The last pounds

etherealanwar

I am on my last 13 lbs until I reach my goal weight and ever since I hit a normal BMI weight loss has slowed tremendously! I've read that this is to be expected but I didn't realize it could happen to this extent. I'm lucky if I lose 3 lbs a month now. These final 25 lbs looks like it will take me a full 9 months to lose. I started out at 200 lbs back at the end of 2017 and am currently sitting at 138 lbs looking at a first goal of 125lbs and maybe 120 if I am not satisfied by then.

So to all of you out there, how long did it take you to lose your last 5-20 lbs? Or if you're currently in the process, what is your rate of loss?

sardelsa

For me it took 6 months to lose about 12lbs, with a few diet breaks in between, so around 0.5lb per week. This was all on purpose though. Some weeks were faster, some were slower, some were maintenance. This was last summer and I really wanted to enjoy it, eat as much as possible and minimize muscle loss so I took weight loss slower which works best for me.

cmriverside

It took me nine months to lose the last 15 pounds. Right on schedule.

I had a small deficit. 250 per day. I logged all my food, used a food scale, ate more on exercise days. That way I ate as much as I could, which never seemed like enough.

I was hungry. Legit hungry. I made most of my meals at home so I had some control over fiber, vegetables and fats. It was just hard to stick to a deficit when I was hungry, so some weeks I just didn't stick to the deficit very well but progress not perfection and I did get there eventually. I did have at least one day per week where I was considerably over my calorie goal: like by 700-1200 over on that day. Maybe I could have not done that - but it was my way of maintaining sanity.

It's not that easy (at least for me.)

lin_be

I am with you right now. The last 15 for me. I feel lucky if I see a 1lb loss on the scale in two weeks time. I also am very hungry. So I’ve resorted to eating at maintenance much more, just to keep my sanity. Exercise is a must, thankfully the weather is warmer so I can walk more. I am hoping to hit my goal by the Fall.

apullum

Three pounds per month is a faster pace than you should expect when you're in your optimal BMI range. You should be targeting 0.5 lb/week.

echmain3

Yeah the last 10-12 were very slow for me too. BUT, that was balanced out by the rapid weight loss when I first started.

So the average 1lb/week still worked out to be correct.

etherealanwar

apullum wrote: »

Three pounds per month is a faster pace than you should expect when you're in your optimal BMI range. You should be targeting 0.5 lb/week.

Honestly it's been 17 months and I am down 62 lbs, I do not think I am doing it in an unhealthy way especially considering I see a lot of people lose much faster than me. I am also not eating below 1200 calories. If I were to lose at an even slower pace of 0.5 lbs a week I would become way too demotivated. It's bad enough as is.

etherealanwar

lin_be wrote: »

I am with you right now. The last 15 for me. I feel lucky if I see a 1lb loss on the scale in two weeks time. I also am very hungry. So I’ve resorted to eating at maintenance much more, just to keep my sanity. Exercise is a must, thankfully the weather is warmer so I can walk more. I am hoping to hit my goal by the Fall.

Yes I am the same way currently. It only bugs me because I stick to a 500 calorie daily deficit and make sure to weigh my food and overestimate when I eat out ( which I have reduced to 1-2 times max a week). I honestly thought I would be done in a years time but its looking to be closer to the 2 year mark. Trying to keep my head in the game because I know the time will pass either way I would rather reach my goal in however long it may take then to regret not sticking to it later on.

What deficit are you aiming for daily?

PAV8888

Well my second year on MFP I lost 11lbs. I used a weight trend application to gauge my progress. I learned a lot during that year and the information has served me well in the two years after.

kimny72

I'm sure this is not what you want to hear, but I was losing at a pace of @ 1 lb per month for the last 10 lbs. I was already a healthy weight losing vanity lbs, I'm petite, and not very active. I just couldn't stick to a larger deficit any longer. So I aimed for 250 cal deficit, usually ate maintenance, and only really lost because I continued to work on raising my NEAT while actually hitting my calorie goal a couple of times per week. It turned out my patience was stronger than my ability to carry a deficit for any extended period of time!

Once you get down to the last few lbs, you have to stop thinking about being "motivated" by lbs lost, and start to think about how you are going to eat for the rest of your life. If 0.5lbs per week is too slow and demotivates you, what are you going to do when there's no more weight to lose? That's one reason why maintenance is so hard, people are used to living and dying by seeing the scale move.

These posts might help too:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818701/the-myth-of-motivation-and-what-you-need-instead/p1

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10662287/the-goal-is-the-process/p1

etherealanwar

kimny72 wrote: »

I'm sure this is not what you want to hear, but I was losing at a pace of @ 1 lb per month for the last 10 lbs. I was already a healthy weight losing vanity lbs, I'm petite, and not very active. I just couldn't stick to a larger deficit any longer. So I aimed for 250 cal deficit, usually ate maintenance, and only really lost because I continued to work on raising my NEAT while actually hitting my calorie goal a couple of times per week. It turned out my patience was stronger than my ability to carry a deficit for any extended period of time!

Once you get down to the last few lbs, you have to stop thinking about being "motivated" by lbs lost, and start to think about how you are going to eat for the rest of your life. If 0.5lbs per week is too slow and demotivates you, what are you going to do when there's no more weight to lose? That's one reason why maintenance is so hard, people are used to living and dying by seeing the scale move.

These posts might help too:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818701/the-myth-of-motivation-and-what-you-need-instead/p1

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10662287/the-goal-is-the-process/p1

Maybe I should have phrased it in a different manner. I would still continue on with my weight loss even if it were slower but it would just make the process that much more labored. I know logically what you are saying but emotionally I would be beat down by minuscule losses. I know I will be fine with maintenance since I have been doing this for quite some time now and have become used to it but I would be lying if I said I was not becoming a bit impatient. ( Whenever I went to have a break I'll eat up to 1600-1700 calories and be very satisfied so this is reassuring).

As long as I am not doing anything unhealthy to myself I think it is fine. It seems my TDEE is not that high and will only get lower with the next 13 pounds. I don't plan on eating less to account for this so it honestly might take me until the end of the year to reach my goal. I have also introduced weight lifting these past 3 months to hopefully maintain some muscle mass (aware I should have started a long time ago but I did not feel comfortable inside a gym).

apullum

etherealanwar wrote: »

apullum wrote: »

Three pounds per month is a faster pace than you should expect when you're in your optimal BMI range. You should be targeting 0.5 lb/week.

Honestly it's been 17 months and I am down 62 lbs, I do not think I am doing it in an unhealthy way especially considering I see a lot of people lose much faster than me. I am also not eating below 1200 calories. If I were to lose at an even slower pace of 0.5 lbs a week I would become way too demotivated. It's bad enough as is.

You are not those other people. Their weight loss is meaningless for your weight loss.

It's not just a matter of not eating below 1200, which is already far too low for most people unless they are short, sedentary, and/or older women. It is a matter of eating at a reasonable deficit for your body and losing weight at a healthy pace that does not sacrifice muscle mass or risk getting too few important nutrients.

You need to be okay with being patient as you approach your goal weight. The last few pounds do not come off fast, nor should you expect them to. When you get close to goal, it's common to see the scale only go down a pound or two every 4-6 weeks. Plus, when you get into maintenance, you're going to need to find another source of motivation other than seeing the scale change. I would strongly recommend finding that other source of motivation now. Set a different health/fitness goal to work toward rather than focusing on how quickly your weight is going down. The weight will come off as long as you're consistently in a reasonable deficit.

etherealanwar

apullum wrote: »

etherealanwar wrote: »

apullum wrote: »

Three pounds per month is a faster pace than you should expect when you're in your optimal BMI range. You should be targeting 0.5 lb/week.

Honestly it's been 17 months and I am down 62 lbs, I do not think I am doing it in an unhealthy way especially considering I see a lot of people lose much faster than me. I am also not eating below 1200 calories. If I were to lose at an even slower pace of 0.5 lbs a week I would become way too demotivated. It's bad enough as is.

You are not those other people. Their weight loss is meaningless for your weight loss.

It's not just a matter of not eating below 1200, which is already far too low for most people unless they are short, sedentary, and/or older women. It is a matter of eating at a reasonable deficit for your body and losing weight at a healthy pace that does not sacrifice muscle mass or risk getting too few important nutrients.

You need to be okay with being patient as you approach your goal weight. The last few pounds do not come off fast, nor should you expect them to. When you get close to goal, it's common to see the scale only go down a pound or two every 4-6 weeks. Plus, when you get into maintenance, you're going to need to find another source of motivation other than seeing the scale change. I would strongly recommend finding that other source of motivation now. Set a different health/fitness goal to work toward rather than focusing on how quickly your weight is going down. The weight will come off as long as you're consistently in a reasonable deficit.

I know I should not compare myself to others but it can be hard not to. Thanks for your concern but I am going to keep doing what I am doing as it has been fine for me. My motivation when I reach my goal will be maintaining the body I have achieved.I plan on continuing to weigh and log my food so I am not worried about re-gaining.

girlwithcurls2

This has been a full on revelation for me recently. I realized that if I am at a normal BMI and I want to lose 12-15 pounds to get back to where I was when I began this process, I'm not going to really notice the difference for MONTHS. At a half a pound per week, it's literally going to be months before I can see the difference and feel it in my clothes. I need to remember that when I started losing weight years ago, I totally ignored everything except my food diary & food scale. I didn't weigh myself for 4 months. I didn't care how long it took. I knew that if I trusted the process, I wouldn't have to go out and buy the next bigger size, I could just log and live. I need to get back to that mindset. It's much slower this time because I'm strength training now and I'm trying to preserve muscle, rather than just drop pounds quickly.

MichelleSilverleaf

etherealanwar wrote: »

apullum wrote: »

etherealanwar wrote: »

apullum wrote: »

Three pounds per month is a faster pace than you should expect when you're in your optimal BMI range. You should be targeting 0.5 lb/week.

Honestly it's been 17 months and I am down 62 lbs, I do not think I am doing it in an unhealthy way especially considering I see a lot of people lose much faster than me. I am also not eating below 1200 calories. If I were to lose at an even slower pace of 0.5 lbs a week I would become way too demotivated. It's bad enough as is.

You are not those other people. Their weight loss is meaningless for your weight loss.

It's not just a matter of not eating below 1200, which is already far too low for most people unless they are short, sedentary, and/or older women. It is a matter of eating at a reasonable deficit for your body and losing weight at a healthy pace that does not sacrifice muscle mass or risk getting too few important nutrients.

You need to be okay with being patient as you approach your goal weight. The last few pounds do not come off fast, nor should you expect them to. When you get close to goal, it's common to see the scale only go down a pound or two every 4-6 weeks. Plus, when you get into maintenance, you're going to need to find another source of motivation other than seeing the scale change. I would strongly recommend finding that other source of motivation now. Set a different health/fitness goal to work toward rather than focusing on how quickly your weight is going down. The weight will come off as long as you're consistently in a reasonable deficit.

I know I should not compare myself to others but it can be hard not to. Thanks for your concern but I am going to keep doing what I am doing as it has been fine for me. My motivation when I reach my goal will be maintaining the body I have achieved.I plan on continuing to weigh and log my food so I am not worried about re-gaining.

Just realize that by maintaining a 1lb/week loss when you really don't have the room for it is going to cost you some muscle as well as fat.

SCoil123

I joined this site with 30lb to lose and it took me just over 2yr. I did it slowly and broke it up with some bulk/cut cycles to add more muscle along the way.

BattyKnitter

I'm at my last 20 and it is getting a bit more slow as well, in 5lbs or so I will be switching to a deficit of .5 lbs a week so I figure it will take at least the rest of the year to get down to my goal weight if not more. Though I find the less I have to lose the less urgently I feel like I need to lose it since I find that I look so much better, so it's easier to just trust the process and not be in such a hurry.