5 Amazing Reasons Your Weight Loss Has Come To A Screeching Halt

1. You're plodding along—literally.
Not losing at the same rate you once were? You may need to step up your own rate. Studies have shown that high-intensity interval training—or, exercising at a high intensity for 30 seconds to several minutes followed by 1 to 5 minutes of recovery time (either no exercise or very low-intensity exercise) then repeating the cycle several times—produces more weight loss than plain, old, moderate-intensity aerobic exercise. Say you normally jog at a moderate pace for 30 minutes. Instead, warm up at an easy pace for 5 minutes. Then run at very high intensity for 1 minute and recover by running very easily for 4 minutes. Repeat five times.

How do you know your intensity is high? Take your heart rate. High intensity exercise is defined as exertion at 70 to 85% of your maximum heart rate. Now, before you do the usual mental math (220 minus your age) to determine your max, try a newer, purportedly more accurate formula, devised after studying more than 3,000 men and women ages 19 to 89: 211 minus 64% of your age. The newer formula yields a higher number, but that's a good thing. The greater your exertion, the greater the results.

2. You're underestimating how much diet damage you're doing when you eat out.
Honestly, it'd be hard not to. University of Toronto researchers recently tracked the calorie content of food ordered at 19 sit-down restaurant chains and the results were, well, extraordinary in the truest sense of the word. On average, breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals from the restaurants contained an astonishing 1128 calories (that's more than the 881 calories previous research has found that the average fast-food meal delivers and fully 56% of the 2,000 calories the US Food and Drug Administration recommends a healthy adult should eat per day). And those calorie totals didn't even include dessert, which the researchers calculated would add an additional 549 calories, on average. All restaurants—not just fast food joints—are minefields for dieters. To avoid blowing your diet and stalling your weight loss, stick with the meals ID'd by the restaurants as "healthy." In the study, those meals contained, on average, 474 calories, 13 g of fat (20 percent of your Daily Value, 3 g of saturated fat (17% of your Daily Value), and 752 mg of sodium (50% of the daily adequate intake level). Or, if no "healthy" options exist, split your entrée, and skimp on sauces, dressings, and extras, like bread. To that end, Stephen Gullo, author of The Thin Commandments Diet, recommends grabbing a spot at the end of the table, because bread and chips and other sharing plates tend to end up at the center.

3. You're stressed about the scale—and stressed being stressed about the scale.

Losing weight isn't for the faint of heart. It's challenging work that requires both sustained focus and hope—the very combo meditation is touted to provide. Which is why researchers from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles recently sifted through the results of all existing research studies on meditation's effect on binge eating, emotional eating, and overall dietary intake. And they found that the vast majority of the studies (86%) found that meditation improved all three. If you're stressed because your weight loss appears to have stalled, don't reach to Ben & Jerry's for comfort, try quieting your mind instead. Focus on filling your lungs and exhaling slowly. Empty your mind, and relax your body, one body part at a time. Be still, in the moment, for 5 minutes. Feel the calm—then press on. No Chunky Monkey required

4. You may be supplementing your strength—and your weight loss gains—away.
You'd think that by popping antioxidant supplements—specifically, vitamins C and E—you'd be protecting your body from the oxidative stress caused by exercise and priming it to hit the gym yet again the very next day. Smart, right? Uh, according to new research—not so much. In fact, a raft of recent studies has shown that the breakdown of your muscles that occurs during exercise is actually a good thing, because it promotes insulin sensitivity and weight loss. And that taking a large dose of antioxidants after a workout could interfere with your body's natural, beneficial response to exercise. Weight loss stalled? Back away from the C and E, and see what happens. 

5. You're skimping on zzzzz as well as calories. 

According to research conducted a few years ago by physicians at the University of Chicago General Clinical Resource Center, dieters who get less than 6 hours of sleep a night lose significantly less fat than those who get the gold standard 8. Plus, they feel hungrier. "If your goal is to lose fat, skipping sleep is like poking sticks in your bicycle wheels," said study director Plamen Penev, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago. "Cutting back on sleep—a behavior that's ubiquitous in modern society—appears to compromise efforts to lose fat through dieting. In our study, it reduced fat loss by 55%." Want to goose your fat loss? Skip The Daily Show and hit the hay

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