What to Do When You Plateau on the Med Fast Weight Loss Program
67If you are consistent with the meal plan and exercise regimen of the med fast weight loss program, you can expect to lose between two to five pounds per week until you reach your ideal weight. However, if you have more than twenty to thirty pounds to lose, you may hit a plateau at various intervals throughout the course of the program because your body has adapted to your routine.
Since the med fast weight loss program involves sticking to a very strict diet – a combination of five pre-packaged meals and snacks, and one “Lean and Green” meal, you don’t have the option of changing your diet in order to boost your metabolism again. However, there are several other ways you can get over the plateau and begin losing weight at a steady rate.
Here are some changes you can make to your daily habits and lifestyle when you hit a plateau on the med fast weight loss program:
1. Increase the intensity of your exercises. If you’re working with a Medifast Weight Control center or a counselor, the professionals may have already recommended that you exercise for 30 to 45 minutes each day, most days of the week. Standard cardio routines, such as walking on a treadmill, light jogging or biking will get your heart rate up but your body will adapt fairly quickly to the routine. You need to increase the intensity of your workouts to include resistance-bearing exercises and weights so that your core body temperature is raised again and you are burning more calories per session.
2. Skip the Medifast Maintenance Bar. The Medifast Maintenance Bar is one of the higher-calorie snack bars in the meal plan and is designed to serve as a meal substitute. Eating more than one of these bars per day can make it harder to lose weight. Try eating one of these bars every other day to meet your calorie requirements, and don’t eat more than one per day when you’ve hit a plateau.
3. Watch your carb intake. You do have the freedom to select the different meals on your Medifast 5&1 meal program each day, but you need to make sure that all the items you choose aren’t the ones that are very high in carbs. Plan to consume no more than 80 grams of carbohydrates per day if you want to continue losing weight at a steady rate and get over the plateau.
4. Log your meals and exercise daily. It can be easy to get off track even when you think you’ve got the routine under your belt. Make sure you are logging your meals, calories and exercise activities each day so that you can see your progress and be more conscientious about your choices.
5. Increase the frequency of your activities. Make conscious choices to do more physical activities outside of your scheduled workout. Increasing the frequency of your activities throughout the day, such as taking a long walk, doing chores and running errands that involve walking will help to raise your metabolism and burn off more calories each day. This can help you get over that plateau so that you start losing weight again.
