If you've been on a diet and have been seeing a good rate of weight loss, you're likely very satisfied with your results.

That is, until that scale stops moving.

Unfortunately, weight loss plateaus are all too common and something that almost every dieter will deal with.

Most often, the reasons for this are pretty straightforward, but many people do not fully understand how to recognize them, and thus, just keep going along on their diet, hoping things will eventually work themselves out.

But, they usually don't.

Unless certain action steps are taken, you likely will remain at a very slow rate of weight loss - or you may not even lose any more weight at all - period.

Here are the steps to take.

Step 1. Lower Calories By About 10%

Many times, people forget to factor in that as they lose weight, they will then require fewer calories to maintain that weight. This means that if the calories are then not directed downwards slightly, rather than continually losing weight, they will just maintain - hence the plateau.

The first step to try then is decreasing your calories about 10%. This is usually what it takes to get things moving again.

Unless of course you are already at a very low calorie intake (defined as bodyweight in pounds multiplied by 8).

If this is your case, then move directly to step 2.

Step 2. Increase Calories For Two Days

The second step is to increase your calorie intake for two days (usually by about 30-500 depending on how strict the diet is), and then start up on the diet again.

That should get things moving fairly well if the metabolism had begun to slow and now was ‘stuck' burning calories at a very reduced pace.

Many times this is hard for dieter's to do as they fear they'll regain all the weight they lost.

Keep in mind though that it takes 3500 calories to make a pound, and you definitely are not even going to come close to this by adding an extra 600-1000 over a couple of days.

It really is a vital step though if you are to get out of that plateau.

Step 3. Take A Full Diet Break

Finally, the last step if both the other two fail is a full diet break. This is basically what will be needed when you've been on a diet for the very long term and are really seeing a metabolic decline.

In this case, your body is going to need longer than a couple of days to show progress in terms of brining that metabolic rate up, so you really should give it at least a week at maintenance level eating.

Note that you likely will gain some weight during this time, but it will be mostly in the form of water weight loss, and nothing that won't come off quickly upon returning to the diet.

So, next time you're finding yourself ‘stuck' on your diet, keep these steps in mind. The sooner you can resolve the issue, the sooner you'll find yourself losing weight again.