If you’ve hit a weight loss plateau, you may be tempted to try the latest fad diet promising quick weight loss. Fad diets may produce short-term results, but they eventually backfire. If you want to lose weight for good, then you need to understand the energy balance equation: energy intake equals energy expenditure.
Energy intake = total daily caloric intake
Energy expenditure = basal metabolic rate + thermic effect of food + physical activity
If you change your energy intake or expenditure, the equilibrium of the energy balance equation will change accordingly. As a result, you will either gain or lose weight.
Energy Intake
Excess calories are stored as fat when you eat more calories than you burn. Energy stored in fat cells is used to meet future energy needs if you eat fewer calories than you burn. This calorie deficit promotes weight loss until you reach a new energy balance equilibrium.
To maintain your weight loss, you must restrict your energy intake to the same number of calories you were consuming when you hit a plateau. If you resume your former eating habits and eat more calories than you burn, you’ll create a positive energy balance. This is why most people regain the weight they lost when they stop dieting.
Learn more about your estimated calorie requirements here.
Energy Expenditure
Weight loss will decrease your total daily energy expenditure, comprised of your basal metabolic rate, the thermic effect of food, and calories burned during physical activity. Any changes will disrupt the equilibrium of the energy balance equation.
- Weight loss reduces lean body mass and organ tissue, which reduces basal metabolic rate.
- The thermic effect of food decreases in direct proportion to a reduction in energy intake. When you eat fewer calories, you require fewer calories to digest, absorb and metabolize your food.
- Physical activity burns more calories when you weigh more, so your initial weight loss is greater and faster. But as you lose more weight, the same amount of exercise burns fewer calories. Because of this, your energy deficit continues to decrease until a new equilibrium is reached.
Overcome your weight loss plateau
Fortunately, you can change your weight loss plan to overcome the plateau and avoid regaining the weight you lost. To break through a plateau, you must eat fewer calories and burn more calories through physical activity.
To lose weight, you must create a calorie deficit by using more calories than you consume. For example, a daily energy deficit of 500 calories would result in a weekly weight loss of approximately one pound. Lean muscle mass increases your metabolism, so you want to minimize muscle loss while maximizing fat loss.
Staying motivated on your weight loss journey
As you lose weight, you’ll burn fewer calories when performing the same amount of physical activity. So, to maintain a calorie deficit, you must increase your exercise frequency, intensity, and length of time. The training effect may also cause a plateau. Your muscles become more efficient and burn fewer calories when repeatedly performing the same type of exercise. Cross-training combats this effect by stimulating muscle growth as a response to varying physical demands from different types of exercise.
Engaging in a regular exercise program is one of the best predictors of long-term weight loss because it shows your commitment to a healthy lifestyle. To maintain weight loss, you must make permanent lifestyle changes that are both realistic and sustainable. Successful weight loss depends on maintaining equilibrium of the energy balance equation. Learn more secrets to long-term weight loss in this article.