How to Break a Fat Loss Plateau After 40

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Stress has chemical releases in the body, and it will do things to make your body just stay where it's at. And so if you continue to have your mind stressed about why you're not seeing results, you're not going to see results.

What is going on, you guys? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show. Or if you are a new listener, welcome to the show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. On this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome to today's episode, episode number 87, where we are going to talk about breaking through plateaus.

I want to give you guys strategies for overcoming fat loss and or muscle gaining plateaus. And look, first and foremost, we've all been through them. We've all experienced them. They are common. I want you guys to know that. And I understand that they can be discouraging. However, understanding how to identify and navigate through them is crucial for your understanding of your journey, but most importantly, for your continued progress.

So we're going to break it down into hows. There are going to be three hows. How to know you're in a plateau. How to assess your current state and fitness, where you're at. And then how to not freak out or stress about being in a plateau. I think each of these segments is very, very important, especially that last one: how to not freak out or stress about being in a plateau. For all of you guys that are like, I can't break through this. I've been in this for X amount of weeks or X amount of months, and I just can't seem to get past it.

And it's really frustrating. It's discouraging. And it makes you want to just stick your hand into a box of Oreos and eat away your misery of being stuck in a plateau. This last one's going to really help you guys, so make sure that you stay all the way until we get to that last how.

But the first one, I want you guys to understand first and foremost: how to know that you are in a plateau. And this first bullet point that I want to highlight and really nail down into your brain is consistent effort with no results.

This is how you know you're in a plateau. First and foremost, consistent effort, consistent effort, consistent effort with no results. Because there are many of you guys that will go for six weeks and you'll be like, I'm in this plateau and I can't get through it. And how do I know this? Because I've heard this hundreds of times. And my always go-to question is, well, tell me how consistent you've been with your nutrition in these four to six weeks. And I will always be like, yo, tell me the truth.

I need to know the truth so that I can help navigate this through with you in an honest manner. Because you not telling me the truth is not going to help you at all. And so usually, typically, the majority of the time, I get, well, you know, I had this happen this week, and I was traveling this week, and I was off on these weekends because of this. And I'm like, okay. So if we had to break it down into a percentage, you've probably been consistent 25% of those last four to six weeks.

Right. And when that just comes to awareness, it's like a weight lifted off of that client's shoulders. Or maybe it's a weight lifted off of yours too, because instead of being buried in the fact that you're not making progress, it's like, oh, what is the actual honesty of why I'm not making this progress? And the more that you're honest with yourself and honest with the coach that you're working with, you guys can navigate through that to put you on a good path moving forward to help you be more consistent.

But to this point, if you have been consistent for, let's say, those four to six weeks. I always allow that much time because over four to six weeks in a woman's cycle, if you're still getting your period, there are a lot of ebbs and flows. I'm not going to dive into our periods, that could be a whole other podcast, but let's say there's a week that you're getting your period. You're going to gain some weight, not from actual fat gain, but from the inflammation that your body is experiencing internally. And it's going to reflect on the scale. It's going to reflect in your pictures.

It's going to reflect in your body composition. But anyway, going back to the consistent effort. Let's say you've been consistent. You've put in the effort and you're still not seeing the results. So you've been consistently sticking to your macros, your nutrition, your exercise regime, but you're not seeing noticeable changes in your body composition and or your progress photos. I don't tend to lean on weight here, because you could still be losing body fat and see it reflected in your progress photos, but your weight could still be hovering around the same, give or take three pounds.

And this has been going on for several weeks. When I check into my clients' progress photos, I'm face to computer. I'm like, where can I see these small, minute changes that are very important for the client to understand are going on too, because they're not looking for that. They take a picture, they upload it for the coach to see, and they're trying to find all the negatives. So I try and find all the positives for the client that I'm working with.

Our coaches do too in the VIP program for WarriorBabe. And we highlight those things. Or we ask our clients, hey, do you see X, Y, and Z when you're lifting the weight? Do you see more muscle fibers showing through? Do you see more muscle definition when you're lifting and working out? Those are positive things to pay attention to. But again, I'm going off track here. Consistent effort with no results. That is how you know you're in a plateau. So if for four to six weeks you're not seeing these changes reflected in your progress photos, and if you're not taking progress photos, you need to be taking progress photos. But let's say you're not seeing progress in the progress photos, and some things have stalled elsewhere. This is how you would know you're in a plateau.

The second thing, which marries with the first one, is that you've stalled in strength or endurance gains. You're stalling in the amount of weight that you can lift. If you're not progressing in the weights that you lift, or let's say you're focusing on some type of endurance running and those levels are pretty much stalled at this point.

You're not experiencing progress with it, and you're consistent with your training. I just need to add this in there: you're consistent with your training. You're hitting your four to five strength training sessions a week. You're doing whatever is in alignment with the endurance training that you're doing, if you're doing it. And you're consistent with that. Then you might be in a plateau. And what I mean specifically speaking to weights is, let's say for the last four weeks you have been using the same weight each time, and that is a challenge to you.

And going up five to ten pounds is too much of a challenge, where you can't finish the prescribed sets and or reps. So this might be a point where you're experiencing a plateau, and the littlest adjustment to nutrition can help with that. And that's why it's really good to have a coach on your side.

And the last point that I want to make on how to know you're in a plateau is diving a little bit deeper into point one, where I talked about progress photos.

Maybe you're somebody who's taking measurements and you're using the measuring tape. Some clients do this and some clients don't. Not necessary. Depends. All of the things. But let's say you're taking measurements with a measuring tape, and you're measuring your waist, your hips, your biceps, all of these things, but they're not changing in those four to six weeks, especially your waist. If you're decreasing weight and you're overweight, then you should see changes in your waist. If you're decreasing body fat, you may see changes in specific areas of your body.

People lose body fat in different areas. All women do, but the majority of women will lose it from the top down first. And let's say in those four to six weeks we're not seeing much movement in terms of measurements over that time. So these are all possibilities of you being in a plateau. But the first one I spoke to is probably the most obvious one: consistent effort with no results. You're being consistent. You're honest with your consistency.

And we're still not seeing any progress. So then we would make some adjustments. And I'm not going to dive into adjustments, because we're just speaking to when you know you're in a plateau and what you can do to overcome it. Adjustments would be very individual for the person: whatever that person may be experiencing, why we're in a plateau, what's going on lifestyle-wise, X, Y, and Z. There are many factors that could be a thing. But I just wanted to give you these strategies in terms of how to know you're in it.

And these are the ones to know you're in it. Now, I want to talk about how to assess your current state for yourself. Because assessing your current state could be an indicator of how to break through these plateaus that you may be experiencing. So a couple of things. If you're not already, make sure you're keeping a detailed log, documenting everything. This is what we do inside the WarriorBabe VIP for our clients. We are literally documenting everything. We have access to their MyFitnessPals.

We're seeing the food that they eat on a daily basis. We're seeing if they're consistent in that regime. We have an entire calendar of all of their workouts, where they check into their workouts on a daily basis along with their rest days. We have progress photos. We have measurements. We have body stats. We have forms that these clients fill out. We're documenting everything, because we have an objective view and a subjective view. And it comes down to all of those things that I just said: the foods that you eat, the calories you consume, the specifics of your workouts, how much weight you're lifting, what was a challenge to you.

We rate our workouts. All of this will provide insight into areas that may need to be adjusted, as I spoke to with how to know you're in a plateau. And some of you guys will be like, I don't want to have to do that. Well, then how much effort are you willing to put into your results? Seriously. If you're half-assed with the actual documentation of what you're doing, then you're going to get half-assed results, because you're not going to be able to dial in. If something's not working, how do you know how to fix it?

It's just guessing or assuming. But if you're logging everything and you have detailed documentation of everything, and something along these lines isn't working, you know exactly what to adjust. So that's on you. If you're like, this is too much, well, then think about getting to your results in a half-assed manner.

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Another thing here is evaluating your sleep and your recovery. I can't stress this enough: adequate sleep, adequate recovery. Both of these play a pivotal role in your fat loss and your muscle growth.

So let's say one week out of those four to six weeks, you got shit sleep. Well, that is going to play into the type of progress that you see or do not see in the following week. And let's say two weeks out of that, you had shit sleep. Same thing. That could play into the results that you're seeing or not seeing. So it's about being able to identify these things if you're assessing them. I wear an Oura ring. When I tell you guys I document everything, I document everything. This thing tracks my sleep. So if I can feel and see a physical change in my body and I've had shit sleep, then I know that it's because of my shit sleep.

And there's my answer. I don't have to go down this rabbit hole of, fuck, my nutrition's off, or maybe I need to adjust my nutrition, or maybe my workouts are just not enough and I need to go more intense. And then you go down this rabbit hole of making your recovery even more shit. It's actually not the workouts. It's your sleep. So paying attention to these things is so freaking important. It allows you to get real with what needs to be adjusted and what doesn't. So those are the two main things, to be honest, on how to assess where you're at currently.

Keeping a detailed log of everything, and then being able to evaluate where your sleep and recovery are, because those two things do not get enough attention in the fitness space. So many people just think, I need to fix my nutrition, I need to fix my workouts. But actually, you're super stressed and you're not getting enough sleep. And this is a pivotal thing that we need to pay attention to. So being able to just assess that.

And then the last thing that I want to talk about, you guys, and I said at the beginning this one is just so freaking important: how to not freak out or stress about being in a plateau.

Because first and foremost, before I dive into these things, the more that you stress out about being in a plateau, the more you're going to stay in a plateau. Your mind, your body, all these things: stress has chemical releases in the body, and it will do things to make your body just stay where it's at. And so if you continue to have your mind stressed about why you're not seeing results, you're not going to see results.

So I just want you guys to understand that from a high level: don't freak out. Especially if you're doing all the things that I just said with assessing your current state, then you'll be able to narrow down exactly what is going on and what you can adjust. And like I said earlier, if you're not doing that, then yeah, sure, you're going to wander all over the place. You're going to have 10 different variables of what could be going on, and it's actually one of them. But let's say you're trying to change all 10 variables. You're just going to be shit out of luck at that point.

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Because it's actually only one of them. And if you're not logging your things, that's where you're going to be. When you're logging your things, you can pinpoint the one and you can assess it, and there's less stress there.

But anyway, first and foremost, with how to not freak out and how to not stress about being in a plateau, it's just recognizing that it's normal. For those of you that say you're in a plateau after a week's time, seven days, that's just absolutely flipping ridiculous.

There's no way that in one week you could be in a plateau. Just because you didn't see results in one week doesn't mean that you're not making results. It literally just means that you need to keep going. You need to keep doing the things. I'm going to touch on that in a second. But recognize that it's normal. Everyone, from beginners to elite athletes to people that have been in the game for a while, experiences plateaus. I have experienced plateaus.

Let me just share this. I remember my first plateau, when I was a fresh newbie in the space, fresh into my experience, and I was freaking out. So I get it. I've been there. I recognize you guys can stress out about plateaus. But the way that my coach calmed me down is exactly how I'm calming you guys down right now: just knowing that it's normal and to just keep doing the things. Because sure enough, I kept doing the things that I was doing and I broke through it.

Sure, you assess the things. But that's at the six-week mark, when you haven't seen results, and then you need to adjust that one thing that may be off. If it's two weeks, nothing needs to be adjusted. Some of you are like, oh my god, or light bulbs are going off, which I'm so happy to hear. It just means that you need to keep doing the things.

And just know, too, that experiencing a plateau is a natural part of your journey, not a dead end. So many of you guys think it's the end of your fitness results. And so you eat yourself into a bag of Oreos because you're so sad that you're not making progress. And when you eat a bag of Oreos while you're experiencing a plateau, because you've allowed yourself to get to that point mentally, it only elongates your plateau. It only elongates you getting to the results that you want. So it's just a natural part of your journey. If you're experiencing it at two weeks, or even at six, it's a natural part of your journey.

It is not a dead end. The second thing I want you guys to focus on is reframing your mindset. Instead of seeing it as a plateau, or as a setback, or as you being stuck, view it as a signal from your body to reevaluate and adjust the certain things I've just talked about that need adjusting. It's an opportunity for you to understand how your body is working, and maybe this aspect of the assessment is what needs to be adjusted. It's for you to understand your body in that respect, and grow and learn from it.

Don't look at it as a setback. If you look at it as a setback, you're just going to continue to experience setbacks. Look at it as, okay, let me reevaluate and understand what is going on here right now. Or if you have a coach that's a professional in this, they're really good at doing that, and they can adjust it for you because they understand what's going on, rather than you trying to figure out all the things, because this isn't your profession. You have other responsibilities. That's why a coach is amazing to get. If you don't have one yet, and you've been sitting on figuring out if you want to be a part of WarriorBabe, consider this a sign. Check out WarriorBabe in the description below.

Another thing to not freak out or stress over being in a plateau is to celebrate other wins. Maybe your body composition and progress photos haven't changed in two weeks. But perhaps you feel more energetic. Maybe your clothes are fitting better in this two-week period. Maybe you're sleeping better. Maybe you've improved your form in a specific exercise.

Or maybe you're getting stronger. Celebrate these other wins, these non-scale victories. Maybe you did one more push-up than you could do two weeks ago. These are huge pillars of you making progress that some people just overlook because they seem so small, but they're so freaking big when you're doing things that you hadn't done before. The scale gets so much recognition, and I don't know why, but that thing just sucks.

And it doesn't deserve as much power as it has over women, when there are all of these other things positively happening for you, all of the things that I just said: feeling better in your skin, more energetic, sleeping better, improving your form, doing more pull-ups, doing more push-ups than you did two weeks ago or even six weeks ago. Those things deserve more power than the fucking scale does. So I want you guys to celebrate other wins.

And then lastly, like I said in how do you know you're in a plateau, this one is for you to practice consistency and practice patience. Because the key is to not get discouraged along your journey. And if you know that you're not consistent, then you can't get discouraged at yourself for that, because you're going to just continue to be inconsistent. You need to stay consistent with your efforts. You need to be patient with yourself wherever you're at in your journey, whether it be the beginning or the middle, or you're experiencing life things and you got thrown off track.

You need to be patient with yourself. Don't beat yourself up, because it's only going to send you into a negative spiral from there. So make sure that you're consistent with your efforts and be patient with yourself. And most importantly, if you do make adjustments when you're in this plateau, allow time for that adjustment to take place. People think, okay, I'm going to make this adjustment after six weeks, and I'm going to see results in the first week. Dude, that may not happen. I'm just being blunt and honest.

All the things out there say you're going to see X amount of results in X amount of time. But your body may be different from somebody else that's saying this. And maybe you do experience a change in results in one week. But don't set your expectations so fucking high that you then bury yourself in disappointment when you don't get that result in one week. That's how you get over feeling discouraged. Instead, just allow time, allow patience, and keep practicing consistency.

And I guarantee you, with all the things that I just said, you will overcome that plateau. It's just a matter of being resilient through it: still showing up even though you may be experiencing this, accepting that something may need to be adjusted, adjusting it, and allowing time for that adjustment to take place within your body. When you can do that, you will overcome it. So don't let the plateau get the power over you.

Don't allow it to have so much power over you and your journey. Rather, accept that it's going on, figure out how you can adjust it, and then just keep going. Because as I said throughout the whole podcast, plateaus are a standard part of any fitness journey. You are going to experience them. They are inevitable, but they do not mean that you are failing. When you recognize the signs that I've just spoken to, and you're honest with yourself, and you critically assess them, and you assess your current fitness state: Are you logging all these things? Are you paying attention to all of them? Are you documenting all these things? All the things I talked about. Then you can assess them, be honest with yourself, move forward, and maintain a positive mindset, and you can navigate through all of it and continue toward your goals. End of story. Better yet, end of podcast, you guys.

So I hope that resonated with you guys. I hope that helped you. I hope that gave you a little bit more weight off your shoulders for your next plateau, when you do experience it. Come back to this podcast if you need to. Save it. I wish there was a save feature with podcasts, but just screenshot it and save it into your photos so that you can come back whenever you need it. All right, guys. Again, I hope you enjoyed it, and I will see you in the next podcast.

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