If you’re a bit on the top heavy side — slender legs and hips, coupled with an amply endowed upper body — you can easily reshape your proportions. All

You’re stuck. The scales won’t move. The body fat won’t budge. You’ve “plateaued.” The problem with a plateau is the mental frustration that goes along with it. So the faster you can push through the plateau the better. I will outline how to do that in this column. But some perspective first: A major reason why most people plateau is that they’ve been living and eating in a caloric-deficient state for too long. If this describes you, it means that your body has adjusted to that caloric level and it stops burning fat. When denied food, your body begins to feed on the protein in your muscles. Because muscle is the body’s most metabolically active tissue, depleting it interferes with your ability to burn needed calories and start losing again. Plus, staying in a caloricdeficient state lowers your metabolic rate, making it harder for your body to burn fat. To break your plateau, follow this four-step process. Step 1: Move into a caloric-surplus state. This eat-more-calories advice defies conventional wisdom, but it works. Increasing your calories will help recharge your metabolism. For a period of two to four weeks, gradually increase your calories – even to the point of gaining weight!