Body Transformation: Hitting a Plateau

What happens when you hit a weight loss plateau in your body transformation? Are you doing something wrong or is it something to expect? More at https://Bellyproof.com

In this video we cover 4 major reasons why you can expect your progress to slow down as you get leaner. It's inventible but if you're doing everything right, it's not a bad thing!

The 4 reasons are:
1. Glycogen and added water retention
2. Water retention from supplements
3. Forgetting to progress intensity
4. Stubborn fat ratios

This is a fascinating vireo, inspired directly by questions we have received about these, and we hope it gives you the insight you need to interrupt it correctly as you progress with your fitness journey.

1. Glycogen
Glycogen is a storage form of carbohydrates in the muscles (around 600g) and in the liver (around 80g). Glycogen is the first to go and the first to replenish following low carb and high carb cycles.
What most people don't know is that glycogen binds up to 5 times its own mass in water. So if you have around 680g (700g or so) of glycogen, you can also expect it to bind up to 3500g of water - in total between 3-4kg of your weight is made up of this.

When you initially lose weight, especially if you are using weights, cardio and restrictive diets, most of what you're doing is restrict glycogen (Through diet) and burn it off (through aerobic exercise). This leads you to lose 3-4kg of weight relatively quickly and many people mistaken that for fast progress.
The same goes for when people go on holiday and put 3-4kg back on really quickly. Fat loss takes a little more strategy to lose and it's not as quick to gain so if you yo-yo weight quickly, you're likely not dealing with body fat, but rather glycogen.

2. Water retention from supplements like creatine monohydrates comes by standard, some in the form of bloating and some in the form of extra-cellular water. This doesn't make a supplement bad, it really doesn't. However, this is something that can confuse you in your progress as some water collects around your belly and can appear like body fat.
This is why it makes sense to de-load supplements that can cause that, towards the end of a fat loss program, so that you can see your final result.

3. Progressing intensity.
Many people feel they can't lose fat as quickly even though their fitness level improve. This is actually a factor that is often overlooked.
For example, let's take a pull-up. If you've lost 10kg and progressed your strength over a few weeks, and you now attempt a pull-up, not only you are stronger, but you are also pulling 10kg less in resistance (as it's your own body weight that you lost).
The only way to match the initial intensity and reactions you are looking for is by increasing the intensity of the pull-ups, as you progress with both your strength and weight loss.
Otherwise, you are just working too easy and not making the required effort.

4. Stubborn fat ratios:
Last but not least. Stubborn fat like the fat you find in your love handles, back fat, thunder thighs and yes.. belly fat, is not the same as the fat in the rest of your body.
Unlike visceral fat and non-stubborn subcutaneous fat, the fat in your belly is high in alphs-2 receptors, cortisol receptors and is very low in blood supply. That makes it harder to access, harder to break (lipolysis) and therefore slower to lose.
That's true even with a great strategy that allows good access to it.

As you progress, you lose the easy "regular" fat, at a faster pace than you do your stubborn fat, which is slower to lose.
Because it's slower to lose, as you progress it may seem like you hit a real plateau, because it's not going as fast. This is mainly due to dealing with the harder, slower fat, once you've tackled most of your easy "regular" fat.
Progress is still made, you're now just tackling the slower fat, and so progress is slower.
For these 4 reasons, it can feel like you're not going anywhere, and that you are hitting a fat loss plateau in your body transformation.

What's your experience? Let's us know in the comments below!

#bodytransformation #weightlossplateau