There’s nothing more frustrating than a weight loss plateau. Learn how adopting the Paleo diet can help you shed those final pounds.
You did it. You stopped eating crap and started exercising more. You made a plan and stuck with it. And it paid off! You started losing weight. You made a giant leap towards your healthy weight goal. You felt better, looked better, and became even more motivated. And then you arrived…not at your target weight, but at the dreaded weight loss plateau.
Maybe it’s been a week, a month, or even several months. You’re still doing all the healthy things that helped you shed the weight so effortlessly in the beginning, but nothing changes. Hitting a weight loss plateau is extremely common, so if you’ve been beating yourself up about it, STOP.
Rather than feeling bad, the key to overcoming a weight loss plateau is to reevaluate your strategy, and committing to a few months on the Paleo diet could be just what you need to kickstart the journey to your healthiest weight.
3 Ways Eating Paleo Can Help You Overcome a Weight Loss Plateau
1. It cuts out empty “diet” foods – Sure, you can eat carbs, sugar, dairy and all sorts of crap and still lose weight. You’ll have to count every calorie and spend long hours at gym, but you can do it. Or you could cut your body some slack by eliminating the things that just create fat, bloat, and zap your energy. “Research shows that a Paleo diet is more satiating per calorie than both a Mediterranean diet and a low-fat diet,” writes Chris Kresser. “That means it’s more filling for the same number of calories compared to other popular diet methods. This is crucial for weight loss, since it helps you eat less without fighting hunger or counting calories.”
2. It eliminates inflammatory foods – Food sensitivities and allergies, especially to stuff like gluten and dairy, are on the rise around the world. Some experts estimate that as much as 80 percent of the U.S. population might be sensitive to gluten, and you could be one of them without even knowing it. “Often when people stop eating the foods they’re sensitive to, they lose weight,” writes Neely from Paleo Plan. “It happens partly because your body will hold onto water weight (blasted water again!) when it’s trying to protect itself from something; the water acts as sort of a buffer. So when you take out the offensive food from your diet, the water goes with it. Food sensitivities can also mess with your hormones and your thyroid function, and we know that both of those systems have much to do with body weight.”
3. It encourages the right kind of exercise – Exercise is a tricky thing. When it comes to escaping a weight loss plateau, we assume that more is better, but that’s not necessarily so. Instead of more trips to the gym, be smarter about what you’re doing while you’re there. Just as the Paleo diet mimics the eating habits of ancient humans, so should our exercise mimic the lifestyle of an ancient human. (Hint, they were not hitting the elliptical machine). Paleo workouts include slow but deliberate movements, like walking and hiking, body weight exercises, like push-ups, pull-ups, squats and sit-ups, lifting heavy things, and occasional bursts of cardio activity (like running or cycling sprints) are ideal when eating Paleo.
Combined these actions can build muscle, teach your body to feed off your fat (instead of empty carbs) when it needs energy, and hopefully, pull you off that weight loss plateau.
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