meals for lean
proteins like fowl or fish, along with a side dish of veggies. Or enjoy
your favorite protein shake recipe. Okay, maybe not your favorite if
your favorite contains a lot of simple carbs, but you get the idea.
3) Improper Use Of Fat Burners.
Yes, some fat burners work. But even the one's that do, burn very few
calories in a day. You have to combine them with exercise and a proper
nutrition plan. If you are eating too much, no fat burner in the world
is going to help you. Bottom line, you have to eat properly and exercise
to get the number on that bathroom scale to come down.
4) Wrong Breakfast.
Want to get lean and eat a lot? Chow down at breakfast. In the morning,
muscle glycogen stores are lower than during any other part of the day.
Your body is craving nutritious calories after a night of fasting.
5) Too Much Cardio.
What happens to the guy or gal who performs 1-2 hours of cardio a day?
(I know you're out there!)
They send their body into a tailspin, a state where the "starvation
hormones" secreted by the body skyrocket (it's your body's survival
mechanism, a response to too much exercise!) causing fat cells to try to
hoard their energy!
Too much cardio will eat away at muscle tissue, causing your metabolism
to slow down and your body to start storing fat. In other words, the
exact opposite of what you are trying to accomplish.
6) Never "Cheating" on Your Diet.
Once in a while you should let loose and give yourself a break from the
rigors of dieting and scale watching. In fact, it's helpful in losing
weight.
That's because continual dieting eventually leads to roadblocks where
the body responds by slowing its metabolic rate. Strict dieting also
takes its toll on you mentally, and can leave you feeling deprived.
That's a bad combination! Taking in a couple of high calorie meals once
every 7-10 days not only provides a mental break from dieting, but helps
you side-step roadblocks by preventing the body from entering a
starvation state where the metabolic rate slows.
You still need to be careful with the amount of food you eat when you do
this. After all, it doesn't take too much to completely wipe out that
week's progress.
7) Paying Attention to the scale only.
The scale is not the "end-all" measurement of progress. You also monitor
a couple of other things, primarily energy and strength.
As I've said before, don't go just by the scale. It can deceive you and
frustrate you. Get yourself a nice pair of electronic skin fold calipers
and keep track of your muscle gains and fat loss.
Skin fold calipers, along with the scale are a much truer indication of
your progress.
8) Don't get frustrated by a so called lack of progress. I received an
email the other day from a man who wanted to thank me for the quality
information I have provided to him.
He's lost 100 pounds in the past two years and he didn't think this was
very good progress because of what he's seen others do.
Stuff like this drives me nuts. He made phenomenal progress and should
be extremely proud of himself and what he accomplished. Please people,
don't let the progress of others (especially those in ads) cause you to
get frustrated with what you've accomplished.
Sure, you can use those outstanding results to motivate you but don't
let them make you think what you aren't doing isn't special. The media
and fitness industry have created unrealistic expectations.
Don't let it derail you from your goals.
As Always "Go Hard Or Go Home"