During the first few months of your weight loss journey, chances you’ll be shedding unwanted pounds rapidly. The changes in your diet paired with regular physical activity do well in putting you in a caloric deficit resulting in better-fitting jeans!

It’s exciting to see the number on the scale dropping as a result of your hard work. Eventually however, your fitness gains may start to slow down and even seem to stop. Suddenly, no matter how much your exercise and eat right, you’re not seeing any more results.

This frustrating period in your fitness journey is called a weight loss plateau and it can happen to anyone. In today’s blog, we’ll be talking about why a weight loss plateau is important for sustainable weight loss.

What is a Weight Loss Plateau?

A weight loss plateau is a period during your fitness journey where your progress stalls. Sometimes, the scale stays stuck on a certain number, other times you may even experience some weight gain.

This, however, does not mean that your efforts are wasted. Instead, it is a sign that our bodies are adjusting to the changes in our diet and physical activity. Ultimately, this means that a sustainable weight loss journey is not linear. It’s natural to experience fluctuations and plateaus here and there. What matters is that your weight is trending downwards overall.

Why Do We Experience a Weight Loss Plateau?

As mentioned above, a weight loss plateau us our body’s way of adjusting to the lifestyle changes you make in your fitness journey.

Overtime however, our bodies need to “reset” in order to lose weight again. This is because everybody has a natural ‘set point’. This is the weight that our body hovers at when we’re eating healthily. Our set point is determined by our DNA and the environment around us.

When you approach your set point, it means your caloric expenditure is equal to your caloric intake. Since you’re burning calories at the same rate as you consume, you’re pulled out of a deficit, so you stop losing weight. 

Reaching a weight loss plateau is crucial for sustainable weight loss because it allows your body to adapt to a new set point. Given enough time and some important lifestyle changes, your body will have a lower set point and you can continue to lose weight.