I'm in the final stretch and it's getting TOUGH now.

If you have 5 pounds left, 1 pound per week is too aggressive. Go to .5 pounds which will increase calories by 250 per day.

As to the other - take some days 'off' and eat at maintenance. Which sounds like 1900 for you. (1400 + 500 deficit now = 1900.)

In that respect, you could eat some days @ 1400 and some @ 1900 and have the same impact as 1650 per day.

You should have a deficit of 250 calories. You should aim for 0.5 pounds loss a week.

Since you are at your goal weight, if you start eating maintenance or even an extra 250 calories a day, you WILL GAIN WEIGHT... but water weight, where the body uses that water to aid processing the extra foods.

So, if your goal weight is 135, then getting to 130 is a wise idea as when you increase food intake, you'll retain more water, upping the scale some.

Grats on the success.

I'm hungry, and a little light headed.(dizzy when I stand) and it's very hard to stick to, like tonight, I'm invited to a child's birthday party with cake. I can't fit cake into my cals. So now what? Skip dinner?...

This weekend is my wedding anniversary, and I'm dreading eating out. Sit down restaurants are just calorie bombs.

Are you getting sick? I'm hungrier than usual when I'm sick.

I'll second the advice to reduce your weekly goal. I'm down to the last 5 lb. and I have reduced my goal to 0.5 lb./week. It requires paying more attention to not going over, and to being accurate, but it makes me less hungry.

Finally, a few indulgences are OK, even in one week, as long as they don't become a habit. Much of the weight you gain from eating out is water and solid waste, and it will be gone again in a few days. But even if you eat 500 over maintenance, you'll add only a couple ounces of fat, which you can make up by eating 100 fewer calories over the next five days (or walking an extra mile or so each of those days).

I would recommend that you take a look at the chapter on "Perfect Weight Forever" in John Walker's free ebook The Hacker's Diet (http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/), then look at the chapter on "Signal and Noise." Once you're at maintenance, regular weigh-ins combined with some simple math can give you an early warning system for any weight gain.

Good luck!

Congrats on your success so far...


...however...


...what do you think happens when you reach your goal? Do you think you're done once you reach goal and it's all easy from here until eternity? I'd suggest that you not fixate on the goal so much because it's almost predictable what happens next if you declare "mission accomplished" and go back to what is easy.

That said, are you certain your calorie deficit is appropriate? Too large of a calorie deficit can make this more difficult than it needs to be...especially when you're dealing with those last few pounds. Also, weighing and measuring everything? Because with these last few pounds, you're hopefully dealing with a small deficit that can easily be wiped out with a few bad guesstimates.

Don't go to a party or anniversary dinner on an empty stomach. Fill up on green veggies or celery before you go. The more variety you have in your fridge the better. Have them cooked up and ready to heat.. Jello is basically water so you really aren't adding any nutrients to your diet which your body is craving. You probably interpret your need for nutrients as cravings for your sabotage foods. Artificial sweeteners can trigger cravings. Bring your own low cal appetizer of veggies to the party to share and a separate serving for you.

Another idea is to have a low carb/protein shake (whey or pea protein) that you make with a lot of ice and water and a couple of strawberries(low carb fruit) and a teaspoon of flaxseed. They fill you up for hours. Once you are full, you don't think of the goodies laying around.

Join a gym and fill your downtime with working out. Try out a new workout class like Body Pump or Body Combat or Yoga. Buy some workout clothes to get yourself psyched for it. If you eat the cake, commit to working out an hour more that day.

You might choose an alternate anniversary celebration like going to the movies(on a full stomach) or a walk at the park or beach, skating rink, bike ride, fishing, etc. rather than a food oriented celebration.
This is a good idea for maintenance, too.

Also, you may want to try a cleansing tea, which can restart a stall in losing weight. Hope this helps. Congratulations on all you have accomplished so far!

I changed my calories to 1630 and I will aim to eat below that when I can, but eat up to it if I can't. Thanks for the advice everyone. I will not give up! I can do this!

I'm probably in the minority with this opinion, but I believe this is counter to your goals. It could be part of the the reason it's "tough now"...because it's tough to work around actual hunger because of too great of a calorie deficit...and one of the ways you end up in too great of a calorie deficit is falling short of your calorie target. (The other way is having too low of a calorie target.)

Lol albayin, I almost didn't include that I'm jealous. Went out to dinner with a 6 ft tall man and was feeling jealous at his "weight loss calories". I'm like if I had that many cals to work with I'd eat all the things!

oh my god....I could have written this one, too...except mine is 6'2 tall...LOL