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Summary
On episode 26 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan tackles one of the most frustrating parts of any health journey: the plateau, those stretches where the scale won’t budge no matter how consistent you’ve been.
He explains why calories in, calories out is only a rough guide, how your body naturally adapts to slow visible progress over time, and why extreme low-calorie “fast fat loss” plans tend to backfire.
Allan lays out a practical approach for pushing through a plateau: track more than the scale, do an honest self-check on food and training, watch for lifestyle stress, and bring in a coach if you can’t stay objective.
Links
- https://40plusfitness.com
Key Takeaways
- Plateaus are not diet failure, they’re the body seeking balance. As lifestyle changes take hold, your body settles into a new equilibrium, which naturally slows or stalls visible progress on any single measure.
- Calories in, calories out is a useful guide, not a precise formula. The math from online calculators simplifies a genuinely complex system, so hitting your calorie targets exactly doesn’t guarantee the scale will move on schedule.
- Progress is naturally front-loaded, then slows as your body adapts. Early weeks might bring several pounds of loss, but that same stimulus produces smaller and smaller results over time as your body normalizes to the new routine.
- Expect to cycle in and out of plateaus repeatedly. Coming out of one stall doesn’t mean you’re free forever; another plateau later on is normal and doesn’t signal something has gone wrong.
- Aggressive low-calorie “lose fat fast” programs often backfire. Extreme restriction pushes your body to lower its metabolism to find balance at that low intake, so a small increase in food afterward can bring the weight right back.
- Track more than the scale, since your body won’t plateau on every measure at once. Allan leans on blood test results far more than body weight, and points listeners to his free “Seven Health and Fitness Measures That Matter” infographic for other markers worth watching.
- When you hit a wall, do a structured self-check rather than panic. Review your food quality, confirm you’re still progressing your workouts, and check whether lifestyle stress is working against you before assuming the plan itself has failed.
- Stress and cortisol can stall progress even when diet and training haven’t changed. Allan says his own waistline creeps up under high stress despite eating the same way, a sign the plateau isn’t always about food or exercise.
- Get a coach or dietitian if you can’t be objective about your own plateau. Allan recommends outside eyes, whether a personal trainer, dietitian, or coach, when self-evaluation isn’t cutting through denial or blind spots.
“Our bodies were designed to find balance.”
Coach Allan Misner