Calorie advice please

snowy_sk

I'm down to my last 10(ish) pounds now and am finding that my weight loss has slowed right down (I'm talking less than a pound per week). I did kind of expect this but am also wondering whether my metabolism has slowed down somewhat. I'm eating 1200 calories a day, exercise 3 times a week and eat those calories back.

Do you think it would shake up my metabolism a bit if I maybe ate my maintenance calories say twice a week? I dont want to hinder my weight loss (or put any on!) but also dont want to carry on only eating 1200 if it's now not quite so good for my body. I have lost 33 pounds so far and now weigh 152 pounds (5'6" tall).

If anyone has any thoughts on this or has experienced something similar, I'd be really grateful to hear what you think!!

joehempel

I think you should try to eat more, and also exercise more. That might kick-start your metabolism.

LushLoni

Maybe try a different exercise to what you're doing at the moment? They say it's good to keep the body guessing x

aj_rock

Last few pounds are always the hardest.

The key is that you have to slow down your expectations, aim for less of a deficit, and just be patient. Too much too fast and you lose lean body mass, not fat.

Atlantique

I'm down to my last 10(ish) pounds now and am finding that my weight loss has slowed right down (I'm talking less than a pound per week). I did kind of expect this but am also wondering whether my metabolism has slowed down somewhat. I'm eating 1200 calories a day, exercise 3 times a week and eat those calories back.

Do you think it would shake up my metabolism a bit if I maybe ate my maintenance calories say twice a week? I dont want to hinder my weight loss (or put any on!) but also dont want to carry on only eating 1200 if it's now not quite so good for my body. I have lost 33 pounds so far and now weigh 152 pounds (5'6" tall).

If anyone has any thoughts on this or has experienced something similar, I'd be really grateful to hear what you think!!

If you're still losing, I'd keep doing what you are doing. As you get closer to goal weight, your loss will definitely slow down, as it should because you have less fat to burn. If you've got 10 lbs or less to go, you should switch your goal to losing only a half pound per week anyway, so you don't lose more muscle than is absolutely unavoidable. Too much muscle loss will make it much harder to maintain your weight.

I'm an inch taller than you and ate half my exercise calories all the way through. I lost very steadily at two pounds per week for most of my time here, then it slowed to about a pound a week, and it took me two weeks to lose the last half pound.

erickirb

with only 10-15 lbs to go your caloric deficit should be small. Try setting your goal to 0.5lbs/week, this will give you more to eat, and limit the amount of muscle you lose while dropping the last few pounds.