Someone PLEASE explain why the last 10lbs are harder then the first?

It's a mixture of this, I believe, plus a larger deficit could run you the risk of not eating enough/getting enough nutrients to keep your body healthy.

For me it's easy... I'm way hungrier.

kommodevaran wrote: »

It's just math; logical and physiological. There is nothing special with the last pounds, but at a lower weight you'll have less wiggle room. A constant calorie deficit for a constant weight loss demands constantly lowering the calorie intake. The last pounds are typically harder to shed than the first pounds, just because eating very little is hard for most people. To reach a low weight, you have to either endure a proportionally large calorie deficit, or have a smaller deficit for a longer time.

Not quite, with only 10 lbs to go you will probably eating more than when you had 30 lbs/lose, it is your deficit that should be smaller, not your caloric intake.

It is true that as you weigh less your body needs less calories in. But I don't agree with a poster above who said that your body will "try to hold on to weight" the leaner you get.

As you get healthier and exercise more, your body become more EFFICIENT at using the calories you take in. Becoming more efficient at using those calories, even though the calories are still low means harder to lose that last bit of weight. Your body uses as much of those calories you're taking in as possible because you've taught it to be a better machine and utilize its inputs better. Which is really good!!

You should adjust your calories for the 0.5lb loss per week because you don't need a large deficit. That is when your body will begin to hold on to as much input as possible because you aren't feeding it enough. When you feed it enough those last few pounds will come off, slowly but surely! Don't think that a larger calorie deficit is the answer. It's not. Slow and steady wins the race.

And if you're weight lifting, don't forget your body composition could change (more muscle less fat) and your weight won't shift dramatically. So when it comes to the last 10lbs it's recommended you use a measuring tape, pictures, the way those "perfect weight" pants feel when you put them on, etc...

NeverCatchYourBreath wrote: »

It is true that as you weigh less your body needs less calories in. But I don't agree with a poster above who said that your body will "try to hold on to weight" the leaner you get.

As you get healthier and exercise more, your body become more EFFICIENT at using the calories you take in. Becoming more efficient at using those calories, even though the calories are still low means harder to lose that last bit of weight. Your body uses as much of those calories you're taking in as possible because you've taught it to be a better machine and utilize its inputs better. Which is really good!!

You should adjust your calories for the 0.5lb loss per week because you don't need a large deficit. That is when your body will begin to hold on to as much input as possible because you aren't feeding it enough. When you feed it enough those last few pounds will come off, slowly but surely! Don't think that a larger calorie deficit is the answer. It's not. Slow and steady wins the race.

And if you're weight lifting, don't forget your body composition could change (more muscle less fat) and your weight won't shift dramatically. So when it comes to the last 10lbs it's recommended you use a measuring tape, pictures, the way those "perfect weight" pants feel when you put them on, etc...

Can you, or anyone else, clarify/elaborate on this? I don't understand this... seems like you're contradicting yourself. Also, I don't understand how the body gets more efficient as using calories.

MrM27 wrote: »

As you get leaner you have a smaller margin of error. Usually those "last 10 lbs" are vanity lbs and isn't really necessary to lose. People can't get past that stage but are willing to stop trying because at that point they'd already be in a healthy weight range.

With those last few lbs accuracy and consistency because more important than ever. You can lose a bunch of weight without being accurate as long as you're in a deficit but like I said above, with less fat that margin begins to disappear.

The deficit needs to be smaller because at that stage in the game you have to realize that your body will only oxidize a certain amount of fat a day. It will need to pull energy out of somewhere. Your maintenance will usually be lower than before you lost all the weight and having a deficit that is to large can weigh on your satiety, energy levels and adherence.

Adequate protein levels and resistance training will aid in lbm retention but you can't count on over consumption of protein to fully prevent the lbm lose. Increase protein beyond certain levels aren't going to accelerate MPS.

^^This. I'm still 25 lbs. from the end and I'm starting to run into this already. If I eat too little, I gain weight (that angers a lot of people who insist that a larger deficit will cause a larger loss and that one will never gain weight from eating too little, but I observed a weight gain for 4 weeks after cutting calories too low. As soon as I raised calories to a smaller deficit, I lost it again). The "window" of how many calories can cause weight loss starts to become small, and so if you unwittingly go outside of that window, you will gain weight or stall. One must be extremely precise in measuring and this is when weight loss is not just in the kitchen - heavier people can lose weight usually just by eating less because they require more energy just for every day sedentary activities such as working a desk job. As you get closer to your goal, you will need to not only eat the right amount (above RMR, but below total expenditure), but you will also need to exercise more in order to increase calories expended.

midwesterner85 wrote: »

MrM27 wrote: »

As you get leaner you have a smaller margin of error. Usually those "last 10 lbs" are vanity lbs and isn't really necessary to lose. People can't get past that stage but are willing to stop trying because at that point they'd already be in a healthy weight range.

With those last few lbs accuracy and consistency because more important than ever. You can lose a bunch of weight without being accurate as long as you're in a deficit but like I said above, with less fat that margin begins to disappear.

The deficit needs to be smaller because at that stage in the game you have to realize that your body will only oxidize a certain amount of fat a day. It will need to pull energy out of somewhere. Your maintenance will usually be lower than before you lost all the weight and having a deficit that is to large can weigh on your satiety, energy levels and adherence.

Adequate protein levels and resistance training will aid in lbm retention but you can't count on over consumption of protein to fully prevent the lbm lose. Increase protein beyond certain levels aren't going to accelerate MPS.

^^This. I'm still 25 lbs. from the end and I'm starting to run into this already. If I eat too little, I gain weight (that angers a lot of people who insist that a larger deficit will cause a larger loss and that one will never gain weight from eating too little, but I observed a weight gain for 4 weeks after cutting calories too low. As soon as I raised calories to a smaller deficit, I lost it again). The "window" of how many calories can cause weight loss starts to become small, and so if you unwittingly go outside of that window, you will gain weight or stall. One must be extremely precise in measuring and this is when weight loss is not just in the kitchen - heavier people can lose weight usually just by eating less because they require more energy just for every day sedentary activities such as working a desk job. As you get closer to your goal, you will need to not only eat the right amount (above RMR, but below total expenditure), but you will also need to exercise more in order to increase calories expended.

What do you propose would happen if you continued to eat "too few" calories?

In addition to some of the previous comments, as you near your weight loss goal you are presumably also near the tail end of a dieting phase. Adherence generally goes in the tank, logging and measuring practices can get questionable, stress hormones can elevate, leptin can decrease, energy expenditure can decrease from being lower in weight and an additional small adaptive component, proportionately less fat is available for oxidation, and all of these factors can collectively manifest into a situation where losing fat just becomes more difficult to do.

You have generally fewer calories to work with, you have a lower sensible limit as far as the rate at which you should lose weight, appetite increases, stress can increase from long term dieting, and it just basically sucks a hell of a lot more than it did when you started.

And the adherence/compliance piece is huge.