Tips on losing the last 15 pounds

jcummings6

I'm down almost 30 pounds and those pounds came off relatively easy over the past 3.5 months. I'm happy with my progress but I still have about 12-15 more pounds to meet my goal. I've been really struggling lately with my will power over food. I often justify allowing myself to eat more because I've done so well these past few months. I am still exercising and I've been able to progress my running minutes but I'm basically maintaining weight right now. Has anyone gone through this? Anyone have tips to help my mind get back on track and stop the justification of eating snacks? Sometimes just knowing I'm not alone helps. Thanks in advance!

Old_Cat_Lady

That is rapid weight loss. Why not just maintain for a month? Let your body adjust. Remember this is for life; you have time.

kimny72

jcummings6 wrote: »

I'm down almost 30 pounds and those pounds came off relatively easy over the past 3.5 months. I'm happy with my progress but I still have about 12-15 more pounds to meet my goal. I've been really struggling lately with my will power over food. I often justify allowing myself to eat more because I've done so well these past few months. I am still exercising and I've been able to progress my running minutes but I'm basically maintaining weight right now. Has anyone gone through this? Anyone have tips to help my mind get back on track and stop the justification of eating snacks? Sometimes just knowing I'm not alone helps. Thanks in advance!

With only 15 lbs to go you should change your goal to half-a-lb per week (1 lb per at the absolute most). When you get close to or into the healthy weight range you have very little wiggle room and would most likely have to eat an unhealthy low amount to see continued rapid weight loss. You were losing at a rate of over 2 lbs per week, which is very fast, and it's not realistic to expect it to continue. It's possible that restricting as much as you most likely were has taken a psychological toll. So maybe give yourself permission to eat maintenance for a couple more weeks, then start again with a higher calorie goal.

Lots of people take a diet break every few months, and as you get closer to goal it is healthy to continue to increase your calories toward maintenance level to make the transition easier once you get there. Good luck :drinker:

jcummings6

Both posts make a lot of sense. I lost a lot at the very beginning due to decreased carb intake and water weight. For the past 6+weeks I've only been losing about 1-1.5 per week and really my goal is 1 pound per week. I think I needed to hear that my expectations may no longer be realistic though, I often deal with wanting to do everything "perfectly" or why do it at all? I'm going to change my mental goal to .5 lbs a week now and see how I do with that. I actually have my calories set at maintenance because of my competitive/perfectionism issue. If I set my calorie goal too low then I'll either force myself to eat under it or I will consider myself a failure if I go over it. Yes insane I know but at least I'm aware of it! Thank you both for your comments definitely put things in perspective for me.

lorrpb

Set your goal at .5 per week, and think hard about how badly you want to lose the rest of the pounds.

animatorswearbras

I've set my goals to 1/2 pound a week, however I go for a weekly deficit of -2000 instead of a daily deficit and cycle my calories. I'm pretty good during the working week so aim for an average of -500 deficit Mon to Thurs and Friday to Sunday aim for maintenance. This works for me and I don't feel like I'm restricting that much at all whilst losing (I still get to go out for meals at the weekend or the pub after work on a Friday), I also do HIIT circuit training and it's made a massive difference to my measurements so even though I have a goal of losing another 14 pounds I may reassess and stop trying to lose at 7 pounds as I feel leaner (and fitter) now than when I got down to goal for my wedding 4 years ago with just cardio.

I say reassess your goals and don't worry about the slow down, take care and good luck x

LivingtheLeanDream

That's very quick weight loss and you'll have lost a lot of muscle with the fat. Time to slow things down to a healthy loss of 1lb per week - a less aggressive calorie deficit will feel easier to do and will also get you in the right mindset for maintenance.
The closer we are to goal the more accurate we need to be with logging our food.
When you are under 10lbs from goal switch to 0.5lb loss per week.