Push through the last battle of the bulge

Connie lost 52 pounds over the last eight months, and she's got 38 wiggly ones to go. Until now, everything's been great. After a lifetime of gimmicky starvation diets that never worked, Connie has seen the light, and it's not spelled l-i-t-e.

This time, she used her b-r-a-i-n.

Connie's weight loss/healthy lifestyle plan is based on eating modest portions of real food that tastes good and makes her body happy: vegetables, fruits, fish and poultry, whole grains, seeds and nuts.

Her secret weapon? Exercise. No pain, no strain, but she tries to do something physical and fun for 30 to 60 minutes every day.

She's never hungry, she's off her high-blood-pressure meds and her energy level is back to what it was when she played second base for her college softball team. So what's the problem?

WLP. Weight Loss Plateau. Connie is stuck at 163, and she can't get the needle to budge. She's eating the same smart way: no diet food, no artificial sugars, fresh fruit for dessert.

"Everybody gets through the plateau. They just can't give up," said Amy Sutherlin, fitness manager at HealthPoint Plaza. "Their body's just adapted to the workout."

Connie's doing what she's always done: walking, dance class, a stationary bike first thing in the morning. But suddenly, it's not working. WLP is common and extremely frustrating.

"Your body has ideal body weight and ideal for your body may not be your idea of ideal," said Darren Harris, assistant manager of health and fitness at Fitness Plus. "You can always modify your body type. Sometimes it's a little harder than other times."

What can WLP sufferers do to push through the dreaded weight loss plateau? Plenty, according to a man who has seen more pounds lost than the British banking system: Dr. Nicholas Yphantides, medical spokesman for TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly, www.tops.org). TOPS is a not-for-profit weight-loss and wellness support organization based in Milwaukee.

"Some weight loss warriors make the mistake of expecting different results with the same routine," Yphantides said. "It's easy to get discouraged, but it's more efficient to get creative."

Here are some creative strategies from Yphantides, Harris and Sutherlin should you ever butt up against the WLP challenge:

Change it up

You can change your workout by three ways, according to Harris. Duration, frequency and intensity. Work out longer, more times a week or at a higher speed or intensity.

"If you change any one of those things you'll usually be able to get through," he said.

Add a new activity to your routine

This strategy sounds much more jolly than fasting and feasting. Yphantides wants you to activate more muscles, new muscles, in different ways. If you're a swimmer, start some vigorous walking. If you bike, jump in the pool. Also, vary the intensity of your workouts. Run/bike/swim at 80 percent effort, back off, pick up the pace again. It's called interval training, and it's a wonderful tool to make your workouts more productive, and more interesting, too.

Strength train

Switch one or two of your weekly aerobic workouts to a strength-training session. Increasing your muscle mass will jump-start your metabolic rate. Sutherlin suggests doing more exercises that work more muscle. Instead of standing around doing bicep curls, do a lunge and add a curl or perform a shoulder press while doing a squat. "Working more muscles at once gets you a better calorie burn," she said.

More meals

If you've been eating three meals a day, Yphantides advises, switch to five smaller ones so you fuel your metabolism over a longer period of time. Also, be sure to start your day with a solid breakfast. You'll have more focus and more energy all day long.

Features editor Chris Harris contributed to this report.

Marilynn Preston -- fitness expert, personal trainer and speaker on healthy lifestyle issues -- has a website, marilynnpreston.com and welcomes reader questions, which can be sent to MyEnergyExpress@aol.com.