It was only a few weeks ago that fat was dripping off your body.¹Dripping off like chocolate soft serve ice cream with sprinkles on a waffle cone on a warm summer day, which I have no idea why you’re craving all of a sudden.

But now, nothing!

Everything has come to a screeching halt.

Why aren’t you a loser anymore?!?!

Sorry, but you’re still a loser in every sense of the word.

But as far as with your results, you’ve hit a plateau.

Here’s what to do…

ONE

Recalculate your calories.

You see, as you become smaller the metabolic rate decreases because the body doesn’t require as much energy to maintain its former larger size.

What this means is that the same amount of calories that created a deficit for you at 220 lbs will not create a deficit for you at your dieted down 200 lbs. Instead, the lighter you eating the same way you did when you were heavier will create a caloric surplus, or a positive energy balance, by you taking in more calories than you burn.

While the excess calories may not be enough to result in weight gain, they may be enough to bring about a stall.

So how does one prevent this scenario from occurring?

By recalculating your calorie needs every 10-15 lbs lost.

That’s how!

Too lazy to do the complex math? Or punch your vitals into an online calculator that’ll spit out your daily caloric intake for you?

Then just cut your calories by 100, mostly from carbs.

That’s often enough to bring the body back into a negative energy balance.

TWO

Increase activity.

As touched on above, no longer being in a caloric deficit is a common cause of stalling. Reestablishing a deficit via nutrition isn’t the only way to get things moving again, though.

Another approach is by way of exercise.

If you’re not already doing cardio and/or weight training, then incorporate one or the other, if not both, into your weight loss efforts.

…

Oh, you’re already performing cardio?

If that’s the case, then

…

Oh, you’re already weight training?

If that’s the case, then

THREE

Take a break.

If you’ve been restricting your calories for an extended period of time, pressing the pause button might be all that’s needed.

All you have to do is increase your calories back to maintenance levels for one to two weeks.

So it’s a reverse diet of sorts, huh?

Correctomundo!

Look at you knowing shit!

The benefit of a break is as much psychological as it is physiological.

As you know, fat is a big deal. The body would rather hold onto it than lose it just because you want to look good naked when your lonely ass has no one to look good naked for. In effort to do this, to preserve fat, the body lowers the production of hormones such as Triiodothyronine (T3) and leptin and raises the output of cortisol and ghrelin.

I’m well-aware that you know what each hormone does, but others aren’t so privy. So it’s not my intention to insult your intelligence by now listing each hormone’s function.

Nope!

My intention is to insult the intelligence of those who don’t know!!!

*ahem*

T3 regulates the metabolism and leptin is the chemical messenger that signals to the brain that you’ve eaten enough and it doesn’t have to conserve calories in order to prevent starvation. Ghrelin serves the opposite function of leptin, that of telling your brain that you’re hungry. As for cortisol, it’s a stress hormone that promotes fat storage.

If you haven’t guessed by now, a diet break helps hormonal production reset itself.

As an added bonus to getting the metabolism humming again, overfeeding also has the effect of helping you not hate life thanks to the increased calories giving you energy and elevating your mood so you’re not dragging ass like the zombie you’ve been.²Well, a diet break helps you not hate life as much as you usually do.

FOUR

Cheat.

Rather than taking a vacation, you might only need to get away from your diet for a brief moment. This is where cheating on your diet comes in handy.

Since you’re already good at cheating when you work out, on your significant other, and at board games when playing against little kids, you should know how to cheat on your diet without help.

But for those with slightly more scruples than you, all you do is this.

Every one or two weeks, set a day aside where you eat as you normally would according to your nutrition plan, with one meal — preferably after a taxing workout — placing you 500 to 1000 calories above your daily allotment and consisting mainly of carbs.

It’s as simple as that!

FIVE

Go cycling.

As we see, eating at a caloric surplus improves hormone profile. Another overfeeding strategy in addition to those already listed is calorie cycling.

There are MANY cycling strategies, and getting into them is beyond the scope of this writing.

Just know that the general idea is to eat more carbs and total calories on the days when you weight train and less on rest days or when you’re only doing cardio.

Care to guess what the big deal is about this dietary strategy?

Yup, the body will tap into its adipose stores and burn fat on the lower carb days because there isn’t a ready source of glucose for its energy demands.

What else?

Yup, that’s correct!

Higher carb days will restore the hormones to their normal levels, helping to keep your metabolism purring.

My, aren’t you just a know-it-all!

SIX

Sleep.

Lack of adequate rest can not only cause leptin to drop and ghrelin to rise but also lower insulin sensitivity.

What this means is impairment of the body’s ability to respond to the hormone insulin, resulting in cells storing glucose as fat for later use instead of processing the sugar as immediate fuel.

The solution?

Take a guess!

Oh, but you’re having trouble in bed?

While I’m not a sex therapist and can’t do anything for you on that front, I do know some shit to help you go to sleep when you can’t.

In its most simplistic terms, weight loss is about burning more calories than you take in.

Accordingly, not burning enough calories to create a deficit, or simply being on the plus side of the energy balance equation, results in a weight loss plateau, or wall.

You can either bang your head against this wall, tell Mr. Gorbachev to tear it down and hope he does, wait for Joshua’s Israelite army to blow their trumpets and make it crumble, or use the provided tips to break through it like the Kool-Aid Man.³Yikes, I might be revealing my age with some of these fucking references!

Choose very, very wisely!

Yeah, you’re not known for making the best decisions, which explains your relationships and job, but still!

Glossary: adipose, caloric deficit, calories, cardio, cheat, diet, exercise, hormones, metabolism, rest days, summer, work out, workout