Tips for losing the last 10-20 lbs

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rcpayton
rcpayton Posts: 90
in Health and Weight Loss
Im happy to be in the home stretch of my weight loss journey but the pounds are coming off so S-L-O-W-L-Y! I average about .5lbs every 1-2 weeks. My calorie intake is 1200 plus my excercise calories. I do eat the exercise calories back. I work out at least 5 times a week doing a combination of weights, brisk walking/jogging, bicycling, excercise/circuit training DVD's.

Does anyone have any tips on losing the last 10-20 lbs?

Replies

  • Yanicka1
    Yanicka1 Posts: 4,564 Member
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    Time to up your calories. Put yourself at 0.5 lbs lost a week.
  • rcpayton
    rcpayton Posts: 90
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    Wont that cause a weight gain, potentially?
  • MrsCon40
    MrsCon40 Posts: 2,351 Member
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    Wont that cause a weight gain, potentially?

    Building muscle increases your metabolism. You need to eat in order to build muscle.

    Eating at a sustained caloric deficit will slow your metabolism.

    1,200 calories is not enough calories for someone so close to their goal - unless they are very small.

    Try adding 100 calories every week so your body can adjust. Once it trusts you'll be giving it more fuel it will more willing to burn off fat reserves. At such a low calorie level your body is going to try to hang on to its reserves and will burn more muscle than you want.
  • awdhemi
    awdhemi Posts: 99 Member
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    No, you have to up them slowly. I assume you have it set to lose 1 or 2 pounds a week. Change it to .5 pounds, or something lower to increase your calories just a bit. You will have to slowly work back up to continue weight loss and to eventually maintain!
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    1200 net sounds quite low. Agree that you should be targeting about .5 lb / week now. Is that what you're set to?
  • fteale
    fteale Posts: 5,310 Member
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    I upped my calories slightly (to 1360), so I was set to lose around 0.4 lb per week, and just took it slowly. I ramped up the exercise too. It wasn't too hard as it was during the summer and being hot I only wanted to eat salad anyway. I think it's harder in the winter.
  • rileamoyer
    rileamoyer Posts: 2,411 Member
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    The last few pounds are hard, your body is working more efficiently so just hang in there. Keep it .5 lbs a week or less, mix up you routine, zig zag calories, try a few things differently. Good luck, you can do this.
  • Sp1nGoddess
    Sp1nGoddess Posts: 1,138 Member
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    As you size down your caloric needs change - you might want to revisit your nutrition targets. Changing your workout helps too. New strength routine, circuits, burst training, different cardio.
  • quitmakingexcuses
    quitmakingexcuses Posts: 906 Member
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    I've recently started weight training for about an hour (or as long as it takes me to do my sets) and 45-60 min of cardio 5-6 days a week and eating back all of my exercise cals. It's been helping so far, but I think i'll do what the other posters said once I get to my last 10 lbs.. (I have about 14 to go right now)
  • rcpayton
    rcpayton Posts: 90
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    My calorie setting was to losing 1 lb per week. I have changed it to .5 lbs. Hope this helps! Thanks guys!
  • michellewilliams10
    michellewilliams10 Posts: 37 Member
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    I've been trying to shift the at 10lb for what seams like an eternity. I was excercising like mad but it wasn't budging. I decided to relax about it, excercise when I can & now eat 1500 or so, sometimes more. And guess what? .........the scales are shifting nw 1lb per week (and that's with me having weekends off!)

    I also think as I get nearer my goal weight I should be eating more so I learn what my maintenance calorie intake will be.

    Good luck , I'm sure you'll get there
  • DaniCanadian
    DaniCanadian Posts: 261 Member
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    I'm on the last 20 or so pounds as well and it's definitely slower than the initial! I've given myself a year to lose just the 20 so expect much slower results than you had in the beginning. I'm set at .5 lbs as week with light activity. I'm usually under by 100 or so during the weekdays but on weekends, I give myself a break. I'm not going overboard but I'll eat around 1800 on weekends. I'm losing around 2 lbs per month right now so right on target! I think if you relax a bit with your eating and exercising your body will start to respond again. Jillian michaels also gave an excellent piece of advice that if you're in the home stretch of weight loss to up your calories to between 1800-2200 for 3 days in a row so your body knows it's getting enough fuel and can start burning fat stores again. Good luck and keep hanging in there!

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