How to break through the weight loss plateau? Master these five key points to lose weight (Part 2)

People often ask nutritionists, "I haven't lost weight recently. Is there a weight plateau? Do I need to continue to eat less food and do more exercise so that my intake is less than my expenditure and I can continue to lose weight?" Of course, you can choose to continue to "eat less and exercise more" to temporarily reduce your weight, but what if you don't lose weight next time? Continue to eat less and exercise more? Then what? What to do when you reach your limit: You can’t eat any less and exercise any more? We'll talk about it then? Will it be like this forever? Or will you finally choose to give up your dream of losing weight successfully?

Of course, none of us wants to end up with something like this after all our hard work. That’s why nutritionists spend a lot of time and space discussing the principles of weight stagnation from a physiological or other perspective. The goal is to hope that everyone can clearly understand and face up to the problem of why our weight is stagnant. Sun Tzu said, "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat."

Only by truly understanding why weight stagnates can we truly solve this problem, win every battle in the war against weight loss, and achieve our ultimate goal of "successful weight loss."

Weight is the result of the body's adaptation to the environment!

The so-called weight stagnation means that the weight remains unchanged, which means that "intake" = "consumption". We have mentioned this formula many times in this blog, and I believe everyone is familiar with it. As mentioned in our previous article, during the weight loss process, factors such as the body's basal metabolism, physiological activity, and the thermal effect of food intake will also decrease, resulting in reduced consumption, and ultimately making "intake" = "consumption" and our weight remains unchanged.

Although it seems that there are indeed physiological factors that cause weight stagnation, if you ask a nutritionist, I will tell you that the main cause of weight stagnation is "mental stagnation", followed by physiological stagnation!

There is such an answer because in the one-on-one weight loss consultations conducted by nutritionists for nearly seven years, it was found that the problem of slowing down or stagnating weight loss for most people is not purely due to the above-mentioned physiological factors, but more to psychological and attitude issues. The seriousness and execution of food have been relaxed, the motivation for weight loss has weakened, the perception of food has changed, and other psychological and attitude-related issues have affected the speed of weight loss.

In addition, if it is purely due to a decrease in physiological metabolism, the impact on metabolism should be gradual and slow (for example, if your metabolism decreases by 30 calories per day due to physiological factors, it will accumulate to 7,700 calories to affect one kilogram of body weight. In other words, it will take at least 8.5 months to offset the one kilogram of weight you have lost).

But most people who mention that their weight has stagnated are probably those who were losing weight well last month but have not lost any weight in the past week or month. Based on both clinical experience and theory, I would advise everyone to look for the cause in diet when weight stagnation occurs.

I believe that if you have a keen eye, you should have noticed that in the previous blog post, the nutritionist mentioned that "when our weight adapts to the environment, it will naturally stop at a certain kilogram. At this time, this weight can be regarded as the result of the body's adaptation to the environment (including diet, lifestyle and habits and other factors)." Why is the emphasis on the body's "adaptation to the environment" and the mention of factors such as diet, lifestyle and habits?

In fact, it is just to lay the groundwork for this article, the purpose is to let everyone learn to think about the reasons that lead to weight stagnation? Provide systematic information to help everyone find out why they can't lose weight. What is more important is that I hope to slowly bring everyone an important concept of weight loss. Your attitude towards food and the eating habits you establish during the weight loss process will determine and affect your weight, because weight is the body's adaptation to the environment (including eating patterns and lifestyle habits, etc.).

Therefore, whether you want to lose weight or maintain your weight in the future, you must develop good eating and living habits. "The process is far more important than the result!" "Please don't just focus on food calories when losing weight. It is recommended that you spend more time on developing habits and mindsets."

Because nutritionists' previous clinical experience has found that many people only pay attention to calories and food calories, and do not develop the right habits and mentality during the weight loss process. Therefore, when weight loss does not keep going, it is easy to gain back the original weight because her mentality and habits remain the same as when she was fat before. Remember, weight is the result of the body's adaptation to the environment!

Weight stagnation? Look for the reasons from diet and attitude first!

If our intake equals our expenditure, our weight will be maintained. Considering that consumption (metabolism) does not decrease rapidly, and that habits such as mentality during weight loss mainly affect intake, when our weight stagnates, I suggest that we first look for the problem in diet, that is, intake.

The so-called intake refers to the calories consumed from food. How many calories we eat from food can be calculated from a food record (or food diary). But why do we eat these foods, resulting in so many calories consumed in total on the last day? This is what affects our weight.

The following are factors that affect the amount of intake. They are also some of the most common reasons why dietitians have encountered clients who cannot lose weight in one-on-one clinical weight loss consultations over the past few years. They are provided here for your reference:

1. Habitual dining occasions

In different dining occasions, the chef's cooking preferences, the amount of ingredients used, the cooking oil used and other habits are different, all of which may affect weight. For example, I have encountered many similar cases in the past. For example, some people gain weight during holidays. It turns out that this is because they go back to their parents' home for dinner. The food their mother cooks is greasy, or tastes better than what is sold outside, or the amount of fried vegetables is larger, so they can't help but eat more food and gain weight.

Or you may eat beef noodles, but you gain weight when you eat the beef noodles from San Shang Qiao Fu because the soup is less oily or the amount of noodles is less. However, when you eat the beef noodles from a northern beef noodle restaurant, you do not lose weight every time because there is more beef and noodles and the soup is oilier.

Nutritionist’s words: Have you ever found that even the same food may affect your weight? Let’s find out if there are any factors of this type that affect our recent weight loss speed?

2. Personal eating preferences and habits

For example, when people buy bento, they always order the same few flavors; and even when they go to a buffet where there are many dishes to choose from, they will always end up eating the same foods because of their personal preferences or habits.

Personal dietary preferences can profoundly affect our choice of food, which in turn affects the calories of food, because when your dietary preferences are affected, it may affect the calories of the food you eat. For example, some people change their choice of restaurant because they heard that vegetarian food has lower calories and can help with weight loss, but in the end they find that the vegetarian dishes are fried in a very oily way and may not necessarily help them lose weight; some people hear that toast has lower calories and change to a diet that is mainly made up of toast, but in the end they fail to lose weight because they underestimate the calories in toast.

When the nutritionist was doing one-on-one weight loss consultation, he once met someone who had developed a habit of drinking a large pot of bitter tea every day because she heard that drinking bitter tea could help detoxify and lose weight. This caused her weight to stagnate. In the end, it was discovered that her new habit was to add sugar to the bitter tea, and because she consumed extra calories, she did not lose weight.

Nutritionist’s note: Have you noticed that when your eating habits change, it may also affect your weight? If your weight has been stagnant recently, look for any new foods you've heard about recently and add to your diet. Research to see if these factors are affecting your recent weight loss rate.

3. Dining habits

This includes the order of meals, how much vegetables and soup one eats at each meal, and whether the weather affects one's meal habits or food choices. I believe many people have had this feeling: when the weather is cold, you will want to eat salty food and drink hot soup, and you will not feel full easily when eating cold food; when the weather is hot, you will be more accustomed to choosing cold food. These will ultimately directly affect your food intake.

Some people have heard that vegetables and fruits are low in calories, so they develop the habit of eating more vegetables and eating fruits when they are hungry. This will also make you accustomed to eating a fixed proportion of calories from vegetables and fruits, which will affect your total intake throughout the day. For example, I have found that some people would eat two large bowls of blanched vegetables at every meal in order to reduce calories, and eat less other foods, but in the end their weight still reached a bottleneck, so they asked the nutritionist whether they should continue to eat less.

But in fact, she should perhaps consider making some changes, such as reducing the amount of green vegetables (because green vegetables are lower in calories, but not zero calories. If the amount of green vegetables is not changed, they will inevitably take up a large portion of the calorie quota) and eating more nutritious foods that help improve metabolism.

Nutritionist’s note: Have you noticed that certain eating habits of yours may affect your weight? Has your weight stagnated recently? Think about whether you have made any changes in your eating habits recently, or whether there is room for improvement in your current eating habits?

4. Living environment and habits

When we are in different living environments, it will directly affect our daily routines such as getting up and going to bed, which in turn affects the time for three meals, as well as the time for exercise or physiological activities throughout the day. For example, some people gain weight due to changes in living environment and work habits when they move from campus to the workplace; or because they have been staying up late recently, they have an extra midnight snack and gain weight due to eating too much.

The most common changes in living environment during the weight loss process are holidays, travel, or special social events. These occasions will affect your daily routine and directly affect your food choices.

Nutritionist’s words: Have you ever noticed that you lose weight at a different rate in certain situations or at different times than usual? Have you ever found that you were originally very thin, but at some point you would gain weight and end up not losing any weight at the end of the week? Think about it, are there any hidden reasons that affect your weight loss?

5. Personal attitude towards weight loss and food

Simply put, it is motivation and execution. Based on nutritionists' many years of clinical one-on-one weight loss consultation experience, most people are most motivated at the beginning of their weight loss journey, are more thorough with food (e.g. how much they care about portion sizes, whether the food is thoroughly rinsed, whether the food is greasy, etc.), and have a stronger inhibition against food (e.g. in order to lose weight, they will not hesitate to eat any kind of food).

However, as the weight decreases, the motivation for losing weight decreases, and the attitude towards weight loss and the thoroughness of the implementation of weight loss will also change. Some things are OK just about, and when you see food, tell yourself to eat it first and lose weight tomorrow.

Nutritionist’s words: This problem is easy to occur during the weight loss process and is easily overlooked. It’s hard for many people to imagine how attitude can affect weight loss, but please don’t doubt it, it absolutely does.

You can try to take out the food diary when you just started to lose weight, or when you were losing weight very quickly, and compare it with the diary when your weight is currently stagnant. Look at your food choices, amount control, and the amount of oil when you lost weight well and poorly; as well as your diet in the next few meals or days after eating high-calorie foods. You will find that people are lazy and motivation for losing weight is very important.

(to be continued)

This article comes from: Nutritionist Stella's Weight Loss & Nutrition Blog

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