After years of trying and failing, blaming the IVF drugs, blaming my under active thyroid….
My success came after I shifted away from gimmick diets and ‘four week plans’ and focused on becoming happier with who I was. Once that happened, I could finally focus on a realistic weight-loss plan for my body.
It all starts with believing one: You can transform your body
Most people just do it the wrong way
• Too fast
• Too impatient
• Too generalised
• And far too unrealistic.
It happens over the course of months, even years, not four weeks on a plan.
One thing I read and then researched was The Set-Point Theory! Without getting too scientific, here it is simply:
First, some bad news: All nutritional approaches or diet plans stop “working” at some point.
Weight loss stops.
You don’t see changes, and you believe that either you or the plan are no longer functioning.
The good news: When it appears to stop working, it’s actually still working.
Confused?
We know that as you lose weight, your metabolism tends to slow down.
We also know that if you’re patient about it (say, focus on losing one to two pounds per week at most), then you are more likely to keep it off for good.
But most people quit before significant weight loss occurs. It usually looks something like this:
The thing is, steps two and three (stalled progress) are often an important part of the weight-loss process.
Dropping one to two pounds per week is considered healthy, but it’s also the average.
That means you might lose four pounds one week and zero the next.
On those weeks, when the scale doesn’t change, it’s not necessarily a sign that your body has reached its weight-loss limit.
To put it another way, your plateau is a normal and necessary part of the process.
You must stall in order to move forward (again).
And when you understand why—or more importantly, accept this reality—it changes everything.
Your body does not like change. It’s very resistant to anything that takes it out of its comfort zone – homeostasis.
When that change occurs, specifically when you try to lose weight, your body does everything in its power to get you “back to normal.” This is a process known as set-point theory.
It is important to understand that stagnation is an expected and natural part of the weight-loss process, and don’t quit prematurely.
Sometimes the scale isn’t moving simply because your body is adjusting to change.
We all have a “normal” body weight. Whether we like that weight or not it is the weight that we’ve come to “accept” as our own.
We also have a look we want, whether it’s your ‘in your 20’s weight, your pre-baby body, or where you were that one time you got super fit a few years ago.
Your mind wants to achieve your goals, but your body wants to cling to what’s familiar.
The more weight you lose, the harder your body works to resist that change, or even pull you back to your old weight.
It does this by slowing your metabolism and increasing your hunger.
It’s not all doom and gloom.
If you can hang in there and resist the urge to quit, these changes are temporary and can help ease the permanence of your weight loss.
Set points are not carved in stone.
You can undo the process by changing your body and then allowing your body to adjust.
This is why plateaus can be so deceiving.
Your body is just adapting to its new reality.
Once it does, that’s when you’re ready to take the next jump and see a new weight loss.
Everyone’s set point is a little different, so there’s not one hard rule for how long you have to wait. The more weight you have to lose (say, more than 50 pounds), the quicker it can happen initially without hitting your set point.
But if you want to lose closer to 15 or 20 pounds, you might hit a wall after the first 10.
Once you hit your set point, your body likely needs about four to eight weeks to adjust to your new weight.
Then you’ll establish a new set point, and your body will respond like that’s your new normal. It doesn’t sound that exciting, but it’s better than you think.
If you wait out the set-point process, your body’s drive to move back to the old weight has changed. It becomes much easier to stay at your current weight because your body no longer thinks it’s outside its comfort zone.
This is when you’re able to start losing weight again.
Long-term fat loss never occurs in 30 days or anything magical.
It’s a process.
Almost any plan can deliver the quick results.
Ignore those. Instead, focus on what you think you can do for six to twelve months.
When you do, you won’t be as frustrated when you hit the set point.
Instead, you’ll be buying time, not buying a new approach (literally), until the weight loss starts again.
Have a great day 🙂
Julie