I've reached my "optimal weight" or is it just losing that last 5-10 pounds the hardest?

ElJefeChief

Stats are currently around 190, give or take. I'm a six-foot-two male, 42, I work out every day, usually walking and recumbent bike, have been getting back into running. Initial weight last year around May was 235. With the above stats my BMI right now is hovering around 24.

So I found that losing the initial weight was actually really not that hard. It required focus and determination, constant logging, yes - but it wasn't that hard.

But now that I've gotten down to about 190, my progress has been extremely slow (I kind of would like to see what getting to around 180 would look like).

It seems like such an enormous effort to get myself down further. I am nervous to restrict too much in order to knock the scale down further (as I don't want to lose significant muscle mass - which, I understand, is a real concern when I'm as skinny as I am now), but it doesn't seem like the incremental approach works that quickly either.

Am I just at my "optimal" weight right now, or am I just too impatient for the rate of progress I'll be seeing at this stage?

jemhh

I think that, for some of us, it is worthwhile to take an extended break from trying to lose before tackling the final 5-15 pounds. I hit 150 in December 2014 (down from 202.5) and then last year mostly maintained while focusing on strength, though I did a couple of half-hearted attempts at cutting more weight. I bounced up and down from 148 to 152.5 all year.

At the beginning of this year I felt a lot more refreshed and ready to hit the last few pounds really hard. The past two months have been so much easier for me than last year's short cuts, even though I'm eating 150-200 calories less than I was then. I just feel better and feel like "okay, this is it, I'm doing it."

I'm not saying that you need to take a year off but maybe consider taking a couple of months or even all spring as a maintenance break (I'd still log what I was eating but that's just me) and then hit it hard again in June.

fiddletime

I'm at the last 3 pounds and decided to call it maintenance after not budging for 6 weeks. It seemed like way too much effort, compared to the previous pounds. I'll tackle it again whe n the weather gets warmer. Since maintenance is the really hard part anyway, no harm in getting some experience at it.