Tuesday 27th November - Fat Loss Plateau

Sorry for the few days away but I have been dealing with a personal family issue that is probably part of the reason for wanting to create both this blog and the work that I do. I will cover this in a few days when I have had the chance to better put into words what has happened.

The topic for today is the inevitable fat loss plateau we will experience when the elation of the short term goals have been achieved. I was reminded of how this can impact your mental attitude when I was talking with a friend who had decided to get not only her body into shape but also encouraged another friend of hers along for the journey. This is a great idea - buddy training is awesome.

It is a "journey" because life doesn't stop in 56 days. I use this example as I wanted to get across the impact that programs can have on your perception of "lighting the fire on fat loss" but further how to "maintain the rage on fat loss". This is the harder yet far more satisfying aspect of getting healthy.

She mentioned her friend (nearing the completion of the 56 day program that I created) had gone through an amazing transformation and while elated with his success at changing his past, he wanted to further his goals. This is all to common with human beings who go through a transformation.

They either -:
a) move the end goal posts further away as they the original finish line or
b) they forget how much success they have achieved by denying the start point in their plan.

The second one is easy to cope with IF you have taken pictures and good measurements when starting your journey - this is why we trainers ask you to do it. If you have not it is more challenging as you never want to admit to yourself that you had let yourself go THAT much and believe that with your inner dialogue along the lines of "I wasn't that bad before, was I ?".
Now what is the correct answer to that ?

It is a no win situation. I mostly took the honesty answer and said "Yes, you were" but there were times that I just wanted to help this person over an emotional hurdle and move forward so I answered "No".

The first point about moving the "end goal posts" happens as you start to see changes and want more. This is your ego talking to your "greedy gene" who tells you that you can do one or all of the following - workout a bit harder, do more sessions, limit your intake of food, not hang out with friends, and all this so that the reflection you see in the mirror is better.

How would I suggest we deal with this issue ?
I think that first off we have to accept where we have come from, where we are, where we want to go and have moments in the journey where we congratulate and reward ourselves on the efforts to date.

Now I am not going to tell you that I ever stop trying to improve. It is not in my nature to either lie or ask you to do something I wouldn't try myself. However I will temper this with the fact that I have been working on improvements every year. I have a personal goal of improving some facet of my life by 10% each year, whether it be physical, financial or emotional.

I can not always improve physically (view in mirror) by 10% but I can definitely improve internally (health status) by 10% EVERY year. LIFE is about the quality of effort you put in balanced with the quality of LIFE you desire.

You have to put the work in to get a better result.

So how do we cope with the "voice in our head" telling us that we are not good enough, or we need to try harder, or we can go just that little bit further.
All of these options MUST be balanced with reality.

When it comes to fat loss your body has what is known as a "set point". I am going to make this simple so that we all understand how our body works. When you reach a certain level of fat loss your "set point" kicks in and starts to limit the use of stored fat (use of fat for energy).

It will start to send signals to your body that you are tired so that you limit your levels of activity. It will ramp up your hunger signals so that you eat. It will do all of this in response to your current activity regime because it wants to limit how lean you get. It is perfectly normal. You will have to work through all of this as well as the emotional rollercoaster ride of "creating a NEW YOU".

This is part of your Human E.C.O. System resetting your thermostat to a new level and this will allow you to access another level of stored energy.

Hope that helps. Keep on working out, eating well and saving your Human ECO System !