It’s not uncommon for me to have patients in my office who have hit a weight loss plateau. For weeks and weeks the weight was gradually coming off and then all of a sudden, it stops. At first I say, “I’m sure the scale will move by our next visit” and when the next visit comes, again, nothing! When this happens, I put the patient on the “Plan B” of weight loss consisting of these five simple steps.
1. Don’t Panic
Surely panic doesn’t get anyone anywhere. I try to reassure my patients that worse things in life could be happening to them and they need to relax. The more stress they feel, the more they are likely to start eating foods that they’ve worked so hard on limiting.
2. Step Away from the Scale
Lots of my patients get too obsessed with the scale and it rules their life. So many factors can influence a number on the scale that has nothing to do with real weight gain, e.g. sodium and bloating. I make sure they commit to weighing themselves no more than 1 time per week, on the same day at the same time. Some of my patients have discovered from an analysis in their gym that they may not still be losing actual pounds but do continue to lose inches and a percentage of body fat.
3. Re-evaluate Your Food Journal and Portion Sizes
At this point most of my patients have been food journaling for quite a while. What I have found is that some of them have become rather lazy with their journaling. The extra nibbles, bites from other people’s plates, beverages, and so on are no longer appearing on their journals and they aren’t even aware they are doing it. Sometimes their portions need to be slightly changed; the 1 cup of pasta needs to be taken down to 3/4 cup and volume of veggies need to be increased. I encourage everyone to approach food journaling as if they’ve only just begun to do it, recording 100 percent of everything that goes in their mouth.
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