I wanted to know what everyone thought of the idea of taking a break.  Let me explain a little more.  Most of you may or may not know for the last two months I have been suffering through a weight loss plateau.  I knew it was coming, everyone kept warning me.  Just didn’t know it would last as long as it did.  Anyway, so back before the plateau began my wife’s trainer mention that there would come a time when we need to just stop, and give out body a chance to adjust to the new “you”.  When he said stop he meant stop working out and stop watch our diet. 

I have often heard of cheat meals, or cheat days, but up until this point I had never heard of a cheat week.  So my wife and I decided it was time for both of us to take this cheat week.  We both had been stuck in this plateau, her’s was more for medical reasons. 

So what do you think?  Has anyone done this?  Has anyone experience a plateau this long?  Not as long? Or even longer?

All the best,
Stu

Cheat week?  I like that.

What’s happening is your body has reached a new metabolic set point.  We all have one and as we gain and lose weight our body needs to adapt by raising or lowering the set point.

The problem happens when we gain weight and keep pushing our set point higher and higher.  Once we begin to come down our body actually thinks we’re doing something bad so it fights to hold the weight.

By relaxing a bit you have given your body a chance to adapt to it’s new weight and feel OK about it.  Then it will let you lose more. 

Set points can be really tough for some folks and is the place the tend to give up.  Too bad - all it takes is a litte time.

One more thing -

With the amount of weight you’re losing Stu you’ll probably go through this a couple of times.

Scott, could you please elaborate on set point and plateaus a little bit more? I have yet to experience this, and would like to know as much as I can beforehand to prepare for it. Does it happen every 50 pounds? Every 6 months? Is there something we can do to short circuit it so it doesn’t last as long as it did for Stu? I’ll probably have to go through several of them as well. Thanks
Deb

Sure Deb.

Everybody who loses weight will hit a plateaus every now and then.  The more you lose, the more you’ll hit since you’re putting your body through more change.

As a rule, the best way to avoid them is slow and steady progress and never getting in a situation where you are starving your body.  Keep those calories high enough to cover your bodies basic needs. In most cases, that’s at least 1,400 to 1,500 per day but it depends on the person and how much you exercise.  Whatever your number, you don’t want to stall your metabolism.  Keep it burning.

Now, even if you do the best you can, eventually your body is going to need time to catch up and get used to the new you.  A set point plateaus can last a week, a month or years.  I know you don’t want to hear that do you?

Most trainers recommend that when you hit a plateaus you take a little break.  Don’t go crazy and pig out, just give your body a little time to realize this new weight is ok.  Stu gave it a week and it worked.  Then, pick up where you left off and keep moving forward.  Eventually you will break through and get the results you want.

When I lost 65 pounds a few years back I stalled a couple of times but just kept going.  It took 6 months and I finally got where I wanted.

By the way, you can research this online and you’ll find it to be THE most common problem folks have.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the explanation Scott, plateaus don’t sound particularly fun! Hopefully I’ll be able to hang on like Stu did. Good job Stu!

To be honest though I did pig out.  It got to the point where I actually couldn’t wait to start back up.  Plus I got out all of the urges for junk food.  I am not saying do it to the point that I did.  Just because it worked for me that way does not mean it will work for everyone.

All the best,
Stu

p.s. Thanks Scott for the kind words about my blog.  This week (hopefully tonight) I will be posting about what I changed my workout to, now that I am working towards my first 5K.

I agree with Scott. I make it a point to take a one week break from working out every 10-12 weeks. When I come back from my rest periods I do so with a new routine. For instance I just took a month off to recoperate a shoulder cuff strain. I was lifting very heavy weights five days a week and 15 minutes of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) cardio six days a week. Now I’m lifting three days a week and alternating three days of LISS (Low Intensity Steady-State) for 30-45 minutes.

I do adjust my caloric intake on my off days, and do allow myself to indulge occasionally. I don’t like “cheat” days or meals, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy one now and again.