Plateau buster questions

Hello there

For the first time since October I am starting to plateau.  I want to get the weight loss started again ASAP.  My routine is 60 minutes on the treadmill and 30 minutes strength training.  I know everyone swears by changing up your routine will start up the weight loss again.  But logically it makes no sense to me.  It's all about calories in/ calories out...so if the amount of calories I eat is less than what I burn...what does it matter what kind of exercise I do???  I mean burning 500 calories is burning 500 calories whether it's on the treadmill or on a bike.  So does changing up your routine really work...and if so explain to me why???  It just doesn't make sense to me. 

If changing up my routine is something I should do I was thinking of splitting my time on the treadmill and do 30 minutes on the treadmill and 30 minutes on the elliptical.  Then do the strength training.  Or would it be ok to stay on the treadmill and just intensify the workout by going faster and raising the incline??? 

Let me start with - I'm not an expert, doctor, scientist, nutritionist or personal trainer.  I don't know WHY it really makes a difference, but I'm told that your body learns to adapt to your routine, so no matter that you are spending 30 minutes on the treadmill at the same speed/incline, your body, after a number of months(?) no longer expends the same effort (calories) to perform the task.  This is the same logic that says a body in motion stays in motion.  It takes more effort to start something than it does to keep doing something, from a physics standpoint. 

Try the elliptical, or the bike, or the stairmaster or a yoga class, pilates.  Or what you suggested, change the incline, speed, whatever.

I hope it works...I haven't stuck to any one routine long enough to have this happen to me, but it is a common problem.

The longer you do something the better you get at it. When it comes to working out this is not a good thing. The better you get at it the less the calorie burn is because your body become efficiant at it. If you do long slow cardio try shorter more intense cardio. Instead of an hour everytime doing cardio throw in a day or 2 of 30 minutes at a much faster pace with some incline. I'm no expert either but they say it's better for fat loss to do it that way anyway.

Taking a week (yes an entire week) off of any exercise has broken two of my biggest stalls.  Shocking but true.  I don't know why but it happened.  I don't think changing machines is necessarily the key, but more of changing from less cardio to more weights or something like that.  I know some of the "fad" diets and exercise programs out right now subscribe to the term "confusion" be it muscle confusion or diet confusion so that your body doesn't adjust to any particular program or routine and you continue burning more calories.

 I was always told to do interval training to ramp up a workout.  That way your body has no time to adjust to the changes.  Once your body gets used to it, it is no longer challenging enough to contribute to weight loss.