I think almost everyone has experienced that feeling of putting in 110% and seeing less than impressive results.
Perhaps you've hit a plateau.
Everybody experiences plateaus, setbacks and slow progress in one form or another.
Setbacks aren't just physical, sometimes work and life can have you feeling as if you aren't seeing the results you expected.
This blog his all about the setbacks we experience during our health and fitness journeys.
Although setbacks in fitness aren't related to your work or personal life, if you see that you can beat your
fitness related plateaus, it can remind you that you can overcome pretty much anything that is holding you back!
The worst part about experiencing slow results when you're actually putting an effort in is not knowing why!
Here are some possible reasons your progress is slower than expected:
1. Eating
Sometimes people think that because they're restricting their calories and not eating a lot, it will give them the results they're after.
Under eating is actually the last thing you want to do when aiming for weight loss.
If you under-eat, your body starts to panic and hold on to the fat in your body with all it's might since it doesn't want to risk starving.
And once you do eat, since your body thinks that you're starving and wants to protect your 'starving body', it will try convert what you ate into fat.
Not only that. If you're under-eating, it increases your chances of bingeing sessions from restricting yourself for periods of time.
Restriction also means that you're more than likely missing out on essential nutrients, minerals and vitamins that are far more important to your
health over weight loss!
Can you imagine how much more energy you'd have while performing workouts if you had eaten a proper pre workout meal beforehand?
All of these things show how necessary it is to eat the right amount for yourself rather than less in the hopes of losing weight fast.
2. R & R
Stress has this crazy ability to hold onto fat. You wouldn't think it since people usually relate food and feelings with emotional eating.
Stress is emotional eating's older sister. If you're stressed, even if you're eating well and exercising, it can actually
prevent you from losing weight, or even cause weight gain!
It's a bit of a hard pill to swallow since stress is just something we all experience one time or another.
But if you know you're stressed or prone to stressing out, it's a good idea to figure out what de-stresses you.
Whatever rest and relaxation (r & r) means for you, whether it be relaxing, reading or exercising, find your version
of r & r so you can nip stress in the bud before it becomes chronic.
3. Your Exercise Regime
If you have started your fitness journey, I can imagine the initial results were amazing.
Exercise can bring pretty instant results, not necessarily physically, but you can feel
how good it is to be exercising mentally too.
What's worked for you for 6 months or a year you may notice, is starting to create less than
impressive results and even though you're eating well and breaking a sweat as per usual, your goals
seem as if they're not getting any closer.
The simple solution to this is to challenge yourself even more.
Your body eventually adjusts to workouts when you repeat them no matter what scale of difficulty it is.
So when your workouts need to intensify, you can do anything from adding weight, to beating old times,
to adding more reps, to going a longer distance!
Comment below if you would like any more fitness related plateau topics discussed!
Sophie x
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