How to Avoid a Weight Loss Plateau

Have you ever hit a weight loss plateau? All of us have, but there is a way to minimize how long you wind up stuck at the same weight.

One of the keys to rapid fat loss is creating a calorie deficit along with doing cardio. What if you are doing cardio many times a week and still aren’t losing body fat?

Well, this post will most likely pinpoint the problem.

To Keep Making Progress, the Workout Has to Feel Tough!

Do you want to know one of the big reasons beginners drop a lot of weight when they begin a workout program?

They are out of shape, so any bit of aerobic exercise that they do “feels” brutal.

Have you ever seen an overweight man or woman walking on a treadmill and they are drenched with sweat?

It is because, in a weird sense, they are working out harder than you!

Their workout “feels” much more brutal than yours.

I Am Motivated By People Who Push Their Limits

I don’t look at how ripped someone is to get motivation, I look for the people who are breathing hard and drenched with sweat.

It doesn’t matter if I’m maxing out the treadmill and doing impressive looking sprint intervals.

If I see another person who is obviously pushing past their pain barrier, I am motivated by that.

I don’t care if that person has 90+ pounds to lose, they are going to get more out of their workout.

I love seeing this, by the way…because these are the people who will succeed.

You Will Get Stuck If You Workout Within Your Comfort Zone

Here is a really common occurrence. You drop 20 pounds when you are aiming for 30. You have a really tough time losing those last 10 pounds.

You diet harder and increase the amount of time you workout. You drop another 2 pounds and you are stuck.

The problem is that those last few pounds are a bit stubborn and a calorie deficit alone will not do the trick.

To really access that last bit of fat you need to boost your natural fat burning hormone (HGH).

HGH isn’t released by longer workouts, it is released by intense exercise.

So adding an hour or two of cardio per week won’t necessarily help you lose that last little bit of fat.

How to Release HGH in Your Cardio Workouts

Here is why it is important that your workout “feels” tough.

An effective way to tell your workout boosts HGH is to perform cardio at a level where you are short of breath and your skin gets hot to the touch.

They call this the “HGH Flush”.

The reason interval training is so effective is that you can push past the pain barrier for 30-60 seconds followed by active rest for 30-60 seconds.

This really creates the conditions necessary to create the HGH flush. You can increase HGH by steady state cardio, you just have to push past the pain barrier the whole time without active breaks.

This is a really tough way to go.

The Better Shape You Get In The Harder You Have to Push

Just because you can run on the treadmill for an hour on level 10 does not mean you are pushing hard.

That would be really hard for most people, but someone like Lance Armstrong could do that in his sleep.

Lance would get very little benefit from a workout like this, but an intermediate athlete would get an HGH boost through the roof!

As soon as your cardio workout gets comfortable, you need to do something to make it tough.

Ways to Increase Perceived Effort in Your Workout

If you are used to doing intervals with 60 seconds rest in between, cut the active rest period to 30 seconds.

If you are doing intervals on a treadmill at a 2-degree incline, try that same workout at a 4-degree incline. If you are doing nothing but cardio machines, try running outside.

Cover the same amount of distance is less time.

You get the picture.

Fitness Tip: Do your cardio workouts on a completely empty stomach to ensure the maximum boost of HGH. Also if you have no carb energy in your system, your body will be forced to burn body fat.