How to lose those last few pounds

[Julia_G]

Hi, all,

I think this applies to people at the end of a lengthy weight lose journey as well as to those like me, who are already at an “officially” healthy weight but think they would feel better, or look better, just a few pounds lighter.  

I’ve been trying for years!  Several times I have managed to get those last pounds off, but they bounce right back on and I am always ALMOST at my goal, and never quite there...

What are your best tips for the last few pounds - how to get them off and how to keep them off?

All thoughts appreciated!

[JuanFitbit]

Hi @Julia_G ! This is a very interesting topic. 

From what I have read, (I'm not an expert) , a lot of people "suffer" from this threshold that is  very difficult to get over. 

I've noticed that the body "gets used" to diets so that those last pounds are not easy to be worked on. 

A lot of experts say that you may need to make a pause of the diet (small changes) to remove the stress on the body while on diet. And after 1 or 2 weeks retake the diet. During this time, you should keep working out if you have done so until then .

Hope this brings you a bit of inspiration. 

[uscpsycho]

This is either a psychological barrier or a physiological barrier.

What you didn't tell us is exactly how you are trying to get to your goal weight. If all you are doing is dieting that is almost surely the stumbling block. You're going to have add some exercise while remaining in a caloric deficit.

[Heybales]

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@Julia_G wrote:

Hi, all,

I think this applies to people at the end of a lengthy weight lose journey as well as to those like me, who are already at an “officially” healthy weight but think they would feel better, or look better, just a few pounds lighter.  

I’ve been trying for years!  Several times I have managed to get those last pounds off, but they bounce right back on and I am always ALMOST at my goal, and never quite there...

What are your best tips for the last few pounds - how to get them off and how to keep them off?

All thoughts appreciated!

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Having a goal weight figure is going to drive you batty - not possible considering the many healthy needed reasons for water weight fluctuations.

You need a goal weight range. Especially as a woman.

How big a deficit are you attempting when you do this - 1000, 500, more, unknown?

You only seem to reference numbers on a scale - are you wearing a sign around your neck daily declaring current weight and desired weight that anyone but you would know don't match?

How much do you think you need to lose - literally a few lbs, like 3-4?

Or do you have actual fat in places you'd rather not have, and you hope number on the scale will take care of them?

If already at a healthy weight and bodyfat level - your body will fight attempts to go lower than what it wants. It can be done, but attempt a big diet with so little to lose and body is likely to stress out, increase cortisol, and increase water weight - while in the diet. And risk muscle mass loss.

Couple ways to deal with this - if you have had extreme diets in the past - you could have ended up being skinny-fat, more fat and less muscle than average, even though weight is healthy range.

Don't repeat extreme diets and lose more muscle mass - very hard to get back - especially as a woman.

If this is the situation - you need to tell body to build more muscle, eat at maintenance level to keep weight, and it'll use the extra fat as energy source.

This is slow, muscle can't build nearly as easily or as fast as fat can be lost, which isn't fast either.

But it's safe.

You'll have to be doing a progressive body building weight lifting routine to tell body to build more though. You can start with a strength lifting routine until current muscles are tapped out, then switch.

Do you have means to lift?

If this isn't desired method or not possible, or literally 3-4 lbs will make the difference on fat levels (can't spot reduce though, but we all usually know the last spots that go) to like the look better, couple ways to keep the body stress down.

Diet just a tad worse than reasonable for 1 week, eat at maintenance the next week.

500 cal deficit would not normally be reasonable at all for 3-4 lbs, but truly eating at maintenance every other week allows hormones to reset, cuts down the stress, ect.

250 cal deficit would be reasonable week after week, 1/2 lb weekly loss. But you better have your food logging nailed exactly, and be getting good estimates from Fitbit for daily burn, since you subtract from that.

You don't start at some arbitrary low number that has no bearing on your activity level.

Other method is 5:2 light fasting - 2 days a week you eat at 25% of daily burn, other 5 days you eat at maintenance. Leads to a 22% average deficit.

Same improvement of hormones and removing stress.

Of course when the weight is gone - you can eat more than the diet, but maintenance will be a tad lower. With those method bouncing to maintenance - you get a good idea on what that is to keep it up.

Also log scale weight and waist measurements in a trending app - if weight and waist go up with fat slowly - you know you're eating too much.

If only weight and fast (fat is not fast) - then you know it's water weight and can stop driving yourself batty if that happens.