Diet Mistakes
Causing Your Weight-Loss Plateau
Food journal?
Check. Regular workouts? Yes, indeed. Enough fiber to keep an entire army
regular? You got it. I know how to lose weight. I've been writing about the topic
for more than a decade. That's why it was so frustrating when the pounds clung
to me like a codependent boyfriend, no matter how hard I tried. A lot of women
have this problem, the experts tell me. "Body weight can fluctuate by up
to five pounds on any given day, so the amount you shed can easily get
lost," says Pamela Wartian Smith, MD, the author of Why
You Can't Lose Weight. I combed through research and grilled diet gurus to
pinpoint little-known reasons that your efforts — and mine — haven't been
showing up on the scale. Who knew?
You Don't Drink Enough Water
We've all heard
how important H2O is when it comes to shedding pounds. It helps to suppress
appetite, so you're less likely to overeat. But that's not all: When you're
dehydrated, your kidneys can't function properly, so the body turns to the
liver for additional support. Because the liver is working so hard, more of the
fat you consume is stored rather than burned off.
What surprised
me most, though, is that if you're upping your fiber intake but not also
hitting the bottle hard, things tend to get a wee bit, er, backed up.
"It's important to add fiber gradually and increase water intake at the
same time. Otherwise, instead of helping with digestion, fiber may actually
lead to constipation," notes Anna-Lisa Finger, RD, a personal trainer for
the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center in Baltimore. I often consume nearly
double the recommended 25 grams of fiber daily. Gulp.
Just how much
water should I be drinking? "About one-half your body weight in ounces
every day, especially if you're exercising," Dr. Smith says. So the
eight-cups-a-day rule applies only to sedentary women who weigh 128 pounds
(sure as hell not me!). "If you consume an aggressive amount of fiber,
another eight to 16 ounces a day is a good idea," Dr. Smith adds. H2OMG!
That amount of liquid — for me, 12 cups a day, minimum — requires serious
effort. I fill up with about a liter at each meal, and I'm a peeing machine.
You Skimp on Protein
Several studies
show that high-protein diets result in more pounds shed, at least initially.
Protein enhances the feeling of satiety and prevents your losing muscle as you
lose fat. You also have dietary thermogenesis, which is the energy you burn to
process and use the food you eat, on your side. "Your body expends more
energy to metabolize protein than carbs or fat," says Cari Coulter, RD,
the program director for Wellspring Weight Loss Camp in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
"So higher-protein diets make you burn slightly more calories."
So how much
protein do I need a day? "It depends on your weight, but most women should
get 40 to 80 grams," Dr. Smith says. To accomplish that, I have Greek
yogurt (18 grams) or a couple of eggs (13 grams) for breakfast, and I eat a few
ounces of lean poultry (25 grams) or fish (22 grams) or a heaping helping of
black beans (15 grams) or lentils (18 grams) at lunch and dinner. I snack on a
handful of raw almonds (6 grams). As a result, I feel fuller — sometimes so
full I don't even sneak a bite of my son's ice cream (the way I used to whether
I was hungry or not) — so it's easier to keep daily calories in check.
More Reasons Why You're Not Losing Weight
You Sit at a Desk All Day
I log a solid
hour of exercise almost every day, but outside of that, my time is mostly spent
sitting in front of a computer. Much to my dismay, research finds that
dedicated workouts simply can't compensate for being sedentary the rest of the
time. According to one University of Missouri-Columbia study, sitting for just a
few hours causes your body to stop making a fat-inhibiting enzyme called
lipase. Getting up and walking for just two minutes during each of those hours
burns an additional 59 calories a day, according to recent research from the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Experts
recommend setting a timer on the computer to remind you to move every hour, but
what's helped me is the Fitbit One ($100, fitbit.com). I keep this activity
tracker clipped to my bra 24-7, and I won't go to bed until I've logged 10,000
steps a day. To accomplish that, I heed some of those recommendations we've all
heard a million times ("Take the stairs instead of the elevator,"
"Park far away from the mall"). I even jog in place while brushing my
teeth and watching TV. At first my husband and son laughed their skinny little
butts off at me, but now seeing me hopping around the living room strikes them
as normal. Walks are part of my family's evening routine, and "How many
steps do you have now?" has become the new "Are we there yet?"
I've even given Fitbits to friends and family as gifts so we can see who takes
the most steps. Move-more mission: accomplished.
Your Numbers Are Off
I've always
considered myself a math whiz, so I assumed that I had the whole calories-in,
calories-out formula down pat. Here's how I determined how many I should eat a
day: I got my basal metabolic rate (BMR, or the amount of calories I need to
maintain my weight) using the online calculator atfitnessmagazine.com/weight-loss/bmr, and I entered
"moderate" for my activity level, because I exercise regularly. That
gave me about 2,400 calories a day. Then I added whatever calories I burn
during my workouts (usually about 500), according to my heart-rate monitor.
That meant I could eat almost 3,000 calories a day without gaining a pound (or
nearly 2,500 a day to lose a pound a week). Sure, it seemed high, but I had
used a calculator. It had to be right!
Not so fast,
Coulter says. "The BMR calculator already factors in the calories you burn
with your workouts, so you shouldn't add them in again," she explains.
Math club membership revoked! All this time I had thought my daily needs were
500 calories higher than they really were. No wonder I'd been maintaining
instead of losing.
You Work Out Regularly
I know, I know.
How can an exercise routine make you gain? For starters, people tend to eat
more when they work out, either because they feel they've earned it or because
they're overestimating how much they've burned — or both. "This is
especially true in the early stages of a fitness program, when your body is
getting used to the decrease in calories consumed and the increase in calories
burned," Finger says. (Read: You're freaking hungry.)
But here's the
real shocker: Working out can make you retain water. "To ensure that you
don't get dehydrated, the plasma in your bloodstream will store an extra two to
four pounds of water," explains Michele S. Olson, PhD, a FITNESS advisory
board member and professor of exercise science at Auburn University at
Montgomery in Alabama. "You'll always carry that extra water unless you
become inactive; it's not fat or muscle, but simply superhydration. It's a good
thing." It's also a good thing to keep chugging H2O, which can,
counterintuitively, help minimize additional water retention. So I'll take
Olson's advice and stay active, well-hydrated...and off the scale.
You're a Stress Case
I'm a lot like
the lab rats — and humans — who turn to comfort food and pack on pounds when
they're under duress. "The stress hormone cortisol triggers the
fight-or-flight response, which is an appetite stimulant," Dr. Smith says.
"In addition, it steps up the production of a certain brain chemical,
neuropeptide Y, which increases cravings for carbohydrates."
Even when I
don't give in to cravings, stress can stall my slim-down. "Too much
cortisol slows metabolism," Dr. Smith says. "Even worse, excessive
stress causes fat to be stored in the abdominalarea, where weight is harder to
lose." Ugh! I can practically feel my belly expanding every time I have a
meltdown over something, including my weight-loss efforts.
Luckily, a lot
of the things I'm doing to whittle my middle should also ease my angst.
"Exercise reduces stress," Dr. Smith notes. "Balanced,
nutritious meals can repair the damage that stress does to the body, and a
social support network also helps." So my team of Fitbit-wearing friends
and fam is helping me beat belly bloat in more ways than one.
Get Weight-Loss Results
Scale Serenity
It's been three
months since I embarked on this adventure, and I've lost 12 pounds — a solid
pound a week. I've increased my water and protein intake, I move more
throughout the day, and I'm trying to stress less. But one of the best things
I've done has been — go figure — not weighing myself, at least for a little
while, as Olson suggested. I was tempted in the beginning, but I stuck to my
scale embargo for a month. Now I weigh in weekly, but the fluctuations don't
bother me. Really. Because I know I'm creating a daily calorie deficit, and
I've found other ways to measure my progress (see "Beyond the
Numbers," below). I know the fat is coming off, no matter what the scale says.
I feel enlightened — in more ways than one.
Beyond the Numbers
When the scale
bums you out, here are three other ways to gauge your progress.
How do your
clothes fit? Try on the same pair
of jeans and shirt every six to eight weeks.
How do you feel? You should have more energy, sleep
better, and feel less stressed.
How much can you
do? Keep a workout log and track
how much weight you can lift and how many miles you can walk or run.
