Goal weight, calorie goal, and those last 10-15 lbs

lightenup2016

I'm trying to figure out when I should increase my calorie goal to lose 1/2 a lb per week from my current goal of 1 lb per week. A lot of people on MFP say it depends on how many pounds you have left to get to your goal weight. But according to BMI charts, my "normal" weight range is anywhere from 115 to 154 lbs. I'm currently 147-ish. My goal for now is 135, with an ultimate goal of 128. People say to increase your calories once you have 10 to 15 pounds left, but if I wanted to get down to 115 pounds, I'd wait until I was 130. If my goal was 150 pounds, I should have done so already. So when am I supposed to increase my calories? Is there something else to base it on? Should it just be whenever it gets harder to lose the pounds at a rate of 1 lb per week (ie, harder to stick to the calorie deficit)?

I hope my question makes sense! Basically I'm just saying that with such a wide spread of what's considered normal weight, my goal weight is a little bit arbitrary to base it on that.

fitoverfortymom

You're in a normal weight range, so .5lbs per week would be appropriate.

Fitnessmom82

I dropped to .5 pound per week when I was a little bit of the way in to the normal BMI range. 158lbs was the high end of normal, and I think I dropped to .5lb per week at 150. My ultimate goal is 135. I've got 7 pounds to go. I know I could set the goal to 1lb per week but it's not sustainable at this point. I figure the slower the rate of loss at this point, the better prepared for maintenance I will be! Plus I was starting to find myself always hungry when it was at 1lb per week. If were you I'd take all the advice on here and listen to your body. I kind of knew it was time to slow down, just by assessing how I was feeling and how I wanted to feel!

lightenup2016

Ok, thanks. I've been having a harder time lately, sticking to a 500-600 cal deficit. I'll try 300 cal deficit and see how it goes.

Fitnessmom82

lightenup2016 wrote: »

Ok, thanks. I've been having a harder time lately, sticking to a 500-600 cal deficit. I'll try 300 cal deficit and see how it goes.

That's a great idea!! I'll admit, I was scared to drop the rate of loss. I was doing so well losing on 1lb per week, even 2lbs per week at the beginning. I thought that .5lb per week, with such a small margin of error, would derail me. I trusted the process and the advice on here and I feel great! Good luck! You've got this!

judefit18

In truth, I've found that the last 5 lbs are very difficult to lose and that recalibrating is a challenge. Part of that is the lighter weight sustains fewer calories, so the difference between loss and maintenance is slight. I keep logging, watching, weighing and working out and try not to be too obsessive as I figure out what "normal" should be.