Fat Dad Thin Dad Update - Week 6

Well I know I haven’t posted in a couple of weeks due to a very busy schedule. However, I still have been focusing in on the Fat Dad Thin Dad Challenge. I have finished up 6 weeks in the challenge and of course along comes the biggest killer to any challenge - plateau.

What Kills Any Weight Loss Effort?

The biggest killer for any one on a weight loss or in my case, inch loss effort is the thing called a plateau. You know where your body decides that it doesn’t want to keep up losing weight or inches. Let’s look at what happened to me. Over the last two weeks, I have lost zero pounds. Yes, that is correct. No weight loss at all. For most people they would say why try and quit.

Why It’s Best To Measure In Inch Loss

While I lost a good 11 inches in the first 4 weeks, over the last two weeks, I have lost 3 3/4 inches. Here are the results:

Waist - 1/2 inch
Chest - 1 1/2 inch
Biceps - 1/2 inch each
Thighs - 3/8 inch each

Weight loss - a big fat zero

Overcoming Plateau Challenges

The best way to describe a plateau is where your body decides to challenge you to see if you really are serious about living a healthier life style. It says, “Hey wait a minute. I don’t remember you doing this before. Besides, I’m getting a little sore from you actually moving and not sitting in front of the television all evening. If I just hold on to my weight a couple of weeks, I am sure this person will stop all of this and things will be back to normal, right?”

To overcome the plateau effect, you focus on the right things. Those things are inch loss. You will find that your body will still be losing inches even though its weight is the same or going up. Also, setting your goal of being able to wear a specific size of clothes by a certain date is much more fulfilling than X pounds. If those skinny jeans fit, who cares what you weigh.

You Have To Track Your Progress

If you don’t track your progress, you will end up losing focus because you won’t know how well you have done overall. It is hard to imagine losing almost 15 inches off my body in the last 6 weeks. Had I not started out by measuring myself when I started, I would not have known this. It is easier to give up when you can’t see your progress. Also, when you don’t see progress, it is easy to see where you may need to adjust.

Even though I did have inch loss, there are things I can see that I may need to adjust. I know I had to change up my workout over the last two weeks due to a sore knee. I can see the impact this has had in certain areas of my body, particularly in my waist. My attention will be to look for alternate exercises that I can do to focus on my waist line and allow my knee to regain its strength.

How Do You Handle Plateaus?

While the ideas shared here work for me, it is always interesting to see how others have been able to overcome their challenge of plateaus. Please post your ideas for other readers.

Hope you enjoyed today’s post. I will get more things happening on the blog this week along with getting the final touches for us to start our diet plan reviews.

Until Next Time…