Advice on Losing the Last 5 pounds

It can be tough. I'm down to my last 7. Like you, I'm in my healthy BMI range- right in the middle of it actually- but I have a small frame, so there's just a bit of fat I'd like to shed if possible. I'm eating 1500 a day too, trying not to eat too many of my exercise calories back. Last week I lost 2 pounds but this week I don't think I've lost anything if my peeks at the scale are correct.

No advice for you as I'm in the same boat, sorry!

You look fabulous in your profile picture- what an amazing difference in your face!

Eat at maintenance for a week then drop back down to 1500 and double your workouts (or increase by 50% depending on how taxing they already are). Will you hate it? Yes. Will it work? Yes.

I box 9 hours per week then take a rest day running. You can make excuses and just keep doing what your doing, or you can work harder for what you want...

Here is my advice: CONGRATS!! You look stunning. They say that the last 20 pounds of major weight loss and the last 5-10 of moderate-little weight loss is the hardest. You might need to reconfigure the stats for your new weight, exercise regimen and you may find you are eating too little. You may also find that you have to drop the calories down for just a little bit to get it! I cannot believe your journey has come to this point! I don't know you, but you made my day with your success. Again, you were and are stunning! Keep it up. Have a LOVELY day.

In my experience, the last 5 isn't harder to lose than any of the rest of it, it just comes off slower. It's hard to say how much you should be eating without knowing your stats, but now that you are a healthy weight (and especially if you are fairly lean) you just can't lose fat as quickly as you did when you had larger fat stores. I would recommend a very small calorie deficit - whether you you use MFP's goals, or have set up your own based on your TDEE, aim to lose 0.5 lb a week maximum.

In my opinion (and experience with my own weight loss) you don't have to workout like crazy to get there - how you create the deficit is up to you. In fact, if you're going to be doing hours and hours of exercise, then ideally you'd need to eat back those calories to keep your calorie deficit reasonable. Otherwise, you just risk dropping too much lean mass, which probably won't get you the body you're after.

(Editing to remove advice to lift - missed that part in your OP)

I'd suggest eating at maintenance and not overkilling the exercise , I'm set at "lose 0.5lbs per week" and don't exercise and I'm consistently losing around 1.2lb per week (5ft5.5 180lb eating 1810 cal) so I'm sure there is plenty of room to up your calories, that way you won't have to up your calories too far when you want to stop losing so shouldn't see the gain associated with eating more :flowerforyou:

I agree that it's not harder, just slower.

But also keep in mind that your weight loss goal was just an estimate, and that exact number might not be appropriate.

Eat just a tiny bit below maintenance. Track your progress through measurements, how clothes fit and especially progress photos. You might find that you don't need to lose any more pounds. You might even find that gaining pounds will give you the final result you really want.

I agree with this^^. I have lost soooo slowly I could hardly tell.

I lost the last 5lbs (and fat and inches, which is even better!) by following the advice in this thread: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

I found my BMR and my TDEE, and have been eating at 1800 calories, which is a 15% cut from my TDEE. I workout six days a week, weights 3 days and running 3 days, with great results. Hope that helps!

bump

i was told to up my calories, slow down on the cardio and do more lifting. so far i have lost 3 pounds. im really close to my goal now

This ^^^ This is how I dropped my last 5 LBs.