Tips for overcoming a diet dead end
By Suzanne Kokkins, Registered Dietician Lifetime
Q: Help! I've hit a plateau in my weight-loss efforts! What's a good way to stay on track with my diet � and start shedding pounds again?
A: It's likely that your body is just in the process of making a metabolic readjustment. As you lose weight, your body readjusts � it's getting fewer calories, so it becomes conservative about burning them up. That's why for a while you stop losing weight even though you're consuming fewer calories. Don't get frustrated. Be patient and remember the big reasons that pushed you to lose weight: better health, better lifestyle, better you.
Try to keep your attitude positive by visualizing what you looked and felt like before you started losing weight and how far you've come up until this point. Tack pictures of yourself at both your old and new, improved weight somewhere where you can see them everyday. This will sustain you during your weight-loss plateau; you're much better off now than you were a month ago.
Other things to remember: Keep drinking lots of water (at least eight glasses per day), stay active (walking is great for managing weight), and track your diet with a food diary (stay aware of � and on top of � your eating habits). This may also be the time to reach out to a support group, either an online diet program or a group of supportive friends and relatives. They can tell you what a good job you're doing, even when the scale doesn't seem to be.