Almost at goal weight, but stuck in a slump

Congrats on your losses! Great job so far! This may not be the best advice for everyone but it has worked for me. Take a little break from restriction if you are mentally able. Maintain your level of activity but give yourself a week or two at maintenance. If your diary is showing that you should be losing (but you aren't) its possible that you've loosened the reins a little too much on your logging. It's okay to take a break, it's good for the mind and spirit. It gets harder to lose the closer you get to your goal. Personally, I have recently dropped my loss rate from 2lbs per week to .5 (1 am only 1.8lbs from my goal weight.) This has allowed me to enjoy a few more "treats" during the day and has done wonders for my outlook on my journey. Since I dropped my loss rate I've lost probably 3 or 4lbs (I've been losing faster than my rate but I tend to over log items.) Good luck!

Hi Emily,
Don't be discouraged. What you are going through is a normal process when it comes to losing a significant amount of weight. You actually have a couple of things working against you right now. One is the fact that your body no longer needs the amount of calories that it once did to maintain the weight. Let's say that you once required 2500 calories to maintain your weight. You decide to cut your calories by 1000 and find yourself losing a few pounds per week. However, once you have lost 100 pounds, your body no longer needs the 2500 but now only needs 1500 (I have no idea what your actual numbers are but with myfitnesspal, you should have a pretty good idea). If you are eating 1400 calories per day, then you have now only created a 100 calorie deficit. So, instead of losing 1 pound every three days, it now takes you 30 days (3500 calories per pound). The other thing working against you is that your body is getting close to its 'set' weight (probably your goal weight). This is going to cause your body to go into overdrive trying to keep from 'starving'. There are a couple of things that I know have helped me. I started supplementing with bcaas (this amino acid peptide is the building block of protein synthesis) leucine is one of the amino acids in bcaas. This amino acid can really help you burn fat (I would take it in a good bcaa supplement though). I also take l-carnitine tartrate. This amino acid shuttles fatty acids into your mitochondria to be used for energy. I found out that I was not taking enough though. I now take 6-8 grams per day centered around my carb meals and workouts. Also, when you do cardio, I know everyone is on the hiit train but in order to burn fat for energy, your body requires the presence of oxygen. When you do hiit (high intensity interval training) your body just about stays in an anaerobic state. The problem with this is that in that state, your body burns glucose without oxygen (the byproduct is lactic acid). Most people trying to lose weight are not eating a tremendous amount of carbohydrates for the body to burn so what happens is your muscle is broken down for the glycogen that your body can almost instantly convert to glucose for energy. The problem you are creating here is that you are now decreasing your muscle mass which will slow down your metabolism even more. When you do cardio, get your heart rate up to the point where it is somewhat difficult to talk but not impossible. So, my advice would be

check your calories to make sure they do not need to be adjusted down (no more than 500 calorie deficit)
increase your aerobic cardio
if you decide to supplement with bcaas, you should be able to cut back some on the amount of protein (how much will depend your specific needs)
consider supplementing with l-carnitine tartrate (6-8 grams a day around workouts and carbs).


I hope this helps you. I started back in September and lost about 50# and stalled for about a month. I started those things and I am now losing about 1.5 -2 pounds a week again. I have now lost 62#. Good luck on your journey and I hope I was able to help you. :-)

Diet breaks are refreshing, really!! Get job so far!! Congrats!!

Oh yea, find your maintenance calories because eventually you will have to eat at maintenance.