Leah Higl
Welcome to the Ideal Nutrition podcast. I’m Leah Higl and I am here with my cohost Aidan Muir, and today we’re talking all things fat loss plateaus, and how to actually overcome them when you hit them.
Aidan Muir
So the first thing we really need to identify to address how to overcome these plateaus is why do they occur? [00:00:30] And the biggest thing that becomes pretty obvious when you spend time thinking about this concept is it’s usually not one thing, it’s usually not just one variable that leads to it. We like to simplify for things and we like to pinpoint one thing, but it’s usually not one thing, so I want to list a couple of things. So one of them is let’s say you find an amount of calories or whatever, or dietary approach, that works for you. Theoretically, without even taking into account any other variables, it could [00:01:00] only work for so long because if your “diet” is successful and you lose weight and you drop a size, you get smaller, you burn less calories just through that.
Because as we’re larger, we have to burn more calories, even just maintaining muscle mass, maintaining body fat, moving around, obviously. If you do the exact same movements, you’re burning more calories at a higher body weight. All those kind of things. Getting smaller burns less calories. So [00:01:30] if you were once at the start, if you were at a 500 calorie deficit, as you got smaller that would drop down to a 400 calorie, then 300, 200, and theoretically, very, very slowly get down to zero. Obviously, that’s never the explanation by itself but that is a factor. If somebody has a long weight loss training, that becomes an even more important factor if they lose a lot of weight. What would you say is another factor?
Leah Higl
So something that really is worth discussing that I don’t think is necessarily going to be a huge part of this, but something worth mentioning is metabolic [00:02:00] adaptation. So the longer you are in a calorie deficit, the more your body does adapt to that deficit in that it’s down regulating some processes in your body so that you literally burn less energy. So we’re not exactly sure how much metabolic adaptation is equivalent to a certain calorie deficit or a certain length of time, but we know over time it does occur. And then with that reduction in overall calorie expenditure, it’s reducing your calorie deficit, [00:02:30] may not eliminate it completely, but may be a piece of the puzzle.
Aidan Muir
Yeah, and that’s the biggest way I put it is likely a piece of the puzzle for most people. It usually isn’t a big factor. A number that I like to chuck out there because I saw it in the research somewhere is it seems to be for somebody who goes on an eight week diet, we’d expect a 150 calorie reduction due to metabolic adaptation. But that’s the reason why I’m so comfortable chucking out a number that’s not a super specific or whatever, being like this comes from this study or whatever, is because it’s so variable. It’s so variable [00:03:00] between people. If you actually look at the numbers in these studies, there are people, there are participants in these studies who their energy expenditure increases while they’re in a calorie deficit, and then there’s others who decrease by like 500 or whatever. It’s pretty variable.
But for almost all cases, it’s just a small decrease that needs to be factored in. So like I say just looking from that angle, maybe you get a little bit smaller, that takes away 100 calories or 200 calories or 300. Metabolic adaptation takes away another 200 or whatever. That could raise a [00:03:30] 500 calorie deficit. Usually it’s not even just those two factors though, it’s usually more.
Leah Higl
It’s usually more than that.
Aidan Muir
So what are some other factors? Another factor that is a big one for most people is changes in habits. So starting off with a common one and it’s easy for me to say this over a podcast form or writing or whatever, it’s harder to talk about this with a person, I think, because it’s kind of like a lot of people are like, “No, I’m doing the same thing I did at the start of the time.” But it’s like there’s so many variables in this, you’re never doing exactly the same thing. Your [00:04:00] habits do change over time.
But one of the big things that I think is particularly relevant is as a diet progresses, assuming you stick in a calorie deficit, typically you get hungrier, which therefore, means if you even eat remotely based on your appetite, which most people do, and in a lot of cases a lot of people should do that, you will eat more calories without even thinking about it. If you normally eat to the point that you’re 20% away from as stuffed full as you could get or something like that, as an example, and then [00:04:30] you’ve been in calorie deficit for eight weeks, that 20% away from as stuffed full as you could comfortably manage is going to be more calories. It’s quite easy to eat 10%, 20% more calories without even thinking about adding an extra snack, maybe larger meals or whatever.
And the other thing on that perspective is that’s like hunger hormones or whatever, there’s also the restriction of dieting. Do you then want certain foods more due to the restriction or whatever? There’s also changes in exercise habits, which also comes back into the novelty of all [00:05:00] of this. What if you’ve got a longer diet and at the start there was a bit of novelty and you’re trying really hard, and then as it progresses and becomes more of a “lifestyle” or whatever, and you’re like, “Well, in my lifestyle, I need to fit other things in.” Maybe you don’t do everything to a T to the exact thing. And that’s just like a broad overview, that’s a very, very, very broad topic, but whether or not it’s changing in terms of that way or changing in a different way or whatever, habits do change over time for almost everybody so [00:05:30] that’s something to be aware of.
Leah Higl
We’ve also got changes in incidental movement potentially, so things like if you were eating at maintenance calories and you’re someone that fidgets all the time and that’s burning a fair amount of calories even if you don’t know it, and then as soon as you enter a calorie deficit, you subconsciously stop fidgeting.
Leah Higl
So all those kinds of incidental things. So even things like maybe you’re less likely to take the stairs, maybe you’re less likely to stand at your standing desk at work and you’d rather sit down. So all of [00:06:00] those things that just in our day to day life burn calories, some people are less likely to do in a calorie deficit.
Aidan Muir
Yeah, and I often use body building as an example in terms of contest preparation, because I view it as the most extreme form of dieting because people are in a relatively efficient fashion trying to get incredibly lean, excessively lean in a lot of cases. But it’s like they’re trying to get quite, quite lean, and when you watch body builders, particularly fitness influences and stuff like that, if they’re four weeks [00:06:30] out from stage, they’re less animated in their videos, they’re moving less, they’re blinking slower. And a lot of them will about the fact that four weeks out from prep, they’re like zombies. They’re like I get up and train, I do my training, I’m never going to miss my training, but then just don’t move for the rest of the day.
Unless, which brings up a key point that I actually think is a very interesting idea is a step target. This is one way to partly offset the incidental movement thing. It doesn’t change how much you fidget or these other incidental things, but [00:07:00] if somebody has a baseline step target of aiming for like I aim for 10,000 steps a day or whatever, it actually controls for this a little bit better. Because as an example, you talked about maybe you choose not to take the stairs or whatever, somebody who is like I’ve got step target, I’ve got to get this amount, views it the same as they view their training where they’re like I’ve got to do this and they might do that.
I actually personally don’t get my clients to do a step target just because … There’s a lot of reasons. First thing, I’m a big fan of efficiency and I’m like oh, if somebody is a busy person, I’d rather than do a more efficient way of like … If it’s solely for the purpose of burning calories, [00:07:30] which is what we’re talking about with this conversation, obviously, there’s other health benefits and stuff like that. I don’t actually do a step target but it’s such an interesting idea, particularly when we talk this concept of incidental movement decreasing as you diet for longer.
Leah Higl
For people that come to me and are already tracking steps, because a lot of people do have Apple watches and stuff.
Aidan Muir
Yeah, people love it.
Leah Higl
And they’re really into tracking their steps. I’m like, “Hey, why don’t we just try to … What are you hitting now? Let’s try to maintain that level.” Say it was 7,000 steps a day. “Let’s try to maintain that throughout this whole dieting process.” So sometimes I do use it, but yeah, [00:08:00] it’s not like the go to thing.
Aidan Muir
Yeah, I think it’s really useful. It’s just like one of the tools that I just personally don’t use it. I just think it’s … The more I’ve thought about it, the more I’m like that is a really good thing.
Leah Higl
So what can you actually do if you’ve hit a weight loss plateau, where do you start? So when a plateau has occurred and it’s maybe due to fact that your adherence to the diet is not quite as good as when you started, for whatever reason, these are some things that you can probably look at. So the first thing is really obvious [00:08:30] and that’s kind of tightening things up again.
So things that we let slip over time as that motivation kind of drops off, so things like if you’re tracking cow calories, tracking more accurately, because I find the longer someone tracks calories when they’re dieting, the less likely they are to track everything they eat. The more likely they are to eat out a few more times a week, and that’s harder to track. Excess grazing and snacking along the way, that’s not accounted [00:09:00] for, and all those things that you weren’t doing at the start of your diet and have kind of unknowingly creeped back in. So you could look at those habits and really try to tighten that up. And I hate to be that person that advocates for more.
Ridiculous tracking and being really intense about things, and I’m definitely not saying go to a hundred percent that way, but slightly tightening things up could definitely assist in putting you back into [00:09:30] a calorie deficit. And then I guess the flip side to that is if your lack of adherence to your plan isn’t because you just let a few things slip over the time, but it’s literally because you’re so hungry that you just need to eat and your cravings are out of control, your desire to eat is huge, maybe you’re emotionally or physically exhausted from the process of dieting, then I’d say it’s probably time for a diet break.
So even outside of metabolic adaptation, so we know that [00:10:00] diet breaks, when they’re long enough, may help to eliminate some of that metabolic adaptation. But outside of that, the best thing about diet breaks is when you’re on that higher calorie amount, it resets your desire to eat and your hunger cues, so even two weeks at maintenance calories could be enough to just reset everything for you to have another red hot go at that calorie deficit.
Aidan Muir
Yeah. And on that topic, because that’s one of my go to moves. I do like that. Another idea is also [00:10:30] playing around with your calorie target, and I feel like almost everybody who listens to this is going to go I might decrease it rather than increase it, most people aren’t that patient, and that is a valid option in some cases as well. But another idea is it’s like well, what if you’re aiming for a 1,000 plus calorie deficit and you’re in a large deficit and it’s hard because it is hard. What if going to a smaller calorie deficit means you make consistent progress but you also just feel much better throughout the process as well?
Diet breaks is one option, and particularly [00:11:00] it’s hard because even if you’re in a small to moderate calorie deficit of long periods of time, that still creates issues as well, that still leads to a lot of these same things down the line as well, so it’s like diet breaks are still going to be valid even for that just maybe less frequently or whatever. But that’s where I’m getting at with playing around with options. Some people thrive on a little bit more aggressive diets, getting it over a little bit quicker, and then moving to maintenance calories after. Some people do well with just a small calorie deficit and they love it because it’s like I’m making progress and feel good most of the time.
Leah Higl
[00:11:30] Yeah, and I guess there’s pros and cons to both, right?
Aidan Muir
Yeah.
Leah Higl
I think particularly for the small calorie deficits. It allows you to have the more of a balanced lifestyle in that maybe you can go out and eat once or twice a week and maybe you don’t have to be as stringent with tracking and stuff like that and still make progress. But at the same time, it’s easier to eradicate that calorie deficit the smaller it is.
Aidan Muir
Yeah, for sure. For sure. Another strategy that is not nutrition related but [00:12:00] exercise related could be increasing exercise as well just in general. It depends on where you’re at though. Particularly for people who are athletes and stuff like that, I’m a big believer in that you just train however is optimal for your sport, you don’t think about it from a calorie perspective, and then we sort your diet out around the training. So elaborating on that a little bit more, if somebody is taking their sport incredibly seriously, they’re already training in this threshold, which is this is the threshold to be at, going above this, over training, going below this, under training. [00:12:30] That’s where the threshold is.
That person we can’t just add more exercise to. Maybe we could do more steps or maybe we could do a few things around that, but we can’t really play around with too much. But if somebody is not near that threshold, if they’re well below this risk of over training thresholds, so most people are below the threshold. It’s like okay, maybe there is an option to add a little bit more exercise into here as well, which could be a factor. I don’t like the idea of exercising for the purpose of burning calories or whatever, but it is one variable that could be interesting, and I [00:13:00] find that particularly for people who find themselves in lower calories, it becomes even more kind of relevant because it’s kind of like …
The example I often use is say I have maintenance calories of 3,000 calories and I go out for dinner one night or something like that, and the meal is 800 calories. For me, nothing. That’s easy. That’s like I can have a normal day’s intake outside of that. But say somebody is in a calorie deficit and they’re aiming … They’re smaller and they’re less active and they’re aiming for say 1,600 calories or below, that is quite literally half their intake gone in that one meal [00:13:30] and they can’t have two normal size meals and some snacks around that.
So it’s like either they go over their calories for the day, which is completely fine. Obviously, you can adjust around that. Or they try to restrict down to that calorie target and they have to cut something else out and make it not a normal day or they can’t eat out, or if they do eat out, they’ve got to reduce what they’re getting out. What if that same person adds an additional 200 calories per day on average through exercise? Suddenly instead of say 1,600, it’s 1,800 and they’ve got a little bit [00:14:00] more room for stuff like that. It doesn’t solve it, but it helps a little bit.
Leah Higl
It helps a little bit. I find it’s a really good intervention, particularly for people who are desk workers. So they’re really, really sedentary. Okay, maybe they’re doing a couple of training sessions a week, not for any particular sport. Maybe they do have room just to generally increase their exercise, and that is going to make maintaining that deficit a lot easier, just [00:14:30] adding three 20 minute walks in a week, so I think it can be an effective solution sometimes.
Aidan Muir
Yeah. And another idea that I’ve got, and this is not one of my best takes, it’s just an idea to consider, is particularly if your adherence is a struggle, sometimes changing your meal frequency is an idea to play around with. If you’re somebody who always has three meals, maybe you do try that six small meals approach. If you’re somebody who’s never tried intermittent fasting, but you’ve always struggled with dieting, maybe it’s an idea to consider and just be like we know that it’s not fasting [00:15:00] that’s magical, but it’s like what if having a smaller eating window, maybe that reduces how many calories you instantly want to eat or whatever. Playing a round of that is an idea, because as mentioned, none of that’s magical but it could instantly change how many calories you actually want to eat as well.
Leah Higl
Yeah. Going super anecdotal, personal preference, is whenever I’m in a calorie deficit, I don’t have breakfast.
Or I’ll have a piece of fruit and a cup of soy milk for breakfast because I’ve just … I can go without calories in the morning and [00:15:30] then I can have a really nice big lunch and a good pre-training snack. Works great for me, but for other people …
They might find that their hunger is so out of control by lunchtime that they go balls to the wall and eat 2,000 calories in a meal. So it’s definitely different strokes for different folks.
Aidan Muir
And that’s exactly what I’m getting at with the wording of play around with it. Literally just find what works for you, and I also go into it with an open mind. A lot of people make assumptions about what works for them when they haven’t necessarily tried it. [00:16:00] There is examples, people will say things like, “I need a more substantial morning tea snack.” But it’s also like well, I don’t know, there are people out there who are just not eating for a certain time. It’s like if you haven’t tried that approach, how do you know? Yeah, it’s an idea to play around with. And the last tip I’ve got, we were actually just talking very quickly off air being like is there anything we’ve missed? And I just thought about there’s one very obvious thing that we have missed, and it’s quite literally adjusting your plan and lowering your [00:16:30] calorie intake.
It’s pretty clear. And don’t get me wrong, what if you don’t have much room to drop it by or whatever, there’s probably a lot of these other factors that we just talked about matter properly significantly more than this, but there is a possibility that your plan is just too many calories or also adherence to the plan. Maybe you accidentally ate 200 calories more on average than what your plan is. And in some cases, reducing your calorie intake still results in you eating just 200 calories more than your plan or whatever. If you have less planned calories [00:17:00] you ate and you kind of adhere relatively closely to that, you are creating that calorie deficit and overcoming that plateau.
On that 200 calories over the plan kind of thing, that’s not relevant to this plateau thing, but something I found working with people, sometimes I’ll set macronutrient targets or whatever in my fitness [inaudible 00:17:18], and no matter what the targets I set, if it’s in a deficit, they will go the same amount over as in … If it’s like say we’re aiming for 2,000 calories, I ate 2,200, and if we change it to 1,800, they’ll eat 2,000 on average. And it’s just a thing.
Leah Higl
And I think as long as you’re doing that, whatever you’re doing and you’re doing it consistently, it doesn’t really matter, you can just adjust from where you are sitting. I would worry about the specific numbers less.
Aidan Muir
Yeah. But that’s the last tip we have, actually just re-looking at your plan being like if we’ve been through everything and we’re like okay, metabolic adaptation can be a thing, incidental movement can be a thing, getting smaller can reduce your calorie needs. This is a possibility. There has been people I’ve worked with who it’s quite literally been we just reduced the calories in the plan and it [00:18:00] solves it.
Leah Higl
Yeah. I guess bottom line is most people usually go to reducing calorie intake as being the first port of call, but it’s not the only option.
Aidan Muir
That’s why we almost forgot it.
Leah Higl
It’s so obvious.
But this is kind of like all the other options that you could potentially kind of look at before going to that one. But yeah, obviously it’s still part of this conversation.
So this has been episode 38 of the Ideal Nutrition podcast. If you could leave a rating and a review, that would be super appreciated. Otherwise, [00:18:30] thank you for tuning in.