Bust Through a Fitness Plateau

Question: I’ve been CrossFit training and eating clean for two years now and have lost about 40 pounds and gained a lot of muscle, but I seem to have hit a plateau. Any advice on how to drop those last stubborn 20 pounds?

(from reader Guy Miron)

Answer: First thing’s first, give yourself some serious credit. Plateauing isn’t necessarily a bad thing because you had to work pretty damn hard to get to that point, says Men’s Health weight loss coach Alan Aragon. “I encourage people to embrace their new maintenance point as a milestone of success and then challenge them to see if they can hold on to it for three to six months without backsliding in their progress.”

Research shows that keeping weight off can sometimes be more difficult than losing it in the first place. And Stanford University researchers found that people who focused on maintaining their weight before starting a weight-loss program lost more weight overall and had greater success keeping the pounds off long-term. “If you want to push your weight loss further, it simply boils down to decreasing your caloric intake or increasing your caloric output,” Aragon says. Take a closer look at what you’re currently doing and how you’re eating. “Evaluate how close you are to being maxed out in terms of training volume or how much room you have for further food restriction to determine where you can make some changes,” he adds.

View other weight loss questions submitted by Men's Health readers.

1. Prev:How Wolfgang Puck Lost 20 Pounds
2. Next:Weight Loss and Diet Soda