How to Break Through Weight Loss Plateaus

Hitting a weight loss plateau can be frustrating. You’ve been consistent, you’ve lost a significant amount of weight, and suddenly… the scale won’t budge. But the truth is, plateaus are completely normal — and they happen for one of two reasons:

1. The strategies that worked before aren’t working anymore.

2. You’re not doing the same things that once drove your results.

The good news? If you take an honest look at your training and nutrition, it’s usually very easy to identify which of these issues you’re facing — and knowing that will guide exactly how you need to adjust.

Step 1: Check if you’ve slipped from what once worked

Let’s say you’ve lost 30 pounds and now you’ve stalled. Your routine used to look like this: daily walks, tracking your food intake, and lifting weights three times a week.

If your progress has slowed, the first question to ask yourself is: Am I still doing all of these things consistently?

• Are you walking as much as before?

• Are you skipping workouts?

• Are you tracking your food with the same precision and consistency?

If the answer is no, this is usually a simple and common problem. Weight loss is challenging, and few people maintain perfect habits for months at a time. The fix is straightforward: get back to what worked. When you realign with your proven habits, weight loss typically resumes at a steady pace.

Step 2: Adjust for changes in your body

If you are still following your plan precisely, then your plateau likely has a different cause: your numbers have changed.

As you lose weight, your body’s energy needs change:

• Your resting metabolic rate decreases as your body becomes lighter.

• The same workouts burn fewer calories because your fitness level improves.

Together, these changes mean your previous calorie intake and activity levels may no longer create a deficit, which leads to a plateau.

How to adjust:

1. Increase activity – If feasible, add more walking, more steps, or slightly longer workouts.

2. Lower calories – If reasonable, reduce your daily intake just enough to create a deficit again.

3. Shift focus to building muscle – If neither of the above is feasible, consider using this period to build muscle. Strength training can increase metabolism over time, give your workouts a new focus, and set you up for further fat loss in the future.

   
   

Step 3: Focus on solutions

Plateaus don’t mean your body has reached a “setpoint” or that further weight loss is impossible. In most cases, you can overcome a stall simply by getting back on track or adjusting your numbers to create the deficit needed for fat loss.

The key is to stay patient and systematic. Unless you are already very lean, continued progress is almost always possible with small, deliberate adjustments.

Kurtis Proksch