As you adjust to your new healthy lifestyle. Life after weight-loss surgery can be exciting, especially when you feel that you’re in a groove with your workouts and diet and that nothing can go wrong.
But suddenly, your weight-loss progress can come to a halt during which your weight will maintain itself and you find that your workouts are no longer challenging. This common phase of your weight-loss program is also known as a weight-loss plateau.
Weight-loss patients will usually experience a weight-loss plateau when their metabolism has slowed down and adjusted to their new lifestyle. In some cases, individuals may need to alter their diets even more and increase the intensity of their workouts to burn extra calories in the event of a weight-loss plateau.
If you’re a weight-loss surgery patient or an individual just trying to lose weight in general, here are tips you can follow to get your weight loss back on track after hitting a weight-loss plateau.
Modify your diet
Consult with your nutritionist to see if there are any additional changes you can make to your diet that will help you get past your weight-loss plateau. For example, if you’re still eating a relatively high amount of pastas and breads, you may want to increase your intake of fruits and vegetables. You may even find that you still need to cut back on calories, based on how active you stay throughout the day.
Make changes to your fitness routine
In many cases, your weight loss may have plateaued as a result of not challenging yourself hard enough during your workout sessions. Fitness routines that helped you lose weight when you were 40 pounds heavier may not have the same effect on your body and metabolism now that you’ve slimmed down. Swap out cardio exercises for anaerobic exercises that also build muscle, or increase the intensity of what you’re already doing to make your body work harder to burn off extra calories.
Take another look at your lifestyle habits
Weight-loss surgery is a life-changing event that may have required you to make some drastic lifestyle changes to accommodate weight loss. Reevaluate your current lifestyle to see if you’ve fallen into old habits. Have you started to eat slightly larger portions lately? Are you consuming extra sugar throughout the week? Are you exercising less? Identify certain lifestyle habits that may be contributing to your inability to lose weight at your desired pace.
Be more active throughout the day
In addition to your daily trip to the gym, look for other ways to be more active throughout the course of the day. Take stairs instead of elevators whenever possible, park farther away from shopping venues, play with your pets or children more often, and take time to stretch or walk around during your work shifts if you generally remain sedentary. Being active as much as possible will help accelerate your weight-loss efforts and get you past your weight-loss plateau.
If you are interested in weight loss surgery, check out MBL’s Ultimate Guide To Weight Loss Surgery.
