Last 10 Pounds, Plateaus. and Calorie Intake

MissMed07

Hello My Fitness Pal Community,

I am finally almost at the end of my weight loss journey and I was looking for some advice on calorie intake and those pesky last ten pounds. I have been stuck at a plateau for last 3 weeks or so with the scale not budging past 135 pounds. I have been following MFP's suggestion of 1200 calories a day, but all of my online research is telling me to UP my calories to boost my metabolism. That seems counterproductive to me. I have also heard of calorie zizagging to help with a boost in metabolism. For those of you who have reached your goal, or for those well versed on this topic, how exactly did you reach your goals?

Thanks!

BJC78

Im stuck to...extremely frustrating to be Soooo close and not moving

erickirb

if you only have 10-15 lbs to go your weekly loss goal should not be more than 0.5 lbs/week. A larger deficit may cause you to burn a high % of lean muscle instead of body fat, which in turn will slow your metabolism down.

kylakesgal

Yes increasing your calorie intake should work. I'm down to my last 7 pounds and I was at a plateau myself about a month ago. I upped my calories from 1200-1380 and that got things moving again. I know eat more to lose more? but it works:)!! Good luck to you, you can do this:)!!!

kbdelarosa

I want to know too....been stuck at 129.5 for 5 weeks now and really want this last 5 to 7 to go bye-bye's!

jonikeffer

You are correct that you should up your calories. It will take you longer to lose the last 10 than the first however-many, but if you resist the urge to keep pushing the cals lower and lower as you don't see a change on the scale, you will have success. Congrats on being so close!

RNewton4269

I plateaued for over a month recently. Zig zagged my calories, changed up my workouts, etc. And then I lost 4 pounds in one week. Have gained one pound back and have stayed here for 2 weeks now. I would love some extra adviced about what I can do too! Thank you for posting this...

Creiche

I actually broke two recent plateaus by both upping my calories (I did P90X, so I was literally starving myself on 1200 calories a day) and jolting my system with a "bad" day where I go way over. I usually gain a bit of water weight after the jolt, but I always have rapid loss after I recover (not scary rapid mind you).

I know eating more is scary, but the last few months for me have been proof that it works! As someone else also said, the last 10 lbs are going to be slow coming off...I'm in the same boat as you, and had to resign myself to this. You'll get there!!

ladyhawk00

The body (especially for women, unfortunately) prefers to have a cushion of fat. So when you get to the point that you have very little fat stores left, you need a much more conservative deficit to coax the body to access those fat stores. As Eric said, with less than 20 lbs to go, you should have your loss per week goal at about 1/2 lb per week (~250 deficit.)

Here are some threads that may help:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficits

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/20343-how-i-have-avoided-plateauing-length-warning

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/230930-starvation-mode-how-it-works

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/181080-mfp-s-most-common-user-pitfall-to-avoid

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/9433-expectations

RachVR6

I've always seen people reduce the size of their deficit when losing the last 10. For example, if you have your goals on MFP set up for 1lb/week loss, then change it to 0.5lb/week loss. Seems to work from what I've seen.

Great work so far...these last 10lbs will be no problem!! :flowerforyou:

getfitdiva

BUMP! I would like to hear other suggestions.

I did get over my plateau at 137 lbs but doing something drastic by low carb/high protein. It works! I also upped my calories to 1350 from about 1300 b/c I usually work out 5-6xs a week hard or run. Now I'm chillin' at 133-135.

LorinaLynn

When I got close to my goal, I upped my calories to 1500 for a half pound a week loss. Most weeks it was a half pound. Sometimes no loss. Sometimes one pound. But the closer you get to your goal, the more you should be eating and the slower you should be losing. It also prepares you for going on maintenance.

melsinct

if you only have 10-15 lbs to go your weekly loss goal should not be more than 0.5 lbs/week. A larger deficit may cause you to burn a high % of lean muscle instead of body fat, which in turn will slow your metabolism down.

Agreed. I have 10 pounds to go and had to set MFP for a 0.5 pound/week loss to break my almost 2 month long plateau. I am still losing but slowly. I have accepted the fact that the last 10 pounds are going to try and hold on for dear life!

MissMed07

Thanks for all the tips guys! These discussions boards are many of the reasons why I love MFP. Looks I'm going to my account settings to switch my goals from 1 1/2 pounds a week. To .5!

anna_lisa

good info

kje2011

bump

susioryan

bump