You've all had it happen before: several weeks of dieting flawlessly and the weight is coming off the way you want it. However, eventually you hit that point--nothing. The sticking point. The "plateau". Your metabolism has slowed down a little. Not to worry though--it's still not a big deal. You can always add more cardio, or cut back some of your carbs and/or fats--this is all normal.
Thing is, is it? Yes, but the thing is that fat loss isn't always a linear path of calories in vs. calories out. The problem here is that while caloric deficit will always garner fat loss (provided protein, EFA, micronutrition, rest, etc. are all taken care of), calories IN are the only constant factor--it's the calories out that is variable and often gets played with the most.
The simple fact that you're a smaller animal alone is going to decrease metabolic rate--even if you keep all of your muscle. This is just a survival mechanism--the leaner you are, evolutionarily speaking, the less likely you are to survive.
So, what do you do? I'm going to address some courses of action when dealing with these issues, and the pros and cons of each.
1. Eat less.
The simplest solution, one that generally is a lot more fool proof, simply because as long as you're accurately tracking your nutrition, there's not much room for error. The dissadvantage being that you get to eat less food--which generally isn't going help hunger, not to mention makes you more likely to be deficient in nutrients (an extra bit of 300 calories may be all that's needed for micronutrient sufficiency--would you really want to deny your body that?
My personal experience was that when I was only doing to minimum amount of cardio, I tended to be more hungry (at least at first) from less cardio and less food. Once I started implimenting the third strategy, I started to change my tune and felt a little better. Not a lot better, but a little.
2. Add more cardio, keep calories the same
This is another way to go, and it's going to have to happen eventually. Now, depending on how much cardio you're doing in the first place, or what kind, you might need to add a lot right away, or just a couple of thirty minute sessions a week. This is dependant on what you're doing in the first place. Also keep in mind the fact that over time, your body is going to a adapt to large amounts of cardio, so be careful with adding too much from the get-go.
And then, there's a third method, rarely used, but in my experience, actually quite effective...
3. Eating more food, and doing an equivalent amount of extra cardio.
This seems strange, and I honestly don't see any real reason why this would ever work--it just, somehow, does. What it entails is just that: adding cardio (say, one 20-30 minute session a day) and eating just a little extra to compensate. The result, for me, was actually suprising.
At around 10 weeks out, my macronutrient breakdown averaged around 125 carb/250 protein/60 fat (2040 calories). I felt miserable and sluggish. Once I added a little extra carbohydrates and fats back in (300 cals worth), along with adding thirty minutes of cardio, I started losing fat again. Granted, I had to hack away the calories even harder the further I went through the cut, but it was worth it. I got out of my rut and started losing fat again.
Anyway, whichever way you choose to diet, the one constant I think everyone should take from this article is this:
-Diet as long as you need to (preferably longer).
-Eat as much food as possible.
-Do as little cardio as possible, while still losing fat.
That way once you do hit a sticking point, pulling yourself out of it will be all the easier.
In the next part, I'm going to address the polar opposite, namely metabolic changes while in a bulking phase, and how these will actually help you instead of hinder you when it comes to getting leaner.
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