It’s hard to understand why for weeks pounds of weight are coming off and then all of sudden nothing. Hitting a weight loss plateau is completely normal and it eventually happens to everyone trying to lose weight. The progression from initial weight loss to a weight-loss plateau follows a typical pattern. During the first few weeks of losing weight, a rapid drop in pounds is normal. When calories from food are reduced, the body gets needed energy by releasing its stores of glycogen, a type of carbohydrate found in the muscles and liver. Glycogen holds onto water, so when glycogen is burned for energy, it also releases the water — about 4 grams of water for every gram of glycogen — resulting in substantial weight loss that’s mostly water.

According to the Mayo Clinic a plateau occurs because your metabolism slows as you lose lean tissue (muscle). When you lose weight, you lose both fat and lean tissue.  Your weight-loss efforts result in a new equilibrium with your now slower metabolism. This means that in order to lose more weight, you need to increase activity or decrease the calories you eat. Using the same approach that worked initially will maintain your weight loss, but it won’t lead to more weight loss.

There are several things you can do to overcome the plateau:

1. Take a Look Back – Look back at your Food and Exercise journal, make sure you have been progressing with your exercise like you should and that you haven’t started eating larger portions of food or snacking when you should not be.
2. Reduce Calories – Reduce your caloric intake by a couple hundred calories. Just make sure that does not put you below 1200 calories.
3. Intensify Your Workout - Increase the amount of time and intensity of your workout.
4. Add More Physical Activity – Be more aware of your physical activity throughout the day and try to find more ways to work more activity into your day.

Hopefully these simple tips will help you move beyond your weight-loss plateau and continue on the road to your desired weight.

Shrinking – Losing Weight is Hard, We’re Here to Make it Easier

We’re about 2/3 of the way through our weight-loss showdown and I wanted to give an update on our progress. Just as a reminder of what we’re doing… Jim (me) and Jason, two of the minds behind Shrinking, decided to have a little weight-loss contest, Biggest Loser-style. The winner gets $100 and will be determined by the biggest percentage weight-lost on July 31, 2010.

Here’s where we are. I have lost about 4.4% and Jason has lost 3.03%. I’m definitely in the lead at the moment, but anything can happen in the last 3 weeks. We’re both really excited with our progress and hope to see those number keep improving.

You can follow us both on Twitter and we appreciate any encouragement you can give us. Our Twitter accounts are @jimlast and @i_am_hardy.

Jim (Twitter: @jimlast) and Jason (Twitter: @i_am_hardy), two of the creators or Shrinking, have decided to have a weight-loss contest, Biggest Loser-style. We have set the following groundrules for the competition.

1. Contest starts today, May 25, and ends on July 31.
2. Highest percentage weight-lost between the dates is the winner.
3. Winner receives an awesome prize (to be determined).

We will post progress updates every couple of weeks. We need all of the encouragement and help that we can get, and we’ll be using Shrinking to track our progress every step of the way. So feel free to contact us and give us support, ask questions, or anything else you want to talk with us about.

Here at Shrinking we are committed to helping you lose weight easily! And we feel knowing your daily calorie consumption and how many calories you burn with exercise can be a very important and helpful tool in your weight loss journey.

Please visit our new page to learn more about our new Food and Exercise Calorie Counter.

We’ve wanted to add a Food Diary to Shrinking ever since we started conceptualizing what our web app would do. It’s also been one of the most requested features from our users. So today we’re excited to announce that our new Food and Exercise Diary feature is now available. We have a great solution in place now and it is sure to help our users take their weight-loss efforts to new heights.

Serious weight-loss requires keeping a keen eye on what you eat and how many calories you burn throughout the day. Our new Diary feature is the perfect solution for doing that. It allows you to keep track of everything you eat and all of your activity.

Here are some screenshots of the key features in the diary. You can click on the images to see larger versions.

The new Food and Exercise Diary will allow you to keep track of the food you consume and automatically calculates how many calories and how much fat you are consuming.

Clicking on an individual food item gives you the complete nutritional details.

The Exercise tab in the Diary allows you to enter your daily activities and will calculated an estimated number of calories burned, based on your weight.

The Calendar tab will show you the overall picture. It tells you the calories consumed and burned and gives you the all important Net calorie calculation, which is critical in a serious weight-loss plan.

The Food and Exercise Diary is a Premium plan feature and will be available to all Premium account holders immediately. If you are not a Premium account holder then you can easily upgrade by clicking on the Food Diary tab and following the instructions for upgrading. The Shrinking Premium plan is $3/month and gives you access to the Food & Exercise Diary, Notes, and the BMI Analyzer.

The Food and Exercise Diary is powered by the application that the cool kids over at FatSecret have created. They have one of the best API’s that we’ve ever worked with. Well done FatSecret team.

The Shrinking Team
Weight-Loss is Hard, We’re Here to Make it Easier

Metabolism is the rate at which your body consumes calories. Someone with a high metabolic rate is able to burn calories more efficiently than someone with a slower metabolic rate. Assuming these two people eat roughly the same amount of calories, the individual with a faster metabolic rate “burns up” more of the calories she eats; the person who has the slower metabolism doesn’t burn all the calories taken in, so the extra calories are “saved” and then converted to fat.

Since many factors can affect your metabolism (e.g. age, overall health), it can actually slow down without you making any lifestyle changes. The good news is that aerobic exercise is an ideal way to increase your metabolism and combat weight gain.

Aging in particular has a noticeable impact on your metabolism, due to changes in hormone balance. That doesn’t mean aging makes weight gain inevitable. A 2001 study by the USDA Agricultural Research Service showed that older people can significantly improve their metabolism and fend of weight gain by participating in strength training (using weights or other resistance) exercise. The reason both exercise and strength training can improve your metabolism? Muscle burns calories more efficiently than fat; the more muscle you have in relation to your body fat, the higher your metabolism will be.

Metabolism is an important part of the weight-loss formula. It’s important to burn as many calories as possible when trying to lose weight, and metabolism plays right into that.

The Shrinking Team
Weight-Loss is Hard, We’re Here to Make it Easier

Small changes can lead to a big difference when it comes to lowering your cholesterol. According to the mayo clinic here are 5 lifestyle changes that may help to reduce your cholesterol.

1. Lose Excess Weight. This goes without saying. Even losing as little as 5 or 10 pounds will reduce your LDL levels

2. Eat Heart Healthy Foods. Making smart choices for your regular diet, such as whole grains and lots of fruits and veggies, can help lower your cholesterol.

3. Get Some Daily Exercise. Small things such as short walks and taking the stairs can help you lose weight, which can only help the cholesterol battle.

4. Quit Smoking. Smokers tend to have higher cholesterol and overall risk of heart disease.

5. Drink Alcohol Only In Moderation. If you drink, you should only drink in moderation to control your cholesterol. If you don’t drink there isn’t enough benefit in terms of cholesterol improvement to warrant starting.

The Shrinking Team
Weight-Loss is Hard, We’re Here to Make it Easier

What can soy do for you? The American Heart Association says consuming 25 to 50 grams of soy a day can help lower our LDL cholesterol (the “bad” cholesterol) by as much as 8%. Research has also shown promising results for soy in preventing stroke, cancer (notably breast cancer), osteoporosis, and hot flashes.

Here are just some of the soy products out there and some tips on ways to sneak them into your diet.

Edamame, more commonly known as a soybean, has become a popular snack which can be bought in the freezer section of the super market. Just heat them up and add a little salt and pepper if desired, pop them out of their shell and enjoy!

Tofu is the well-known vegetarian favorite made from soybeans. It is high in protein and calcium and well known for its ability to absorb new flavors through spices and marinades. Tofu food can be added to almost any dish as a meat substitute or right along with it.  If you have a family member unsure about tofu you might want to try mix it into a casserole or stir fry. Add the soft or silken variety to sauces, soups, smoothies, dips or spreads.

Soymilk is becoming increasingly popular and can be purchased plain or in flavors such as chocolate and vanilla. You can drink soy milk just as you would regular milk or you can use it in smoothies, cereal, coffee, oatmeal, or just about anywhere you would use milk.

Soy is quickly becoming a popular alternative food and it has definite health benefits.

The Shrinking Team
Weight-Loss is Hard, We’re Here to Make it Easier

Here is a list of the twelve fruits and veggies, nicknamed the “Dirty Dozen”, that typically have the highest pesticide-load; meaning that they require the most pesticide use to reach maturity. Then we have the “clean(er) dozen”, which you can safely buy non-organic.  This is a handy little list to keep handy while you do your shopping because it’s very easy to forget which fruits and veggies are on which list.

Shop organic-only:

• Peaches
• Apples
• Sweet bell peppers
• Celery
• Nectarines
• Strawberries
• Cherries
• Lettuce
• Grapes (imported)
• Pears
• Spinach
• Potatoes

Safe to buy conventional:

• Eggplant
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Bananas
• Asparagus
• Sweet peas (frozen)
• Mango
• Pineapples
• Sweet corn (frozen)
• Avocado
• Onions

The Shrinking Team
Weight-Loss is Hard, We’re Here to Make it Easier

We recently rolled-out a new feature that is available to all our members. Now you can use Facebook Connect to enhance your Shrinking account. When you login to our website you will now see a Facebook Connect button in the right-hand margin. Clicking that will allow you to link your Shrinking account with Facebook. Once your account is linked you will then be able to post from Shrinking onto your Facebook wall, which shares your success stories with all of your friends. We don’t share your weight or your weight-loss, so everything is kept private and you get to share what you want.

We invite you to try out our new Facebook integration and share your Shrinking success with all of your friends.

The Shrinking Team
Weight-Loss is Hard, We’re Here to Make it Easier