Overcoming a Progress Plateau

Profile’s Learning & Development Specialist Trish Noyes debunks some false beliefs about weight-loss plateaus.

You’ve started your Profile journey and are putting in the daily efforts to reach your goals when one day your progress hits a wall. There are countless variables influencing your weight-loss journey. Let’s debunk some common myths about weight-loss plateaus and discuss some strategies you can use to push through them!

“I need to eat less and workout more.”

Your first impulse will probably be to look at your nutrition and activity regimen and make immediate changes, but things are much more nuanced than that. The myth of eating less to jumpstart your progress is debunked by the fact that your body is a complicated machine that uses what it needs and stores or rids itself of what it doesn’t.

Your Profile Smart Scale calculates your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). You’ll notice that your BMR will decrease during weight loss, which means the daily calories needed to maintain your goal weight are less than at the start of your journey. Your Profile Coach will take the guesswork out of your meal plan throughout your journey and ensure you are consuming the appropriate calories for your goals.

Activity can positively impact a weight-loss plateau because it helps widen the gap between the calories you are consuming and the calories you are burning. Activity is also an important pillar in sustaining your weight loss as you increase flexibility in your food choices and caloric intake. Reflect on your current activity routine and consider increasing your time or intensity by 10%. Talk with your Profile Coach to devise a plan that’s appropriate for where you are in your journey.

“I’ve always been stressed/lacked sleep, why would it affect me now?”

Stress and lack of sleep can be silent killers to weight loss and weight maintenance. They also go hand in hand: The more stress you have, the harder it is to sleep, and the less sleep you get, the more stressed you will be. Elevated stress levels and a lack of sleep increase our body’s internal stress hormones, putting your metabolism into a “fight-or-flight” response that promotes greater fat storage to prepare for whatever “battle” is taking place in your life. Your coach can help you identify potential stressors, coping mechanisms for stress and ways to assess and improve your sleep patterns.

“Water or vitamin and mineral intake can’t be that helpful for weight loss.”

Much like stress and sleep, water, vitamin and mineral intake are often not given much thought until we hit a plateau. At Profile, we recommend consuming at least 64 ounces of hydrating fluids each day. You can check if your body is getting what it needs by assessing the color of your urine. If your urine is a light or clear color, you are adequately hydrated. Any darker and you should consider ways to increase your fluid intake. Vitamin and mineral intake might be a little harder to assess, so chat with your coach to ensure you are covering all your bases. If you are following your Profile meal plan, rest assured you are in the clear!

“I haven’t changed anything in my routine.”

It can take up to 5 years to adopt a new behavior to the point of doing it without thinking! When you started your Profile journey, a lot of new concepts were probably thrown your way. Take a look at the changes and behaviors you were working on the first few weeks of your journey. What, if anything, has changed? Were you weighing proteins on your Profile food scale? Measuring your fat servings? Tracking your food intake or activity routines in your Profile Journey Book? Your coach can help you analyze past and present behaviors to identify which ones will carry you to a sustainable healthy lifestyle.

“Losing weight is the only time throughout my journey that I am succeeding.”

As frustrating as a plateau can be, it gives you the opportunity to reflect on all the positive behaviors and habits you’ve implemented and the progress you’ve sustained. As you might have concluded throughout this article, there are more factors to your weight-loss journey than just food and activity. Profile embraces three deltas to approach weight management: Nutrition, Activity and Lifestyle. We know it’s hard to sustain change by focusing on one alone.

Plateaus are common and can be worked through with a little perseverance and some reflection on the topics above. Keep in mind it might take a few weeks after trying something new to see results. Weight loss journeys are rarely a straight and narrow path, but there should be some comfort in taking the steps towards a healthier lifestyle with your Profile Coach there to support you the entire way!