plateau in weight loss

["Advantage Saddles" <owensall@sierratel.com>]

There is one other thing to remember when "dieting".  If you suddenly and drastically lower your caloric intake, your body notices this and reacts to save itself.  It assumes that everything it knew before(plenty of calories coming in all the time) is wrong, so in order to save itself from certain death, starts to conserve energy.  Sort of like an energy crisis, when we find that we can live just fine using way less electricity, and get adjusted to the new way things are, and do not start wasting again when the crisis is over.  The body will do that with its energy usage.  That's why yo--yo dieters tend to be fat, their body finds ways to conserve calories so efficiently that they can eat the same as their slim counterpart, exercise the same, and still be heavier.  Do this drastic diet thing a few times and your body just stays on conserve mode.  So, the secret to weight loss is to not alarm the system, no drastic changes that might cause conservation of calories, must do a sneak attack.  Cut out some extras, junk food and sweets are great targets, then extra fats like butter, sour cream, mayo, salad dressing can be cut back.  If you eat large portions  of food at meals, try cutting back your serving size by a bit.  Add to your intake, however, lots of fruits and vegetables, just about as many as you can.  Not only are they wonderful filler food, they have beneficial properties.  Eat a bowl of grapes when you feel like a sweet.  Also increase your physical activity gradually.  This way you end up with good new habits and your body shouldn't go into starvation mode on you.

Katee