Hit A Fat Loss Plateau? Make Sure You’re Not Making These 2 Mistakes
80% of people quit on their New Year’s resolutions before Valentine’s Day - keep pushing for two more weeks, and you'll be in the top 20%.
The quitters aren’t the ones that have seen amazing progress. It’s easy to keep going when you know your efforts are paying off. If you’ve tried hard, tried everything, hit a wall, got frustrated, and want to give up, this article is for you. You can probably break through your plateau by eating more protein and/or taking more steps. Of the 100+ people I’ve coached, not one person has hit their daily protein and step targets consistently and not made progress.
The two most common mistakes that contribute to a fat loss plateau:
1. Underestimating your protein intake
2. Overestimating your daily activity level
Here’s how to determine your goal numbers and make sure you actually hit them, so you can keep making progress.
1. Underestimating your protein intake.
My pal, Brandon, has overcome a torn achilles and cancer in the past few years. Rehabbing his achilles and then using his fully healed foot to kick cancer in the butt wasn’t badass enough for him, though. He’s also run 2 marathons in the past ~18 months since finishing his chemo.
Brandon’s an absolute beast and accomplishes any goal he goes after. But do you know what even he finds nearly impossible? Eating enough protein!
It’s crucial to understand two things:
The optimal amount of protein to build muscle and maintain a healthy body weight is vastly different from the RDA to prevent deficiency (1 gram of protein per pound of body weight vs. .36 grams of protein per pound of body weight.)
You can tell your doctor you’re eating 50 grams of protein a day and he/she may say, “No problem! That’s plenty. Americans eat too much protein anyway.”
It’s just not true. The research shows otherwise. My personal experience and the experience of every person I’ve worked with shows otherwise. The recommendation of nearly every fitness expert shows otherwise.
To maximize your chances of gaining muscle and losing fat, you need to eat a sufficient amount of protein. “Sufficient” is more than you think, and you won’t regularly eat enough without planning ahead.
You will never eat enough protein by accident.
My client, Jackson, thought he was eating enough protein. In a typical day, he had:
3 eggs for breakfast (21g protein)
Turkey sandwich for lunch (20g protein)
Protein shake and almonds for an afternoon snack (32g protein)
4 oz chicken for dinner (25g protein)
About 100 grams of protein total.
He was 230 pounds and his goal was to weigh 200 pounds. Our ideal amount of protein is 1 gram per pound of ideal body weight, so he was only eating half of the protein he needed (100 grams vs. 200 grams).
To eat enough, you gotta plan ahead. In the example above, to hit his 200g target, Jackson could add some egg whites to his eggs, add a greek yogurt with his sandwich, double the protein serving in his shake, and double the chicken or have another 20g protein snack throughout the day.
Eating enough protein is essential for breaking through a fat loss plateau because it:
Supports muscle growth and repair
“Boosts your metabolism” by increasing the thermic effect of food
Reduces hunger and makes it easier to eat the right amount of calories
Aids in the maintenance of lean body mass
How to determine your goal: To make it simple, eat 1 gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight. So, for example, if you weigh 200 pounds but would like to weigh 150 pounds, eat 150 grams of protein each day.
How to know you’re actually hitting your goal: If you truly want to know how much protein you’re actually eating, you need to weigh and track your food (you can find a cheap food scale on Amazon and my favorite app is “Cronometer.”
You don’t need to do this forever. If you hate it, do it for a week, two tops. From there you should be able to eyeball well enough.
For a deep dive on protein, check out my article below:
Protein or Perish: How Eating Enough Protein Helps You Get Lean and Stay Strong
2. Overestimating your daily activity levels
In the past week alone, I’ve had three interactions that illustrate the relationship between daily activity and fat loss:
A 200 pound, 52 year old man told me that he spent all weekend working in his yard. After his weight was stuck for a month, he lost 3 pounds over the week. He had no idea why. I told him it’s because he probably burned an additional 1,000-2,000 calories than he does on a typical weekend.
A 175 pound, 27 year old man told me he didn’t do a good job of getting his walks in the past week. His weight stayed exactly the same, despite consistency with his nutrition.
A 300 pound, 40 year old woman was frustrated because she had lost four pounds in two weeks but gained it all back the next two weeks. I asked her how many steps she was taking in a day, and she said, “I have no idea, but I’m always on the go so I think it’s enough??”
Your body wants to maintain your weight, because for millions of years humans needed to avoid starvation. As you eat less, your body fights back by reducing how much energy you expend. This happens largely on a subconscious level.
That’s why plenty of people shout at me “John, I’m eating in a calorie deficit! Why aren’t I losing weight?” They don’t account for the reduction in the calories they burn.
In a study on weight loss in athletes, Dr. Eric Trexler and his colleagues concluded:
As these athletes create an energy deficit and achieve lower body fat levels, their weight loss efforts will be counteracted by a number of metabolic adaptations that may persist throughout weight maintenance.
Changes in energy expenditure, mitochondrial efficiency, and circulating hormone concentrations work in concert to attenuate further weight loss and promote the restoration of baseline body mass.
Other researchers have come to the same conclusion: it’s really freaking hard to lose weight because your body is working against you!
The good news - We have strategies at our disposal to fight back.
MacLean et al. say:
Even so, the overarching message about our biology's response to weight loss should not be misconstrued into a conciliatory surrender to the inevitability of weight regain. The biological drive to regain lost weight can be countered with environmental, behavioral, and pharmaceutical interventions
How to determine your goal:
If you need to lose a moderate amount of weight - Aim for 7-10k steps/day
If you need to lose a lot of weight, fast - Aim for 10-15k steps/day
You really can’t overdo it. The more steps you walk, the lower your risk of death from any cause. The 10k step mark is arbitrary, but it’s a good general target that has been shown to improve physical and mental health over a 12 week period.
How to know you’re actually hitting your goal: A fitness tracker like an Apple Watch or Fitbit is great, or a general pedometer is the most reliable way to track. You can get a cheap pedometer on Amazon.
If you don’t want to go that route, the health app on your phone will give you a general count (though these aren’t nearly as accurate as a wearable device).
Losing fat is not easy.
I never told you guys this was easy!
Eating enough protein is hard. Walking enough steps is hard. Losing fat is hard.
But it’s not complicated. No part of fat loss is complicated. What’s complicated is you.
You (and me) have needs, desires, and emotions. You probably don’t like feeling hungry, tired, or restricted. You probably do like eating tasty foods and associate them with comfort, culture, and celebration.
The prospect of exchanging immediate gratification for discomfort, with no guaranteed reward, goes against our nature.
To combat the challenge, simplify and prioritize what you need to do to keep making progress. Hitting your protein and step goals are required. Then, figure out the least painful ways for you to stick to those two habits consistently.
And if you need a hand with brainstorming, I’m always happy to help :-) Send me an email any time (solokasfocus@gmail.com)
Best,
John
P.S. One of Kelly’s patients made her this Duke Blue Devil and Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket out of clay. Talented kid!
3 Steps You Can Take
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Keep learning - You can check out my other articles here. Nobody asked me to, but I’ve spent a ton of time researching everything from artificial sweeteners to saturated fat to testosterone and more, so you don’t have to.