Losing those last five pounds is just so hard

Twinkles9876

I am struggling to keep up my motivation to lose those last five pounds ( or 3 kilos in our part of the world). I log everything I eat and exercise regularly, every day. I weigh weekly but there is no or very little difference on the scale from week to week, which I find really demotivating.
I am thinking of going to monthly weigh-ins instead. Has anyone had success with this? I feel like I need regular feedback on my progress to keep me going but the scale is often not my friend. I just get impatient and feel like giving up.

Looking for a friend in a similar situation so we can support and motivate each other. I am 65 and work part time.
Thank you

autumnblade75

It sounds like it's time to switch to maintenance. Did you have a plan for how to keep the weight off when you get to goal? Start practicing!

emmamcgarity

I have found that weighing daily with a weight trending app (Happy Scale) has helped me see the smaller incremental differences that I wasn’t seeing on weekly weigh ins. It took about 10 daily weigh ins before I was able to see the trends.

Also keep in mind that the last few pounds will be very slow.

age_is_just_a_number

Those darn last 5 pounds!
This is going to sound crazy, but this is what ‘worked’ for me — essentially I play a mind game with myself and lower my goal weight. Then I have 15 pounds to lose and somehow the ‘real’ last 5 pounds are easier to lose.

I also find that weight naturally fluctuates. So, overshooting by a few pounds allows my weight to ‘hover’ around my original goal weight.

Xellercin

I also would switch to maintenance. I personally actually start with maintenance. I eat for the weight I want and then eventually get there.

sijomial

What does "giving up" actually mean?
Giving up on trying to lose the last 3kg for now or giving up completely and regaining what you have lost?
Giving up food logging?
Giving up healthy habits like regular exercise?

Really think you need to work on your attitude to what you see on your bathroom scales otherwise maintenance (either now or when you get to your goal) will be a miserable and stressful experience and that's not the way to sustain your loss long term. I would suggest actually going the other way with your frequency of weighing to dampen down the significance of seeing your weight. Turning it from emotion to data.

I'm 62 and work part time like you but I don't find losing the last 5lbs hard, I just do it slowly every year to move from winter top of my weight range to summertime lower end.

Agree with others saying switch to maintenance for now and reassess. Taking away stress is a good thing for your happiness and often for weight loss too.

ahoy_m8

To me, the definition of successful maintenance is regaining and re-losing the same 5lbs over and over. So congratulations! You are in maintenance (by my def).