Overcoming Fat Loss or Weight Loss Plateaus

by Gay Riley, MS, RD, CCN
NetNutritionist.com

Here it is, another new year and we are discussing how to scale down the fat and tone up the muscle. A few genetically endowed individuals will participate in a slight tune-up with minimal effort and a negligent change in the foods that they eat. Others will knock themselves out with food deprivation (a drastic reduction in calories) and excessive exercise in pursuit of the best bathing suit body possible in the little time that is left before that invitation to the pool cookout, the beach, or any summer occasion where every one is half dressed. In the Texas heat, one does not need much of an excuse for dressing light! Of course, all of the cities’ most beautiful trainers are delighted to devise the perfect program, and to share their personal nutrition and fitness secrets to help achieve the ultimate body. With all the good intent, talent, and motivation, there still exists the one universal problem that plagues us all once the journey to becoming fit and lean occurs. The PLATEAU -- the slowing or halt of fat/weight loss in spite of exercise consistency and consistent, proper food intake -- is a frustrating phenomenon usually occurring shortly after an initial weight loss. Why is it that this never happened 20 years ago when we starved down four dress sizes in a month? It did not matter what we looked like under the dress.

The standstill in the body's willingness to budge will encourage the most perseverant into harder exercise. However, when this does not work, frustration sets in resulting in the surrender to chips and a Margarita. Many have witnessed in wonder the aerobics instructor (usually a woman) who teaches 30 aerobic classes per week and gets heavier, or the person agonizing on the Stairmaster 60 minutes, 5 days a week that never seems to achieve significant aesthetic improvement, or the lady next door who walks 4 miles a day through snow, rain, sleet, or shine for a decade wearing the same sweatsuit.

Factors that may explain the plateau in weight or fat loss are behavioral, genetic, and physiological.

• Underestimating caloric intake is probably the most common explanation for the plateau. Current literature reports obese subjects underreporting calories consumed by up to 40% and normal weight subjects underreporting calories on the average of 20%. Whether underestimating caloric intake is knowing or unknowing, it is the obvious reason for the cessation of weight/fat loss and is purely behavioral.

• The body's adaptation to UNDEREAT AND OVEREAT is well-documented in animal studies and in fewer human control studies. We know that undereating slows energy expended or calories burned (lowers body temperature) as the body adjusts to the availability of fewer calories (in other words we conserve energy). Severe caloric restriction can reduce energy expenditure 10-15 percent in one week indicating that it is not simply a loss of lean body mass. Over eating increases the energy expended or calories expended to allow for storage of extra food (increases body temperature). Genetic inheritance will determine the degree of muscle lost in underfeeding or fat gained in overfeeding.

• Severe caloric restriction (very low calorie diets) results in a significant wasting of muscle tissue. A pound of skeletal muscle may consume between 35-75 calories a day depending on the genetics and the fitness of the tissue. The loss in muscle (loss of energy expending tissue) can attribute for a reduction of fat lost. Fat burns in the heat of sugar which means to utilize fat stores sugar (glucose) is needed. If insufficient sugar is available in the blood, muscle, or liver to the body, it will break down muscle for sugar. A pound of muscle tissue theoretically is worth only around 450 calories compared to fat tissue which is around 3500 calories. If an average of 2 pounds a week is lost, up to 25% of that weight could be muscle. Again this depends on the genetics of the individual.
  
  A severe reduction in calories consumed can also reduce the calories expended during exercise.

• Adaptation to exercise or The Training Affect of exercise will slow the loss in weight/fat. In the beginning phase of performing a new exercise regime such as running, energy expended during the exercise is increased because the body is inefficient or unfamiliar with the work performed. It must work harder to regulate body temperature, increase blood flow to the muscles, regulate hormonal changes, changes in energy metabolism, etc. Resting Energy Expenditure (REE) calories burned at rest are also increased because the recovery from the exercise is slower and therefore, requires greater calories. As the body becomes more trained, it performs the work efficiently and energy required during the exercise and at rest are decreased. This adaptation of energy expended occurs in resistance training as well as aerobic exercise. This adaptation of caloric expenditure reduces the net calories and fat deficit and thus, the slowing or plateaus in weight/fat lost.

• Finally, weight lost can reduce the workload and net energy expended from carrying that workload and therefore, close the gap of energy expended and calories consumed resulting in the PLATEAU.

Overtraining has not been scientifically proven to cause plateaus but it is possible that a conservation of energy expended occurs as a result of excessive training; a survival response to stress such as the slowing down of energy expenditure during underfeeding. When the extreme exercise is stopped, the body seems to be renourished, rested, and remodeled instead of being used for energy. Some aerobic instructors and endurance runners experience this response to overtraining.

To repeat, the true plateau or halt in weight or fat loss, occurs only when the conditions of the fitness regime and proper food intake that was previously regarded as below maintenance needs remain the same. The most sensible ways to make changes in body composition and manage plateaus are as follows.

• Accurately track calories consumed. Be meticulous about all food consumed. The reduction in daily calories should be no more than 500 calories less than calories needed to maintain present body weight or the average daily calories consumed to maintain present body weight.

• Change the workload or mode of exercise, intensity, and duration as the body becomes efficient at the work performed. Change the exercise regime. Cross train to burn calories and fat. Strength train (changing as the body adjust to the routine) for increasing energy expended through maintaining lean muscle tissue.

When the plateau of fat/ weight loss actually happens, change the exercise regime and slightly lower calories. The key is to maintain the calories as high as possible and the exercise as moderate as possible to initiate the fat/weight loss. When a plateau is experienced, only a slight adjustment will be needed for changes to resume. Psychologically, compliance to the fitness regime will be easier. Deprivation and overtraining can lead to overeating and burnout.

The science of changing ones body composition is very precise and requires consistency and dedication. If improving your appearance and body composition is your goal, just do your best and then accept the best you are!

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