The Last 5

wow, your loss is amazing! Congratulations. I'm down to 6lbs to lose (Until I change my goal to something lower!) but I haven't stalled out yet so I have no advice. I just wanted to congratulate you on your success.

The last five pounds are extraordinarily hard to lose. At that point, you are in the realm where daily fluctuations in weight are larger than what you are trying to lose. You would be well-served by giving up the scale and switching to tracking body measurements. I did the full two months of insanity near my goal weight and didn't lose a pound. If I hadn't been tracking body measurements, I wouldn't have know I lost 4" off my waist and would be very discouraged. It's going to take longer and the losses are going to be smaller the closer you get. If you haven't already, consider reducing the amount you are trying to lose each week. 2lbs/week is practically impossible close to goal. Switching to 1 lbs/week or 0.5 lbs/week is more realistic. Heavy lifting can also help. This close, you need to encourage your body to pull from fat reserves rather than from lean body mass. Working your muscles hard will do that and can help you continue to drop inches. As for losing the gut, there's no miracle trick. It's going to take maintaining a small deficit and a lot of time. Good luck.

I've been stuck on the last 5 for 3 months now. I've been trying to read as much as I can to find ideas. A few people recommended carb cycling or lowering carbs to less than 100g. A few people recommended the 5-2 plan, but I don't know if I can handle only eating 500 calories on the low days. I think I just need to eat a little less, but I'm not a fan of not eating when I'm hungry or having zero social life. I'm just trying to be more consistent and crack down on the splurges. I usually lose a lot of weight doing a 4 week cleanse in January where I cut out sugar, alcohol, dairy, soy, red meat, gluten, and high glycemic fruit, so if haven't lost it by then, maybe it will come off during the cleanse.