A few studies have shown time and time again that this can be an alternative nonpharmacologic treatment option.
On top of that, from my own anecdotal experience, whenever I onboard new online coaching clients to my program, those who have tried keto in the past tend to know what protein sources are.
They tend to know how much protein to eat and quality quality protein sources.
Therefore in this aspect it can be beneficial for teaching an individual what a higher protein diet may look like simply because you can really only choose from protein or fat.
I could dive into a few more, but point being, I am not disassociated with the fact that some people see benefits from and enjoy a ketogenetic type of diet.
Yet for the purpose of this article, and my anecdotal experience with people who have tried a ketogenetic diet in the past, I am now going to cover why you shouldn’t do keto.
3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Do Keto
Micronutrient Deficiencies
When following a ketogenic diet, you essentially cut out an entire macronutrient group in carbohydrates by keeping them below 50g a day.
What happens when you cut out an entire food group like this you are cutting out a lot of individual foods.
The problem with this is these foods have important and crucial micronutrients inside of them.
“Carbohydrates are the preferred substrate for contracting skeletal muscles during high-intensity exercise and are also readily utilized during moderate intensity exercise”.
This means that if you are doing a strength training workout, or even heading to do some light to moderate cardio, carbohydrates are going to be your main source of fuel.
On a ketogenic diet when you drop carbs next to none, your body has no fuel for workouts.
You may suffer from feeling weak and tired, decreased endurance or stamina, and or light headed.
You may see a decrease in your strength as well as lean muscle mass.
If you are not able to keep up the intensity and performance on your workouts then you will not be providing a great enough stress on your body to build or retain the lean muscle mass you have.
This had adverse effects on a few things.
First would be your metabolism.
Since you cannot keep up your workout performance, you lose muscle mass. Due to you losing muscle mass, your metabolism slows down.
The more lean muscle mass you have on your body the higher your metabolism is. The less lean muscle mass you have on your body the slower your metabolism is.
In the long term you could not only be losing strength and muscle mass for an aesthetic appeal, but also you now have a declining metabolic health standpoint as well.
Yet, let’s talk about the aesthetic part now as well.
Aesthetic Impact Of Decreased Workout Performance
Whenever I take on a new coaching client who is looking to lose weight I always ask them if they care more about a number on the scale or how they look in the mirror.
Every single time they tell me they care more about how they look in the mirror.
This brings me to a very common point I bring up to people.
In order for you to lose body fat you have to be in a calorie deficit. This is normally primarily done through making nutritional changes.
If you want your body to look a certain way, and not be “skinny fat”, you are going to have to build lean muscle mass.
Yet if you are following a ketogenic diet and your workouts are sub par, you aren’t getting stronger, and you are always tired.
You will not achieve the necessary overload through your workouts for your muscles to grow stronger and more defined, which will lead you to not look the way you want to look.
Therefore if you want more than just a number on the scale, and you want to look a certain way, that may be one reason why you shouldn’t do keto.
Now let’s talk about the last, and in my opinion the most important reason why you shouldn’t do keto.
Over restrictive & Unsustainable
This is something I am very passionate about as a coach.
I truly don’t care what nutritional route you choose to go. If you decide to follow keto, awesome. If you do fasting, great.
Yet there is one question I want you to ask next time you think about your nutrition and “diet”.
“Is the way I am eating now going to be sustainable for the rest of my life?”
Remember this.
Whatever you do to get the results is what is going to be the same thing you have to do to sustain the results.
Therefore if you lost 40 lbs in 3 months doing keto, that is great…
But if you cannot keep eating that way for the rest of your life you are going to gain all of that weight right back.
I know you may be shaking your head “yes” right now to this because this is by far one of the most common things I see through coaching thousands of people.
My true issue with keto is how over restrictive and unsustainable it is for the vast majority of people.
You have to cut out your favorite foods because I mean who’s favorite food doesn’t include some kind of carbohydrate.
You can’t eat out or at social events because you have already had 43g of carbs for the day.
You have to make different dinners than what your family is eating.
Therefore you get into this over restrictive mindset of you “can’t” have this or “can’t” have that.
What does that lead to?
You guessed it, the cycle of restricting and binging.
You are “on track” for 1 or 2 weeks.
You are able to keep up that style of eating for a short period of time.
Then eventually when you crack, because again cutting out your favorite foods, or living an entirely different lifestyle than you or family is not sustainable, you binge.
You feel like you messed up. You feel like you did something wrong. You ate the “bad” food, so you say screw it and keep going.
This turns into you binging Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday.
You feel like crap, then Monday morning you say well let me get back on track.
Yet this cycle repeats itself over.. and over.. and over.
This is because what you are doing is simply not sustainable.
Therefore if you can’t keep doing it, you will not see results from it long term.
You will lose a bunch of weight in the short term and after you binge you will gain it all back.
This is the the common “yo yo dieting” you hear thrown around so much.
This is why it happens, due to this over restrictive and unsustainable ways of going about your diet.
Quite frankly I think it sucks.
Yet beyond it sucking, it just isn’t necessary.
You don’t have to cut out your favorite foods to lose weight and be healthy.
You don’t have to cut out carbs to lose weight and be healthy.
In fact I would say you keeping your favorite foods in your diet in moderation and you keeping carbs in your diet will lead to long term greater weight loss and health than the other way around.
The only thing you need to lose weight is to be in a calorie deficit.
This simply means you are eating less calories than your body is burning on a daily and weekly basis.
I could go into hours and hours of calorie deficit talk. Yet, I actually already have.
I did a quick podcast HERE going over exactly what a calorie deficit is.
As well as I uploaded a totally free video HERE to YouTube to find out how many calories you need to eat to lose weight.
This singular reason alone, aside from the nutrient deficiencies and subpar workout performance, is the main reason why you shouldn’t do keto.
3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Do Keto
If nothing else, I hoped this article got your brain thinking about what may be the best option for you moving forward.
I know I may get some flack for writing this article from people who do keto, and I am fine with that.
I simply want this article to at least make you think about that question I asked you earlier. The most important question when it comes to your nutrition…
“Is the way I am eating now going to be sustainable for the rest of my life?”
If you can say yes to that, then I am beyond happy for you and you will win.
If you say no, then I would strongly urge you to reconsider your choice.
I hope you enjoyed the article. Feel free to share it with someone who you think may benefit from it.
If you have any questions or comments for me, or any keto hate mail 😉 , feel free to shoot me an email at coacheric@ericrobertsfitness.com.
I respond to every single email, so if I can help in anyway shape or form, do not hesitate to reach out.
The question of why does my weight fluctuate has probably come into your head a time or two before.
You step on the scale in the morning.
After you use the restroom, before you eat or drink anything, and fully naked of course because we don’t want any false readings.
2 LBS HEAVIER!?
Okay it clearly must be a mis read.
You move the scale around to get a better reading.
Matter of fact, you just take the batteries out and put new ones in for good measure. Don’t want to have an inaccurate reading is all.
2.4 LBS HEAVIER!?!
*Scale goes through bathroom window*.
I am here to tell you you don’t have to freak out.
You did not gain body fat, that is physically impossible to gain 2 lbs of body fat overnight.
The scale is going to fluctuate everyday for the rest of your life for a plethora of different reasons.
None of which are going to hinder your long term progress.
So, you read to know the answers behind the question of why does my weight fluctuate? Let’s dive into some now.
Why Does My Weight Fluctuate ?
5 Reasons The Scale Will Fluctuate
Sodium
When you include more sodium into your diet than you normally eat, you will retain water weight.
Let’s say all week you have eaten relatively low sodium.
You eat lean meats, veggies, some quality carbs like sweet potatoes or oatmeal.
You don’t eat out a ton and you cook everything from scratch at home, so you are able to control how much sodium goes into your food.
Then the weekend rolls around.
You head out to eat with your friends and family.
You may crush a few pieces of pizza, you might have some pasta with that incredible sauce you love, or maybe you have a steak and potatoes.
But all of those things are loaded with sodium because the sole purpose of restaurants is to have you enjoy the food so you come back again.
Not how much sodium is in their food.
So as opposed to your normal diet that is relatively low in sodium, you eat one or two meals that make greatly surpass your normal sodium limit in a day thus leading you to retain water weight.
This is not to say sodium is bad, because I do not believe it is at all. It can actually greatly increase workout performance by aiding in hydration.
But just know if you have a meal that is higher in sodium than what you normally consume, you are going to retain water weight.
Yet that is just it, it is water weight, NOT BODY FAT.
And as soon as you get back on track to your normal routine it will excrete itself, which your body is great at doing. Hence why “detox teas” or “full body detox cleanses” are a total scam and waste of money.
Anywho, moving right along, let’s get into the next point shall we?
High Carb Days
First off, no carbs do not make you fat.
The only way to store body fat on your body is by eating in a calorie surplus, aka eating more calories than what your body burns.
Okay sorry I had to say that to start us off here, now diving in.
When we eat carbohydrates our body breaks them down to the simple sugar call glycogen.
We use this glycogen as our main source of energy for our entire body, including the main source of fuel to the brain.
Glycogen gets stored in different places in the body, the ones most apparent to this conversation would be the liver and muscles cells.
Cool Science But.. What Does This Have To Do With Scale Fluctuations?
I know I know sorry, I nerd out on this stuff from time to time.
For every 1 gram of carb you eat it causes anywhere from 3-4g of water retention in your body.
There are roughly 454g of water in every 1lb.
Your liver holds about 100g of glycogen.
Your muscles cells hold anywhere from 400g-700g of glycogen. This is much more dependent on the persons current body fat, skeletal muscle mass, diet history, to name a few.
Okay.. but scale fluctuations..
Right right.
Let’s say you have a high carb day.
That extra water from the carbs is going to get stored as glycogen in your muscle cells, causing you to retain some water weight.
Yet again, this is okay and normal. No reason to freak out.
So next time you ask “Why does my weight fluctuate” but you just had a ton of carbs the night before.. now you know 😉 .
Restroom
Sometimes you just gotta unclog the plumbing.
If you want proof that you can gain weight or lose weight simply losing the restroom, I urge you to head to my YouTube video I did on the difference between weight loss vs fat loss.
It is not uncommon for your weight to move between 1-4 lbs from simply using the restroom or not.
Strength Training
When people ask me the question of why does my weight fluctuate, they are usually blown away when they hear this one.
When you strength train you tear your muscle fibers apart.
This causes your body to start the inflammatory response to allow your muscle fibers to heal and recover.
During this inflammation process your body is going to
retain water weight
Increase swelling inside the body
Increase an uptake and retention of nutrients / water to the muscles
In the short term, this will reflect on the scale by going up.
Yet again, this has absolutely nothing to do with your long term weight loss progress.
In fact, this actually is going to help you lose weight long term because through the process of building stronger muscles you are going to increase your metabolism.
The more lean muscle mass you have the higher your metabolism is.
The higher your metabolism is the more calories your body burns ( from doing literally nothing by the way, this is why strength training should be prioritized over cardio for weight loss).
The more calories your body burns, the more advantageous your weight loss journey will be.
Therefore keep lifting heavy yet just know the next time you get done an intense workout session the scale may read higher, and that is okay.
Time Of The Month ( Ladies Only)
If you are a female reading this you are already probably shaking your head yes.
Ladies when you go through that time of the month, you are normally going to retain some water weight.
During this time period there are two phases we are going to look at, the follicular and your luteal.
Let me give you the good news first.
During your follicular phase, you can actually get some kick ass workouts and be strong as heck.
This is when your testosterone is highest and you can be empowered.
So, that’s at least some good news during this time.
Now the news you knew was coming.
During the luteal phase, this is where we see a rise in progesterone and in estrogen levels.
During this phase you are going to have some increased water retention and bloating, which can lead the scale to read higher.
Again, that is totally normal and okay.
You are not gaining body fat you are simply just retaining some water weight.
I tell all of my female online coaching clients I work with that even though the scale may go up, as long as you continue to eat in your deficit, not only will your weight go back down, but it will dip lower than before due to you losing body fat.
So ladies don’t sweat it and thank you for keeping the human race alive. Guys, just be thankful, that’s all.
Cortisol
Before I dive into cortisol and stress let me make something abundantly clear.
A lot fitness marketers will try to sell you on the fact that if you are stressed out that is the reason you are gaining fat.
They will try to sell you their diet or workout program and make you believe that is there reason you cannot lose fat.
That is f*cking wrong.
Let me tell you this in regards to stress.
Stress does not inherently make you gain fat.
What makes you gain fat is what you decide to do once you get stressed.
You tend to eat more calories.
You tend to skip workouts.
Leading you to not be in a calorie deficit which is the only way to lose fat.
It is not inherently the stress or cortisol in your body, it is what actions you take once you get stressed that lead you to not be in a calorie deficit which leads you not to lose weight.
Whew, alright, now that I got that out of the way.
Let’s talk about what stress can do.
When cortisol (stress) is increased it can make you retain water weight temporarily.
This would make you weigh more on the scale.
Then when you get out of that stressed state, you normally flush all of that water weight out.
This is why when people reverse diet they sometimes lose weight.
This is because such a low calorie diet is a physical stress on your body.
If your body is stressed out we just saw it can, in the short term, hold onto water weight. When you reverse diet you add calories back into your diet.
This can relieve your body of some of the stress you were under, you flush out water weight, and the scale drops.
But not because you were “eating too little calories and going into starvation mode”, because that is not a real thing.
It is simply because your body was stressed out and once you added back in calories, cortisol dropped, water got flushed out, and you lost weight on the scale.
This is to note if you would have kept eating that low calorie amount you would have eventually lost weight, it would just be after the initial water weight retention from the cortisol dropped.
Why Does My Weight Fluctuate
Now that you have some of the answers to your question of “why does my weight fluctuate”, let’s talk about what you should and should not do when this happens to you.
What NOT To Do
Freak Out
When your weight spikes up you feel like you did something wrong so you have to correct it.
Listen to me very clearly.
You did not do anything wrong, and you do not have to do anything differently.
The scale fluctuating is a normal occurrence. It is going to happen.
This is not a time to panic nor a time to try and switch what you are doing.
This is a time to look outside of your emotional reaction to the scale going up and look at the logical reasoning behind why it may have gone up.
Did you have a meal higher in sodium?
Did you have more carbs than normal?
Did you just get done a heavy strength training day?
Are you super stressed out?
Look at things from a logical perspective as opposed to an emotional one, understand it is normal and that you did not do anything wrong, and keep going forward.
Over Restrict Yourself
I mentioned this above but when your weight goes up your automatic first thought is okay well I have to be more strict with myself.
I have to cut calories even more.
I have to stick to only salad and chicken.
No, no you don’t.
Remember this is all about long term progress.
Temporary weight fluctuations do not indicate or hinder your long term progress.
You do not have to eat less food the next time, rather continue sticking to your plan as consistently as possible.
Do Tons Of Cardio
This was probably your next thought.
“Okay well if I am holding water weight I am just going to go do tons of cardio, sweat a bunch, and the scale will go back down”.
How mentally healthy does that sound?
What does that make your relationship with exercise and the scale sound like?
Listen, it is all good.
Your body has everything it needs to excrete excess water weight. You do not need to go punish yourself by doing hours of cardio and sweating buckets.
It just is not worth it.
Simply get right back on track to what you have been doing that has worked well this entire time, remembering once again that short term weight fluctuations have no relevance to long term progress.
What To Do
So, what should you do next time you ask yourself why does weight my weight fluctuate?
Well you already did step one and that is to educate yourself.
Educate yourself on why the scale is going to fluctuate. Learn about why it is normal for it to do so. Understand that is has no relevance to your long term progress.
Beyond that, you simply keep going.
Do not let a few higher weigh ins derail you from your journey.
That would be like you running a marathon, tripping in the first 10 minutes, and quitting all together.
Your whole family is there cheering you on, you have all of this incredible journey in front of you, yet you quit after 10 minutes for one hiccup.
Don’t do that to yourself.
It is one thing to be upset about the scale going up. It is another to let that dictate your actions.
Keep doing what you are supposed to do even when it is difficult or you get challenged. That is how you create real change.
Then over time the more you work through these fluctuations you will realize the scale is just data.
One simple form of long term data to find out if what you are doing is working or not.
Key word there being long term.
This is a life long journey. The more you understand that the more you will enjoy it.
I truly hoped this article helped you. If so feel free to let me know below would love to hear from you.
Also feel free to share it with a friend or family member. As you probably well know the majority of people are looking for the answer to the question “why does my weight fluctuate”.
I wrote this article to provide people a scientific and reliable source they can learn from to understand what may be going on.
If you are interested in working with me, feel free to head HERE to fill out my coaching application form.
In this episode of the Eric Roberts Fitness Podcast I talk about how to lose 50 lbs.
I break down step by step what it takes to create a plan for you to reach your fitness goal.
So many people have the big goal in mind they want to achieve, but don’t have an action plan on how to actually get there. Without knowing what you need to do day by day to get there, you will never be able to achieve it.
This podcast breaks down how to achieve your fitness goal no matter what it is may be for you.
I really hope you enjoy this podcast and if you do, let me know 🙂
In this episode of the Eric Roberts fitness podcast I talk about what supplement to take on your fitness journey. I go over the ones I find to be effective, and the ones that may just end up being a waste of money.
I assume you clicked this article to find out what to do when your weight loss plateaus right?
Everything was going great.
You were losing weight at a good rate.
Your diet and workouts were working like magic and the results were amazing.
Then things came to a screeching halt.
You aren’t losing anymore weight. Your diet and workouts seem to have lost the magic touch.
Don’t worry, you have come to the right place.
This article is going to clearly lay out exactly what to do when your weight loss plateaus.
My only ask of you is to make sure you read the entire article. I want you to leave this article confident in what you are going to do to keep progress going.
Sound good? Let’s dive in.
What To Do When Your Weight Loss Plateaus
How I am going to start this article off is by saying something you may already know but need to hear again.
The scale is not the end all be all when it comes to fat loss progress.
In fact, the scale is not the best indicator of fat loss progress at all. If you want to read more on that head HERE to article I wrote diving further in depth on this topic.
You have to also remember there is a difference between weight loss and fat loss.
Just because you lose weight, does not necessarily mean you have lost fat.
While the opposite is true as well, just because you have lost fat, won’t necessarily mean you lose weight on the scale.
You may be looking at me like I have 6 heads. If you want a further explanation on how this can be head to my YouTube video I did explaining this topic HERE.
All of this to say, you need to be tracking more than just the scale to determine if you are making progress or not.
I can tell you right now if you are solely basing your progress off the number on the scale, you are going about this all wrong.
So, what are some other ways you can track progress?
By doing this you can get multiple forms of data to see if what you are doing is working or not.
So now that you have multiple forms of progress to let you know if what you are doing is working or not, let’s talk about what to do when your weight loss plateaus.
When To Make A Change?
Before you go assuming you are in a weight loss plateau, I want you to run through this checklist below.
Are your measurements going down or progress pictures looking different?
If yes, then what you are doing is working, and you need to keep pushing. Do not, I repeat do NOT quit.
Has it been at least 14-21 days since the scale has not gone down?
If no, then keep going. Remember, not losing weight for 5 days isn’t a weight loss plateau. That is simply apart of the journey.
Have you been at least 90% consistent with your plan?
If no, then you are not in a plateau and you simply need to adhere to the plan better. You cannot tell if something is working or not working if you do not truly give it a chance.
Let me also say this. If you are that person that is thinking “I eat 1200 calories but don’t lose weight!”.
Remember this. If you are in a calorie deficit, you will lose weight. I would strongly suggest looking at how you count calories and make sure you are counting them correctly.
Head to one of the most helpful articles I have ever written HERE to ensure you are tracking your calories correctly.
If you got through this check list, you have been very honest with yourself, and you have determined you are truly in a plateau then keep on reading for what your options are next.
What To Do When Your Weight Loss Plateaus
Option #1 Decrease Calories
This is normally the most obvious and sought after option.
It takes the least amount of time and effort while usually being the easiest to adhere to.
How Many Calories To Decrease?
Assuming you are following the fat loss calorie calculator I give out for free on my YouTube channel which means you have your calories in a safe spot, there is a range of calories you could pull from.
Every time one of my online coaching clients weight loss progress has stalled usually anywhere from 75-150 calories a day from your current deficit should be enough to restart progress.
Where Should These Calories Come From?
These calories usually come in a reduction via carbohydrates.
You should never, I repeat again, never take away calories from protein.
Aim to keep your protein intake high, roughly .8-1 x per lb of bodyweight = grams of protein per day.
You also should be keeping your fats around .4 x per lb of bodyweight = grams of fat per day.
This means if those two things are in place, you can reduce calories via carbohydrates.
Does This Differ For Women And Men?
Great question, so glad you asked 😉 .
Yes, it can.
For women I would normally lean towards the lower end of the calorie range.
While men can usually lean towards the higher end of thats calorie range.
This is simply because first and foremost women are normally eating lower calories to begin with.
As well as a woman’s metabolism can take more of a hit when decreasing calories, so going slower and less aggressive is the more optimal approach for you ladies.
How Low Is Too Low In Calories?
Man, you have some good questions today don’t you?
The true answer to this question is my favorite answer ever, and that is, it depends.
It truly depends on your current calorie number, your previous diet history, your current training routine, your current sleeping schedule, to name a few.
So rather than giving you a certain number I am going to give you some questions to think about below :
Is your workout performance / strength significantly decreasing week to week?
Has your sleep completely been thrown off?
Has your sex drive dipped down to next to none?
Are your stress levels higher than normal?
Are you constantly moody and or easily irritable?
If you answered yes to any of these I would say your current calorie intake is too low.
If you find yourself answering yes to any of these as you try to decrease calories then I would no longer decrease calories and head to another one of the options listed below.
What To Do If You Don’t Want To or Can’t Go Lower In Calories?
If you don’t want to go any lower in calories there are a still a few different options available to you, don’t worry.
Option #2 Increase Cardio
To be very clear, the priority of your exercise should be strength training and building muscle.
This will have much more impact on increasing your metabolism and calories burned long term.
If you aren’t currently strength training, feel free to head HERE for some totally free workouts I can give to you.
Beyond that, cardio can certainly be used as a tool to increase energy expenditure for the day to create a larger calorie deficit.
How Much Cardio To Add In?
The first thing I am going to recommend to you is something I have every single one of my online coaching clients do and that is simply ensure you get 8-12k steps a day.
There is nothing overly special about this number of steps, it is just a great goal to shoot for to increase your NEAT.
NEAT is just a fancy acronym for Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.
That fancy phrase just means how many calories your body burns throughout the day without any dedicated exercise.
For most of my clients, that is all the dedicated cardio they do. Therefore if you are not doing that currently I would absolutely start.
That being said if you are, or if that is not an option for you, keep on reading.
Your goal should be to do as little cardio as possible and still see results.
Why you ask?
A few reasons.
Cardio takes significantly more time than making nutritional changes.
The more your body gets used to doing cardio, the less calories it burns.
Cardio can add stress to your body which can increase cortisol which can make it harder for you to lose weight
Too much cardio can negatively impact your strength training, which can negatively impact your ability to speed up your metabolism
So how much should you do? Well, it would depend on what kind of cardio you are talking about.
There are two main forms of cardio, HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and LISS ( Light Intensity Steady State).
Let’s talk about both and which is better for fat loss.
What Kind Of Cardio Is Best?
HIIT cardio can be useful for someone who does not have a ton of time on their hands and needs to make the most of every minute.
LISS cardio can be just as useful and is personally my favorite form of cardio.
The answer which is the best truly depends on the person.
If you are going to go the HIIT route, I would say 1-2 hrs a week of HIIT should be more than enough.
If you are going to go the LISS route, I would say 2-3hrs a week of LISS should be more than enough.
Remember, this is why doing as little cardio as possible in your weight loss journey is important.
If you are doing no cardio to start (besides walking 8-12k steps a day) and then you throw in 2-3 hrs of LISS, bam you will kick start things back up.
Yet if you are already doing 2-3 hrs of cardio, adding 2-3 more hours on top of that can become daunting.
This is why having a tactical, planned out approach from the beginning will serve you well.
Now if you don’t want to decrease calories or increase cardio there are other options.
Let’s dive into them now.
Option #3 Diet Break
This option is one most people do not think of but can serve huge benefits.
Listen, dieting is a stress on your body.
It is a stress mentally. You are always thinking about food, you are constantly thinking about making sure you hit your calorie deficit.
This can make sticking to your diet that much more difficult. This can cause your consistency to dwindle slowly but surely.
It is also a stress physically. If you are eating less calories than what your body burns for an extended period of time that is a physical stress on your body.
This causes your metabolism to down regulate.
Before you ask, No, Starvation Mode is not a real thing. Just no.
Have you ever seen a prisoner of war or a starving kid in Africa overweight? No? I rest my case.
Alright where were we.
Oh yea, stress on your body.
Taking a diet break can certainly be one of the options of what to do when your weight loss plateaus.
How Can A Diet Break Help Kickstart Your Weight Loss?
I mentioned above that being on a diet mentally and physically causes stress.
A diet break can mentally give you a break from the diet.
You can get a break from tracking your food so meticulously.
You mentally get time off from having to be so perfect and worrying about food 24/7.
This can do a few things. The two major ones would be decreasing cortisol while also increasing consistency and adherence.
You may take a diet break and see the scale drop down simply because you are less stressed out from the diet, which decreases cortisol, which decreases water weight. (More on this in option #4 reverse dieting — see below).
The second part of this is if you take a diet break you can increase your metabolism once again because you will be eating more calories, increasing your total energy expenditure for the day.
How Long To Take A Diet Break For & How Many Calories To Eat?
The answer would yet again be, it depends. This time it depends on how long you have been in a true calorie deficit.
I would say if you have been on a diet for 4-8 weeks and are experiencing weight loss plateaus then a 2-3 week diet break should be a good time length to see positive adaptation in your metabolism.
If you have been on a diet for 12+ weeks, normally a 3-6 week diet break is a good time length to see positive adaptation in your metabolism.
The next option would be something I mentioned above and that would be reverse dieting.
Option #4 Reverse Dieting
I will not cover reverse dieting too much here in this article, but that is only because I did an entire in depth YouTube video on it.
If you want to dive more in depth on reverse dieting, I strongly urge you to take some time to watch this video here below.
In layman’s terms, reverse dieting is simply the strategy of increasing calories to improve body composition.
This is more of a long term strategy rather than a short term fix.
This option would be right for you if you are currently already at a really low calorie number, you are doing hours of cardio, and you still cannot see results.
Like mentioned above, reverse dieting can help increase your total energy expenditure for the day, which is going to help speed up your metabolism.
Reverse dieting can also decrease cortisol that is present from dieting, which as a result can flush out some of the water weight your body may be holding onto.
Normally adding anywhere from 50-150 calories per week to your current calorie intake until you reach your maintenance calories is a great reverse dieting strategy.
If you want a sample of what reverse dieting may look like I strongly urge you to check out the YouTube video I mentioned above.
Now that we went over 4 solid options for what to do when your weight loss plateaus, let’s talk about the simple fact that losing weight may not be your best option right now.
What To Do When Your Weight Loss Plateaus
Time To Build Some Muscle
Whenever I ask new clients that potentially sign up with me I always ask them,
“What is your goal body weight?”.
They answer with some number.
My response always is
“Okay got it, so you aren’t going to be happy until you see that number? Or are you chasing more of a look rather than just a number on the scale?”.
Every single time they respond with
“Well I guess it is more of a look rather than just a number on the scale. I want to look a certain way”.
I am going to let you in on a secret. If you are reading this nodding your head like “yep me too!”, it may not be the fact that you need to lose anymore weight.
It may be that you need to spend some time building lean muscle mass.
How is building lean muscle mass going to help you?
Well first off that “look” is going to be attained through building lean muscle mass. Ever heard of the term “skinny fat”?
You aren’t that overweight, you are skinny, but you don’t really look the way you want to look?
This is because you don’t have the appropriate amount of muscle mass on your body.
Second is because it can increase your metabolism.
The more lean muscle mass you have the more calories your body has to burn throughout the day.
This in turn can
Help with future weight loss
Allow you to eat more food without gaining weight
How Do You Know When To Build Lean Muscle Mass?
You should always be training to build and or retain lean muscle mass for the reasons I mentioned above.
Beyond that, if you have lost a good amount of weight and it has stalled out for you, follow this guideline below.
For women, if you are 18-22% body fat, it may be time to go into a muscle definition phase.
For men, if you are 12-15% body fat, it may be time to go into a muscle definition phase.
The one thing I am going to make very clear is during a muscle definition phase you will gain some body fat, scale weight, or both.
This is totally normal, okay, and necessary.
Think of this as building the foundation of your overall health.
Your metabolic health will increase as well as you will be able to attain that look you are chasing.
If you are looking to gain as minimal body fat as possible, I would strongly suggest following the reverse diet video I included in this article.
Find your maintenance calories (which the video will tell you how to do), and then go 150-300 above maintenance calories.
So, Do You Now Know What To Do When Your Weight Loss Plateaus?
I truly hope this article equipped you with the information necessary to know what to do when your weight loss plateaus.
I know this weight loss game can be super frustrating and monotonous process at times.
My two cents to you would be to remember this:
No one ever got closer to their goals by quitting.
As long as you don’t quit, I promise you will do this.
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to leave a comment below or shoot me an email at coacheric@ericrobertsfitness.com with the subject “Weight Loss Plateau Article”.
In this episode of the Eric Roberts Fitness podcast I go over my thoughts on how to set realistic expectations so you can succeed in your fitness journey.
So many people go into their journey with a warped state of mind that when something happens that they did not plan for, they quit.
I don’t want that to happen to you. I truly made this podcast because I want you to succeed.
I hope you enjoy it, I wish you nothing but the best, and we will talk soon 🙂
In this episode of the Eric Roberts Fitness Podcast, I talk about the ways fitness helped mold me as a human being and how it has helped built my business to where it is today. I often talk about fitness being more than just weight loss, and in this podcast I dive into specific qualities that has come from my own fitness journey that helped shaped the human being I am today.
I hope you enjoy this episode. I don’t talk about myself a ton on any of my social media platforms because that is just now who I am, but if you enjoy this episode feel free to let me know and I will consider sprinkling in some more content about myself 🙂
If you enjoy it also feel free to leave a 5 star rating and review on iTunes (huge thank you to those who have thus far).
If you are interested in coaching with me I will link my application form here below.
