Tips for Increasing Weight Loss

In any diet, there comes the inevitable slow down or plateau. This is what happens when your body begins adjusting to your new lifestyle, and you go from losing weight steadily every week to losing it in dribs and drabs, or not losing it at all. While healthy weight loss should not exceed one to two pounds per week, there are ways to change your lifestyle to achieve this goal and break your plateaus.

Increase Activity

• One of the best ways to increase your weight loss is to increase your activity level. If you're a couch potato, now is a great time to start walking around the block every night. If you already do cardio, why not add some weights to your routine? If you're a fitness guru, step up the intensity of whatever it is that you're doing. Try going to a class where the instructor may push you harder than you generally push yourself. Adding more activity will force your body to work harder, and potentially boost your metabolism to help you burn calories faster.

Portion Control

• Everyone buys a set of scales and measuring cups at the beginning of their diet to portion their food out religiously. However, by the second or third month those scales are gathering dust in the closet and you aren't even sure where the measuring cups ended up. As a result, your portion control may have slipped, and these extra calories here and there can add up to a stalled weight loss plan. Begin checking your portions again--weigh and measure everything that goes into your mouth.

Water

• Water is hugely important for weight loss efforts. Keeping yourself hydrated can make all the difference in the world. If your body is retaining water, it also holds onto fat and sodium, making you both bloated and stuck on a plateau. Keep a water bottle with you and sip it constantly through the day. You should be getting between six to eight glasses of water every day to keep you hydrated.

Eat More (or Less)

• It's surprising to think that in order to lose weight on a diet, you need to eat more, but it's true. Your body becomes accustomed to how much you eat on average, so if you're sticking to 1500 calories a day, it becomes stuck there as well. For a week, try varying your calories from day to day--1300 Monday, 1800 Tuesday, 1450 Wednesday, and so on. As long as the numbers hover around your calorie target, you'll be surprised at the results.