How Do I Get Past The Plateaus -- When My Weight Doesn't Seem To Change Much?

Dr. Brownell answers the question: 'Overcoming The Weight Loss Plateaus?'

ByABC News
December 22, 2008, 3:55 PM

February 1, 2009 -- Question: How do I get past the plateaus -- when my weight doesn't seem to change much?

Answer: One of the most vexing problems faced by dieters is when their weight loss stops, even though they're staying on the same diet. Basically, they've hit a plateau. So what do you do about it? Well, there are a couple of ways to approach it.

Probably the most sensible way is just keep doing what you've been doing, and expect that these plateaus are going to hit at some point and you just persevere through them and what was working before will start working again and the weight loss should continue.

But for some other people, doing something in addition to what they're doing might be helpful.

Some people might get a jumpstart by starting a new program like Weight Watchers or Overeaters Anonymous or one of those sort of programs. Other people might want to take on a different type of exercise than they've been doing just to see if it helps reset their system in some way.

And these sort of things can be very helpful for some people, but the best advice of all is just keep doing what you were doing if it was helping you before.