Weight dropped and now stalled after 2/3 weeks?

One of the biggest errors I see is the lack of periodisation in someone’s training, nutrition and step target.

We want to see results quickly at the start whilst we are motivated, but are you doing too much too soon?

Are you going from doing absolutely nothing to absolutely everything straight away?

You are probably highly motivated at the start of your fat loss journey and want to do as much as you can, but this may affect long-term progress. Let me explain why.

At the start of your fat loss stage, it would be silly to be in a place where you are performing all your cardio, highest step target on the lowest calories.

We want to periodise. As we lose weight, we become lighter and our basic metabolic rate decreases, so we start to expend fewer calories. That’s why the longer we diet it becomes harder and harder.

As you start expending fewer calories, you can use cardio and steps to increase the calorie expenditure as time goes on. A very useful tool.

With your calories, it may be tempted to drop them lower, but makes no sense to start at say 1200 calories, due to your body adapting to these calories. Where are you going to be later down the line?

You would have to decrease them more, meaning you’d be on a dangerously low calorie intake, which is not sustainable.

When a client starts a 12 week macrocycle (either online or face to face), I will always talk about the start point and where we will be at the end to allow for periodisation.

Here is a simple linear periodisation for beginner's cardio and steps but will vary on each individual:

Week 1-4  Steps 8000 and cardio 30 minutes steady state 

Week 5-8 Steps 10,00 and cardio 45 minutes steady state 

Week 9-12 Steps 12,000 and 60 minutes steady state 

Want help with your training? Then get in touch today.