Personal Insights into losing the last 10 lbs

Several people are finding losing the last 10 lbs challenging after losing a significant amount of weight. I thought it might be interesting and helpful if people shared their insights into why it is so hard for them.

Thoughts?

Replies

GoRun2

I regained 10 lbs. Part of my problem is that I had a couple of injuries that limited my walking. I'm no longer a runner. Staying home more and being bored led to eating more. I also seemed to have lost my ability to not overeat at social events or while traveling. My injuries are better so now I can go to the gym and I can walk up to 5 miles (yippee). I still struggle with social eating. I also got a list of about 50 nearby hikes. I'd like to get back out on the trails once it warms up a bit more.

steve0mania

The issue is generally one of intake/output. When one is 50 pounds overweight, cutting back on food intake leads to a significant change in the in versus out equation. Thus you lose weight. As you get closer to goal, if you have only slightly continued to further restrict your eating, the differential between in and out decreases, so weight loss slows. By the last few pounds, you would really have to significantly restrict your intake to keep losing.

This, of course, is offset somewhat by increases in exercise (which become somewhat "less effective" as you weight less; it takes less energy to move a 150 pound body through space than a 250 pound body).

So, when I first lost weight, I got down to ~125 pounds (from 180+). Staying there, though, really required that I did things "right" very consistently. There was not much leeway.

I, personally, think that 130 was a good weight for me as it was both attainable and sustainable.

Over the years I got a bit sloppy, and crept up a bit.

Now it's hard to break the habits I've generated to work my way back down again.

jasper60103

"I, personally, think that 130 was a good weight for me as it was both attainable and sustainable."

I agree. Keep doing what you're doing. The scale will tell you what works.
My lowest was 168, but 173 seems to be a comfortable weight for me.

beachwoman2006

It took me 9 months (January to September 2004) to lose my last 10 pounds to reach goal. I attributed finally reaching goal to switching over to the Core plan. I switched to Core on August 22, 2004 (as soon as it was released online), reclaimed my lifetime status on September 1st and was below goal by September 15th.

In reality, I think it was more what @steve0mania talked about. By switching to a new plan, I was more cognizant of what I was eating. It was sort of like when I rejoined WW in the first place.

Remember that, as you lose weight, the points (additional calories) you get for activity drop! Again, as Steve0mentioned, it takes less energy to move 140 pounds than it does to move 200 pounds. Don't just enter the points (calories) you THINK you're getting based on what you've gotten in the past. Especially if you're planning to eat those points (calories). Review those frequently to be sure that you aren't giving yourself more than you should be.

I never tracked nor used APs. When I started WW, I calculated the APs for walking 2 miles a day (6). Then I re-calculated them using my target goal weight (2). I decided right then that any activity I got would just be there and would maybe take care of any miscalculations. I didn't want to become accustomed to using those additional 6 points a day.

Be honest with yourself! Are you still weighing and measuring everything? Or have you become an "expert" at knowing what a serving size looks like? When you eat in a restaurant, do you track things honestly? For instance, if you eat a steak, do you just automatically ASSUME that it was cooked without butter (many high-end steakhouses use butter to cook their steaks -- that's the reason they taste so good!) so you take the lowest points (calories) shown in the database? And was that REALLY a 4-oz steak or was it more like a 6- or 8-oz steak?

The easiest way to get yourself back on track is forget how much you weighed in the past. That's gone. Start over with your current weight and pretend that you're just starting WW.

I have a friend who started WW the beginning of January. She and I message frequently and she was doing AMAZINGLY well the first 6 weeks. She started at 201 and at the end of 6 weeks, she had lost 13 pounds -- well above the 2-pounds-per-week (which, as we all know is the ONLY thing people see -- they don't see that it's an AVERAGE of 1-2 pounds a week). All of a sudden, she stopped losing for no apparent reason. She said that she had changed nothing and hadn't lost anything in 3 weeks.

I made the suggestion mentioned above -- start over. Reset your starting weight and start over. She messaged me yesterday and said that she lost 5 pounds this week.