Bodyfat breakthrough: bust out of your diet plateau with these 8 nutrition strategies - breaking through a bodybuilding plateau, with emphasis on dietary considerations

You've been a faithful fitness fanatic, following a regimented lifting routine, performing plenty of cardio and eating fairly well. In the first few months, the bodyfat magically melted away--your clothes fit better, you even dropped a dress size. All was looking rosy. But now, even though you're doing the same program, you aren't seeing results anymore. in fact, you've come to a complete halt. What's going on? Chances are you've hit the dreaded plateau!

"When you initiate a positive change in your lifestyle, like exercising or cleaning up your diet, you're going to see outward results in your physique pretty quickly," says Cathy Sassin, director of the Intrafitt Performance Nutrition Center at Gold's Gym, Venice, California. "But after some time, your body gets used to the stimulus, becomes more efficient and requires less energy to handle its new demands. This is when you stop seeing results."

So, sure, you're in better shape now than you were before, but you want to keep improving. What's a girl to do?

* WAIT IT OUT

Before you do anything drastic, make certain you're really on a plateau to begin with. Do a mood check. "Pay attention to your energy, concentration and strength levels throughout the day," Sassin suggests. "If you're feeling super-good, sleeping well and looking forward to your workouts, there are probably some positive internal changes happening." Though you may have stopped seeing immediate results on the outside, you may be under construction on the inside.

If this is the case, before long you'll again begin to see changes in your outward appearance. Notes Sassin: "They may be slower in coming than those you saw initially. But stick to it and you'll eventually see the results you desire."

* DIETARY DOWNSLIDE

On the contrary, if you're feeling lethargic, irritable or insatiably hungry, you're likely the victim of dietary derailment. "Almost 100% of plateauing can be attributed to poor nutritional history," Sassin points out. "While most women have a good handle on the weight training and cardio portions of their fitness regimen, they lack solid nutritional knowledge, and will go to extremes to attain the body they desire."

Many of these frustrated femmes opt for a quick-fix diet, restricting their calories or starving themselves. "If you drastically cut calories or carbs, or skip entire meals to lose weight, your body thinks it's starving and goes into survival mode," warns Sassin. "It starts breaking down muscle tissue for fuel, and storing fat as a defense mechanism. If you're eating up your muscles, you may be losing weight according to the scale, but you're actually inhibiting your ability to burn bodyfat." Your body is now working against you, and the fat-loss results you fancy move further and further out of reach.

But don't panic. With just a few improvements in your training and nutrition habits, you can rekindle that fat-burning fire. So step away from the phone, toss that fad-diet-of-the-week brochure into the circular file, and try these nutritional tips to help pop you off your pesky plateau.

(1) Scale down: The first thing to do is realize that you want to lose fat, not weight. "Your scale weight consists of bones, ligaments, tendons, organs, muscles, Eat and water," Sassin explains. Women can fluctuate as much as 10 pounds in water weight depending on the time of the month, their stress levels and their sodium intake. Weighing yourself during these hyper-hydrated times gives you an inaccurate and discouraging impression of your progress, or lack thereof.

So step off that scale and have your body composition checked instead. "Pay attention to fat loss all over your body and not just in that area you hate," says Sassin. "People lose fat at an even rate all over their bodies, and you may be losing it somewhere you aren't paying attention to, like your back or arms.

(2) Breakfast is beautiful. Even though you were sleeping peacefully all night, your body was hard at work repairing and rebuilding tissues. You wake up rested, revived and ravenous! Sassin reports: "If you skip breakfast, your metabolism slows down and you're fighting a losing battle against low blood sugar all day long. When you finally do eat, it's going to be virtually impossible to make the right meal choices. That basket of bread and butter looks awfully good, and those chips and salsa suddenly become irresistible."

Eat within an hour of rising to kick-start your fat-burning engine, replenish nutritional stores and set up your metabolism for a day of alimentary success. Sassin warns that doing cardio before breakfast maybe a bad idea. "If your blood sugar is already slightly low in the morning, doing cardio on an empty stomach can deplete you to the point of no return." If the idea of eating in the am, makes your stomach chum, she suggests a whey protein shake with a banana and some peanut butter, or a small nutrition bar--anything balanced that gets your blood sugar out of the negative zone.

(3) Frequent feedings. Skipping meals or waiting too long between meals causes blood sugar levels to fall, leading to an increase in appetite, sugar cravings and desire to binge. So after breakfast, keep your metabolism revved and running by eating smaller meals every 3-4 hours until bedtime. This provides your body with even, continual sustenance, therefore inhibiting muscle tissue loss while promoting fat mobilization for use as fuel. "Meal frequency is key to losing bodyfat, and the number of meals you eat isn't as important as their timing," says Sassin.