Harder to lose nearer goal weight?

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fr33sia12
fr33sia12 Posts: 1,258 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I was wondering why, when you get nearer your goal weight, people say it's harder to lose weight or you have to be more careful about how any calories you eat. Isn't it still just a case of eating less calories than you burn?
I'm 32 lb away from my goal weight, so not too worried about this yet, but when I get nearer (say 14lbs to lose) I was still intending to be eating around 1200-1300 cals a day, or netting 1200 when I exercise. I know the lower I weigh the less I burn naturally, before exercise, but I will still be in a deficit so should still lose right?

Replies

  • trollerskates
    trollerskates Posts: 87 Member
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    Your bmr changes as you do. So you gotta make adjustments
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
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    The issue is that the closer you get to your ideal body weight, the 'wiggle room' or margin for error in logging decreases as well. So it sometimes happens that people think they're still in a deficit when they're really not.

    But if you truly remain in a calorie deficit the weight will continue to come off, albeit more slowly.
  • fr33sia12
    fr33sia12 Posts: 1,258 Member
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    trollerskates wrote: »
    Your bmr changes as you do. So you gotta make adjustments

    I know this, as I said I know I'll burn less as I lose weight, but BMR is what you burn doing nothing, sitting all day long, I move around a lot, again as I said I'll still be in a deficit eating less calories than what I burn.
    snickerscharlie wrote: »
    The issue is that the closer you get to your ideal body weight, the 'wiggle room' or margin for error in logging decreases as well. So it sometimes happens that people think they're still in a deficit when they're really not.

    But if you truly remain in a calorie deficit the weight will continue to come off, albeit more slowly.

    Thank you this is exactly what I needed to know, I get it a bit more now.
  • trjjoy
    trjjoy Posts: 666 Member
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    Use MFP to determine your current weight's maintenance calories and subtract x number of calories to lose x amount of weight each week.
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
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    It can be harder depending on activity level. I was able to eat/net 1200 easily when I was 20+ pounds overweight. Now that I'm 110 pounds and I don't have any weight to lose, netting as low as 1200 just doesn't work for me on some days.
  • emmycantbemeeko
    emmycantbemeeko Posts: 303 Member
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    Yes, your BMR is "just" what you burn by living, but it's still the bulk of nearly everyone's daily calorie burn, and depending on how large you were to begin with and how much you lose, the change can be dramatic, up to several hundred calories a day. It's also the case that burn from activity will decrease with weight- moving 300 pounds takes much more energy than moving 150 pounds, so the same activity level will burn fewer calories as you shrink.

    So an intake and activity level that produces an enormous deficit at your starting weight may produce much less or no deficit nearer your goal weight. Many people struggle to adjust to that new reality, and eating less than they had been accustomed to, especially when that "new normal" they'd been losing weight on was already a decrease from their habits when they gained the weight in the first place.

  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    Problem is you need a minimum number of calories to meet your body's nutrition demands, and when your body has less fat to lose, if you're not eating enough, it's more likely to take the energy from your lean mass. Plus you won't burn as many calories from exercise (moot point for me though, as my workouts are more intense, so I actually burn more now).

    In more concrete terms - you're hungrier and it's just not possible to keep the same deficit as you go. Smaller deficit = slower weight loss.
  • fr33sia12
    fr33sia12 Posts: 1,258 Member
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    Thanks everyone, I'll see how I go nearer the time :)
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,943 Member
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    trollerskates wrote: »
    Your bmr changes as you do. So you gotta make adjustments

    Your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) is what's important when it comes to weight loss, because if you eat over on a consistent basis you will lose weight. The less you weight, the lower your TDEE is.

    BMR is just the amount of calories it takes to sustain you at your most basic level. :)
  • fr33sia12
    fr33sia12 Posts: 1,258 Member
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    I'm not sure about using the TDEE as the calculator asks about exercise, like how many days a week and for long, well it differs everytime. One week I might exercise 5 days a week, the next every day, I may walk for 1 hour, I may walk for longer, so which option am I supposed to use.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    edited May 2016
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    fr33sia12 wrote: »
    I'm not sure about using the TDEE as the calculator asks about exercise, like how many days a week and for long, well it differs everytime. One week I might exercise 5 days a week, the next every day, I may walk for 1 hour, I may walk for longer, so which option am I supposed to use.

    I just set that at zero exercise, and then add it in manually as I do it. I also have a Fitbit that is synched with MFP which automatically adds in extra calories earned from walking as each day progresses. And since walking constitutes the majority of my daily exercise, it makes it really easy.

    So when I exercise over-and-above just walking, I'll add that separately as it occurs. :)
  • shrcpr
    shrcpr Posts: 885 Member
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    fr33sia12 wrote: »
    I'm not sure about using the TDEE as the calculator asks about exercise, like how many days a week and for long, well it differs everytime. One week I might exercise 5 days a week, the next every day, I may walk for 1 hour, I may walk for longer, so which option am I supposed to use.

    If your exercise is not consistent week to week it's better to just use MFP and eat back exercise calories. Most folks eat back only a portion of estimated exercise calories since it's not always easy to accurately know how many calories you've burned, especially with exercise that isn't steady state cardio.

    As to the OP, like others have said, typically the deficit gets pretty low when you're close to goal weight and you have to be super consistent and accurate. I'm there right now. A 250 calorie per day deficit can get wiped out very easily with one restaurant meal per week if you're not careful.

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