Have You Really Hit a Plateau?

Numerous people will come to me and say, "I think I have hit a plateau."

What does this mean?

A plateau is defined as a state of little or no change following a period of activity or progress. AKA ~ you stop seeing progress in your body composition, weight, strength, etc.

The word plateau is often over-used and misunderstood when people describe their current progress. It is generally the first assumption people have when they no longer progress or do not see physical change.

Let's be clear here - change takes time.

Therefore, you need to give your journey and program a lot longer than 2 weeks before you decide that it is not working or that you have hit a plateau. Change takes time and we are typically very impatient with the journey, therefore, making us assume failure before our bodies have even been given the chance to produce change!

You will not be able to tell if you have hit a plateau until after about 4-6 weeks minimum. In order to see if you have truly hit a plateau, you must also be tracking your progress through macro tracking, habit tracking, progress photos, biofeedback, strength training, body measurements, and weight trends.

When hitting the 4-6 week mark of feeling stagnant in your progress, you need to ask yourself a tough question.

Have you really been consistent/adherent with the plan?

Consistency is not: "I roughly tracked my macros in the mornings then ate whatever I wanted for dinner, I worked out 3-7 days each week, sometimes ate 1000 calories and other times ate 2500 calories OH and I went on a vacation where I drank a ton of alcohol and barely moved."

Consistency is: I tracked all of my macros and hit all my goals (within 5-10 grams of each macro goal), was 80-90% adherent with my training intensity, focused on walks after work, stayed within a certain range of my water goal, and slept 7-8 hours each night.

So if you are not consistent with nutrition, workouts, or habits - you have not hit a plateau. By not following your program, your stats are not an accurate representation of that program.

And if you are consistent with both nutrition and workouts then you need to assess other things before assuming you are in a plateau.

These things include:

Hormone changes / are you on your period?

Did you experience any big life changes/stressors? (moving, death, travel)

Were you sick?

Were you stressed?

Could there be any outliers causing progress to deviate?

All of these can affect the pace at which change happens for ourselves.

However, if you can confidently say that you were 100% consistent with your program AND lifestyle yet are still seeing zero progress - then it is safe to assume that you have hit a plateau which is very normal, especially for people who have been on their health journey for a longer duration.

So how do we handle a plateau?

1) Implement diet breaks or refeed meals ~ diet breaks are when you temporarily increase calories close to your predicted maintenance intake. Diet breaks typically last 2 weeks and then a slow change in calories will be implemented again.

2) De-load week ~ this is a week off of high-intensity training and cardio to allow the body to be refreshed and reset itself if you are experiencing extreme sore muscles or consistently failing at a certain movement/weight.

3) Reverse diet ~ if you have been dieting long-term then it is probably time to reverse diet. Reverse dieting is implemented when caloric intake cannot be dropped anymore and your metabolism needs to be repaired. Reverse diets will extend longer than your diet breaks.

To learn more about reverse dieting, please refer to our 5-day reverse diet training we hosted on our free facebook group!

4) Drop your expectations and allow your body extra time ~ Our own expectations often ruin the progress before it can ever be made. When you hit a plateau, it can be difficult to hear that maybe a step back is the best solution to start. But this step back will in reality project you forward to the goals you have.

This may not be how you envisioned the journey but nothing in life can be predicted and that includes the timeline/progression of your fitness journey. Allow yourself to pivot when you need to for the sake of your mental and physical health!

5) Hire a coach!

If you are truly frustrated with your journey and the lack of progress, it may be wise to talk to a professional who specializes in the hurdles you are experiencing. Save yourself the trial & error, stress, and uncertainty. Apply for 1:1 coaching here!