What to do when FAT LOSS stalls?!

The scale didn’t move, I think I look even softer!

I am following the plan, so what gives?!

As we move through a calorie deficit and body fat decreases our bodies start to adapt to preserve body fat and energy.

We have decreases in anabolic hormones and increases in catabolic and hunger signaling hormones, drops in metabolic rate, decreases in cost of exercise and this can add up to a fat loss stall out.

So what to do if you are stalling from all these adaptations?

We need an accurate assessment to then make the right diagnosis of the situation.

Then what to do is the easy part.

Are You Accurate?

Have you accurately tracked food

No diet slip up or add ins

You are not getting lazy and sitting around more ie lowering energy output

Is the Scale Fooling You?

Scale is not changing but you are visually leaner

Digestion issues?

Poor sleep?

Inflamed from training?

PED changes?

Menstrual changes?

Change in routine (when you weigh, eat, drink)?

Patience is Key!

How long has the recent plan been implemented?

When was the last body weight change?

What are some action steps to take if truly stalled?

Refeed Day

One test to see if you are stalled in fat loss is to give yourself a high carbohydrate refeed day.

Sometimes fat loss is occurring; you just have not seen the scale change yet to reflect it.

One day with higher carbohydrates can increase insulin levels, drop cortisol levels, and in turn drop water that is being retained.

Then the next day you are at a new low body weight.

Low Days

You know fat loss is not moving along and you tested a refeed day in the last tip.

You are left with the decisions of reducing food, increasing cardio, and/or adding in fat burners. My first pick in this situation is to pull food down as long as you have enough food to do so with.

Bump up Cardio

A 10% increase in calorie expenditure can get fat loss moving again.

If 10% for you is 200 calories this can be done by increasing your step count by 4000 steps per day.

4000 steps is about 2 miles walking, which depending on body weight is around 100kcal burned.

Add in the Fat Burner

But wait!

You might pull your serum lab markers to assess thyroid function before deploying a fat loss agent.

We might need to optimize hormone function.

If all checks out a thermogenic agent could be deployed.

Deload/Diet Break

If you have tried all fat loss stall busting techniques, feeling physically and psychologically burned out, it’s okay to move into a diet break period.

Just raise food up, back off cardio some and let some of the stress dissipate.

At J3 University I teach the decision making process to this issue.