Are the last 10 pounds really harder to lose?

Been working on my last 10 lbs. since January the 1st. My scale has not moved at all for 5 months except to go up a couple of lbs. I've lost 71 lbs. in a little over a year. So for me, YES. But this close to goal, I'm just going to keep on track and see what happens. If you would have told me that the first 71 lbs. would be easier to lose than the last 10 before I started I would have called you crazy.

As you lose weight your body is generally burning less calories at rest so you have to eat less calories to have the same amount of deficit, so as you lose weight it tends to get harder (you have to be more extreme) to lose weight. One way to counteract this is to gain muscle mass instead of just lose weight as it will help you burn more calories.

This is true too-- you can (and should) go in and redo your goals with your updated BMR every once in awhile.

I think it is harder because you losing 10 lb at 100 lb (just an example) is a higher % of your overall body weight than 10 lb at 150 lb. Basically you're losing 'more' of your body.

Also, the smaller you get, the less fat there is to lose. Even if you lose weight, your bones and organs stay the same weight!

All I know is that my weight loss was fairly linear for the first 96 pounds, which took just under a year to lose. That brought me right to the top of my healthy BMI weight range. Since then losing weight has become incredibly difficult. I don't know why, but I do know it's very frustrating and I have a new understanding for people who want to lose 10-15 of "vanity" weight, that I never had when I weighed over 200 pounds.

To me yes. But you got to set yourself @goal &motivate yourself

I am on my second trip down from over 160 to my goal weight of 135.

Last time I did this (a few years back) it was relatively easy to get down to 145 but then 145-135 took some work. I definitely had to exercise more, raise my protein up to at least 90g/day and drop my carbs down to 35g or less.

Then I decided I wanted abs so I hired a trainer and within 6 weeks went from 135-127 and started to see abs. (I'm 5'7") Then I burnt out, gave up and ate my way back up to 165 over the course of the last 2 years.

For me the work and sacrifice involved in being under 135 and having low enough body fat to show abs just isn't worth it. I am going to get down into the 135-140 range and stay there this time.

Technically they should be the same but for me I think it got to the point where I was happy with how I looked so I did not try as hard to lose it. I guess mentally it was easier to enjoy food again knowing that I was still maintaining then it was to fight for the last few pounds that in my mind would'nt make that much of a difference. Just my opinion/experience!

yes, this is totally my problem most days. its a mental fight every day with myself to keep pushing on.

It's more of a psychological thing than anything else. Once people know that they are so close to their goal weight there's a few factors that come into play that cause it to be harder.

1. They start easing up on their food logging and intensity of exercise, mainly thinking that the last X pounds will just come of like the other X has.

2. They haven't adjusted their calorie needs after losing the first bit of weight so they're not eating at a deficit anymore.

3. They just stop trying as hard overall. Whatever dieting method they used may have been tedious and annoying so they embrace the fact that they can eat more since they're so close to maintenance when they should still be eating at a deficit.

It would probably be best for people to change their approach once they get close to their goal and don't lose anymore, and start lifting heavy to build muscle (If they haven't already). They'd probably look better at that same weight with more muscle and less fat than to lose that last bit of weight in fat and whatever else...

For me, it's much harder to drop pounds at the last stretch. But I'm doing a lot of strength training and am losing inches. I've set a goal for a body fat %, but would still like to see that nice number on the scale.

I only had ten to lose. That put me at losing only .5 pound per week, which is slow. It seems even slower when you toss in the water weight fluctuations.

So, yes, it is slow.

But I think it's smart to do it slowly so you can keep it up. I don't really feel deprived with my +/- 1600 calories, and I enjoy my 60 minutes of exercise (usually), so I know I can keep it up until I reach my pre-menopausal weight.