Laura Ng

How to Break Weight Loss Plateau for Vegetarians

It's so frustrating to get stuck at a plateau for 2 or more weeks after a loss of 20 - 40 pounds. Hey, this also happens to vegetarians, mind you! So, what can you do to break your weight loss plateau on a vegetarian diet? Let's see...

I'm not surprised that some vegetarians hit weight loss plateau in the mid of their weight loss regimen. Like anyone, vegetarians can get stuck somewhere when they break the rules of health. Here's what you can do to overcome the plateau and continue to slim down till you reach your ideal weight and shape.

1. Get All-Round Nutrients

Imagine every breakfast you eat oatmeal, low-fat salad for lunch and curried chickpeas for dinner, how many pounds do you expect to lose with that boring vegetarian weight loss diet?

Even changing the meal plan a bit is not enough. Get creative and start eating more varieties of food. For example, today your breakfast is protein smoothie, tomorrow it becomes oatmeal with fresh strawberries, then day after make rainbow salad as breakfast. Same goes for your lunch and dinner. Obtaining full spectrum of nutrients through food varieties is one effective way to break weight loss plateau for vegetarians.

2. Create a Pulse-Like Calorie Vegetarian Diet for Weight Loss

When you keep eating a fixed amount of calories, your body will auto-adjust to burn just that amount, nothing more, nothing less. To overcome this "defect", change your caloric intake every few days.

Assuming you need about 1800 calories a day. Take it for 3 days, then on day 4 switch to a lower calorie meal, say 1600 calories. And on day 5, get back to 1800 calories for 3 days again. Repeat this cycle and you'll see more of your body fat get burned off.

3. Turn to Interval Exercises

Overweight vegetarians who engage in interval workouts are relatively more likely to break weight loss plateau. Thanks to the varying pattern of the exercise intensity level and routine.

For example, stop doing the same old brisk-walking every day. Start doing walk-jog-walk-jog to make your metabolism work a bit more. Stop doing fast push-ups, start slowing down its pace and you'll raise the intensity level, thus increasing your metabolism further.

Whatever you do with your exercise, inject changes every other day to give your metabolism something new to work with, and you'll break weight loss plateau and lose weight with exercise easily.

4. Snack Up

Insert healthy snacks like fresh fruits or nuts & seeds in between your main meals like this: breakfast, snack (morning), lunch, snack (afternoon), dinner.
This will keep your metabolism at an active level throughout the day. And particularly effective to beat your mid-afternoon slump.

5. Never Skip Breakfast

Skipping breakfast won't make you lose more fat. Instead, it will make you absorb more unnecessary calories when you start taking your lunch. So, pick up your breakfast to break weight loss plateau.

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