These Diet Plans Will Break Through Any Weight-Loss Plateau

During our initial consultation, I put my 38-year-old patient Jennifer on my foundation plan, which includes organic whole foods and eliminates problematic things like processed foods. I've found this becomes a powerful way for patients to lose weight and eliminate pain, especially when combined with lifestyle factors like consistent exercise, eight hours of uninterrupted sleep, and stress management. Jennifer did wonderfully on this plan for about a month, losing nearly 12 pounds. But then she hit an infuriating plateau: "The scales won't budge, even though I've stuck religiously to your plan," she told me during her second follow-up visit.

Ideal for leaky gut, autoimmunity, and chronic inflammation, I've found that an elimination diet can also break the worst plateau. This is because food intolerances often creep into the best diet, stalling weight loss and exacerbating pain. My three-week elimination plan removes gluten, dairy, sugar, corn, soy, and eggs. These common offenders, which can make you overweight, tired, and inflamed, hide in restaurant dishes and easily slip in when you attend social functions. So never "assume" that something is clean and free from inflammatory ingredients.

Another tried-and-true tactic to break plateaus is a ketogenic diet. Among their benefits, studies2 show they can dramatically help you lose weight, lower triglycerides, improve blood glucose, and normalize cholesterol safely and without any side effects. Ketogenic diets dramatically increase your intake of healthy fats like avocado and wild-caught fish, moderate protein intake, and decrease carbohydrates to shift your body from utilizing glucose to ketone bodies as fuel.

With the ketogenic diet you'll still eliminate food intolerances, except barnyard-raised or organic eggs if you can tolerate them. The big difference with ketogenic diets involves increasing good fats and downsizing carbohydrates to low-sugar sources like leafy and cruciferous veggies, nuts and seeds, and berries. On this plan, you'll reduce portion sizes by about 20 percent, though thanks to copious amounts of healthy fats you'll stay satiated. You'll also do a 12-hour intermittent fasting window daily, meaning you might stop eating by 7 p.m. and then have breakfast at 7 a.m. And while it might sound challenging, a ketogenic diet helps you lose weight quickly and safely without feeling hungry or deprived.