"That last 10 lbs" - why is that a saying?
phosphorene
Posts: 9 Member
I'm hitting the end of my weight loss journey and it's taking longer and longer to drop weight. Everyone keeps saying "well, those last 10 lbs are always the hardest."
Why is this a well-known fact? What's going on in those last 10 lbs that make it so difficult to lose them?
Why is this a well-known fact? What's going on in those last 10 lbs that make it so difficult to lose them?
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Replies
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phosphorene wrote: »I'm hitting the end of my weight loss journey and it's taking longer and longer to drop weight. Everyone keeps saying "well, those last 10 lbs are always the hardest."
Why is this a well-known fact? What's going on in those last 10 lbs that make it so difficult to lose them?
You have less calories to eat per day so it's going to be much harder to achieve a substantial deficit. That's why it's recommended for people around here losing the last ten pounds to aim for a rate of half a pound per week. Furthermore, a person trying to lose the last ten may not weigh in every day, so they may have lost two out of the ten pounds, but they weighed in after a day of harder exercise, a cheat meal, during their time of the month, etc. so it appears like they've gained weight when it's a one-off higher measurement. I was able to lose my last ten and it really wasn't too difficult but that's because I weigh in daily and use a food scale for everything so I knew exactly what was up. Even then, it took a while to achieve.9 -
Any number is in use, but usually a round or semicircular one, 5 or 10 pounds, or 5 or 10 kilos. But I have also seen 15, 20, 25 and 30 pounds. That's how arbitrary it is.
There are two aspects here. First, weight loss slows down when your body has less fat to mobilize. You'll have to be more accurate, vigilant and patient, and that at a stage where diet fatigue often has set in.
The oher thing is that weight "left" when you are at a healthy weight that you can easily maintain, is "vanity" weight, and when you start going after your vanity weight, you'll never reach your goal. You can lose five pounds, and still you're not happy. Five more, oh, still some flab. Flab that nobody else can see. "Flab" that is normal padding, fat that's supposed to be there. If you can't stop there, you either end up on a perpetual diet, or you get an eating disorder.
Setting a reasonable goal is crucial. A reasonable goal is healthy and attainable.6 -
Have you reduced your daily calorie goal? The less you weigh the less calories you burn. So you need to eat less to be at the same deficit as you were when heavier.0
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Another thing that happens is, depending on your personal stats, your maintenance calories can be close to your deficit calories when you get to those last 5-10 lbs.
I am small so my deficit to lose 30 lbs at 1lbs a week worked for the first 5 lbs. (1200cals)
After that my loss got less and less as my calorie needs naturally dropped along with my weight, and there was no option of dropping my calories below 1200.
By the time I was 5 lbs from goal it took 4-6 weeks to lose a pound because 1200 is so close to, actually was, my maintainance weight. (I slowly reverse dieted myself to 1350 over a year.)
To make those last few lbs I made sure I upped my daily activity, moving most of the day, and dropped about 50 cals from my exercise calories.
I had eaten back about 75% of my exercise calories the whole year I was losing.
Cheers, h.
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I've been trying to lose the last 5lbs for months, room for error is tiny, not to mention my deficit is only around 200 calories which could easily be negated by inaccurate logging or over inflated exercise burns..5
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I'm in the same spot right now too! I started off losing 2 pounds a week (and sometimes even more, not on purpose), and now it's slowed down to 1 pound a week, which I know is healthy but still stressful when you have no patience lol. It's because you weight less so the amount of calories you burn is less, so if you keep eating the same amount of calories your deficit isn't as large. The calories MFP gives me used to be 1450 for 1 pound a week, and now it's 1200. It's not fair haha1
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SophieSmall95 wrote: »Have you reduced your daily calorie goal? The less you weigh the less calories you burn. So you need to eat less to be at the same deficit as you were when heavier.
I have
I started out around 195 lbs. At a calorie intake of net 1750/day, I was losing 2-3 lbs a week. Note, by the way, that MFP estimated I should only be losing about .5-1 lbs a week at that range. When my weight loss slowed down I dropped my net calories to 1600, then 1500, and resumed losing weight at a rate of about 1 lb a week. I plateaued HARD at 170 lbs and didn't budge for about 2 months.
I went back up to eating around 2000 calories per day for another month and didn't gain any weight. Back on the diet horse again and hoping that break might have helped somehow.0 -
kommodevaran wrote: »Any number is in use, but usually a round or semicircular one, 5 or 10 pounds, or 5 or 10 kilos. But I have also seen 15, 20, 25 and 30 pounds. That's how arbitrary it is.
There are two aspects here. First, weight loss slows down when your body has less fat to mobilize. You'll have to be more accurate, vigilant and patient, and that at a stage where diet fatigue often has set in.
The oher thing is that weight "left" when you are at a healthy weight that you can easily maintain, is "vanity" weight, and when you start going after your vanity weight, you'll never reach your goal. You can lose five pounds, and still you're not happy. Five more, oh, still some flab. Flab that nobody else can see. "Flab" that is normal padding, fat that's supposed to be there. If you can't stop there, you either end up on a perpetual diet, or you get an eating disorder.
Setting a reasonable goal is crucial. A reasonable goal is healthy and attainable.
Thus "diet fatigue you speak of makes sense. I'm soooo tired of this vigilance that I've had to do for so long just to keep the weight I have already lost off.
I had a talk the other day with my husband. I said, "I have had such a difficult time losing the last 10 pounds!" He said, "Then don't. Lose 5 pounds and stop." It was liberating in a way. I have been so unhappy not losing what I want and struggling in the process. I felt that I needed to lose the 5 pounds plus an additional 5 pound buffer because I seem to bounce up and down in a 4 pound range when I'm maintaining.
Somehow I feel the "last 5 pounds" can be attainable if I can just get to there and keep it off. Maybe it's a head game, but when you don't have as far to go, the closer you are to goal it seems even more difficult than when you have more to lose, IMO.
Edited to clarify5 -
Christine_72 wrote: »I've been trying to lose the last 5lbs for months, room for error is tiny, not to mention my deficit is only around 200 calories which could easily be negated by inaccurate logging or over inflated exercise burns..
This is exactly what I struggle with! My deficit is so tiny now, and the margin of error is so small, that I could eat a couple extra bites of something and "poof" there goes my almost negligible deficit.0 -
kommodevaran wrote: »Any number is in use, but usually a round or semicircular one, 5 or 10 pounds, or 5 or 10 kilos. But I have also seen 15, 20, 25 and 30 pounds. That's how arbitrary it is.
There are two aspects here. First, weight loss slows down when your body has less fat to mobilize. You'll have to be more accurate, vigilant and patient, and that at a stage where diet fatigue often has set in.
The oher thing is that weight "left" when you are at a healthy weight that you can easily maintain, is "vanity" weight, and when you start going after your vanity weight, you'll never reach your goal. You can lose five pounds, and still you're not happy. Five more, oh, still some flab. Flab that nobody else can see. "Flab" that is normal padding, fat that's supposed to be there. If you can't stop there, you either end up on a perpetual diet, or you get an eating disorder.
Setting a reasonable goal is crucial. A reasonable goal is healthy and attainable.
Thus "diet fatigue you speak of makes sense. I'm soooo tired of this vigilance that I've had to do for so long just to keep the weight I have already lost off.
I had a talk the other day with my husband. I said, "I have had such a difficult time losing the last 10 pounds!" He said, "Then don't. Lose 5 pounds and stop." It was liberating in a way. I have been so unhappy not losing what I want and struggling in the process. I felt that I needed to lose the 5 pounds plus an additional 5 pound buffer because I seem to bounce up and down in a 4 pound range when I'm maintaining.
Somehow I feel the "last 5 pounds" can be attainable if I can just get to there and keep it off. Maybe it's a head game, but when you don't have as far to go, the closer you are to goal it seems even more difficult than when you have more to lose, IMO.
Edited to clarify
Definitely a head game.. Plus i know these last few lbs aren't going to make a real noticeable difference, which makes it that much easier not to put in 100% effort, and then the excuses start rolling out for that extra hand full of chips, one more cookie etc etc etc
To be totally honest, I just don't have the drive for it anymore. I'm at the stage of if i lose it, great, if not I'm ok with that too.
Gawd what a moaning myrtle, sorry guys
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Some things are cliches for a reason. 2
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Maxematics wrote: »phosphorene wrote: »I'm hitting the end of my weight loss journey and it's taking longer and longer to drop weight. Everyone keeps saying "well, those last 10 lbs are always the hardest."
Why is this a well-known fact? What's going on in those last 10 lbs that make it so difficult to lose them?
You have less calories to eat per day so it's going to be much harder to achieve a substantial deficit. That's why it's recommended for people around here losing the last ten pounds to aim for a rate of half a pound per week. Furthermore, a person trying to lose the last ten may not weigh in every day, so they may have lost two out of the ten pounds, but they weighed in after a day of harder exercise, a cheat meal, during their time of the month, etc. so it appears like they've gained weight when it's a one-off higher measurement. I was able to lose my last ten and it really wasn't too difficult but that's because I weigh in daily and use a food scale for everything so I knew exactly what was up. Even then, it took a while to achieve.
This. Im on the last 15. I maintain, without exercise on about 1800 cals. To lose 1lb a week im down to 1300 cals (which is HARD for me). .0 -
Maxematics wrote: »phosphorene wrote: »I'm hitting the end of my weight loss journey and it's taking longer and longer to drop weight. Everyone keeps saying "well, those last 10 lbs are always the hardest."
Why is this a well-known fact? What's going on in those last 10 lbs that make it so difficult to lose them?
You have less calories to eat per day so it's going to be much harder to achieve a substantial deficit. That's why it's recommended for people around here losing the last ten pounds to aim for a rate of half a pound per week. Furthermore, a person trying to lose the last ten may not weigh in every day, so they may have lost two out of the ten pounds, but they weighed in after a day of harder exercise, a cheat meal, during their time of the month, etc. so it appears like they've gained weight when it's a one-off higher measurement. I was able to lose my last ten and it really wasn't too difficult but that's because I weigh in daily and use a food scale for everything so I knew exactly what was up. Even then, it took a while to achieve.
This. Im on the last 15. I maintain, without exercise on about 1800 cals. To lose 1lb a week im down to 1300 cals (which is HARD for me). .
I do know what you mean because 1200 is about where I have to fight to stay under to lose weight. It isn't really much food, and I especially hated eating "6 small meals a day". Really? That is only about 200 calories a meal.
I'm going to try two meals with 600 calories each. Those kinds of meals at least I have something to work with. They will feel like real meals instead of unfulfilling tiny portions every three hours. I hated that plan so much.
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It's numbers as stated above
But also motivation dies0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »I've been trying to lose the last 5lbs for months, room for error is tiny, not to mention my deficit is only around 200 calories which could easily be negated by inaccurate logging or over inflated exercise burns..
Precisely.0 -
kommodevaran wrote: »Any number is in use, but usually a round or semicircular one, 5 or 10 pounds, or 5 or 10 kilos. But I have also seen 15, 20, 25 and 30 pounds. That's how arbitrary it is.
There are two aspects here. First, weight loss slows down when your body has less fat to mobilize. You'll have to be more accurate, vigilant and patient, and that at a stage where diet fatigue often has set in.
The oher thing is that weight "left" when you are at a healthy weight that you can easily maintain, is "vanity" weight, and when you start going after your vanity weight, you'll never reach your goal. You can lose five pounds, and still you're not happy. Five more, oh, still some flab. Flab that nobody else can see. "Flab" that is normal padding, fat that's supposed to be there. If you can't stop there, you either end up on a perpetual diet, or you get an eating disorder.
Setting a reasonable goal is crucial. A reasonable goal is healthy and attainable.
Thus "diet fatigue you speak of makes sense. I'm soooo tired of this vigilance that I've had to do for so long just to keep the weight I have already lost off.
I had a talk the other day with my husband. I said, "I have had such a difficult time losing the last 10 pounds!" He said, "Then don't. Lose 5 pounds and stop." It was liberating in a way. I have been so unhappy not losing what I want and struggling in the process. I felt that I needed to lose the 5 pounds plus an additional 5 pound buffer because I seem to bounce up and down in a 4 pound range when I'm maintaining.
Somehow I feel the "last 5 pounds" can be attainable if I can just get to there and keep it off. Maybe it's a head game, but when you don't have as far to go, the closer you are to goal it seems even more difficult than when you have more to lose, IMO.
Edited to clarify
Weight does that, bounce up and down, I mean. Instead of a goal weight, have a goal range. I have a range of 3 kilos (6-7 pounds).
Keep in mind that maintaining at just a slightly lower weight will take more effort and vigilance, not just getting there. Your body will be lighter, and thus need and use less energy. You'll have to eat a little bit less every day and/or be a little more active, every day, to keep that lower weight. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it's a tradeoff.
I think the point I am trying to make is to aim for a "happy" weight, and this means that you'll have to feel truly happy with your body. Struggling and forcing your body against your natural instincts will not make you happy. Gentle boundaries, yes, but depriving yourself from the normal, everyday pleasure of eating to satisfaction, no.0 -
The 'last 10 pounds' is really a 'joke' IMO because my last 10 pounds won't be the same as someone else... there's a difference between 10 pounds taking you into the 'normal' BMI and 10 pounds taking you to the low side of the normal BMI... obviously the latter will be much harder to lose.
I think it's just the psychological effect really. You're almost there, you already look good, it can be easier to slip up.4 -
The 'last 10 pounds' is really a 'joke' IMO because my last 10 pounds won't be the same as someone else... there's a difference between 10 pounds taking you into the 'normal' BMI and 10 pounds taking you to the low side of the normal BMI... obviously the latter will be much harder to lose.
I think it's just the psychological effect really. You're almost there, you already look good, it can be easier to slip up.
Good points. I found going from "overweight" BMI to "normal" BMI to be a struggle. Now I'm trying to lose a bit more to get/stay solidly into the mid-normal BMI and finding it to be just as difficult as the previous "last 10 pounds". So maybe it is more accurate to say the last 20 pounds are hard to lose. But it is very difficult to keep the momentum going and not give in at an "okay BMI" as it takes even more effort than before, IMO. Some people breeze to goal, and I wonder if their goal weight is simply a bit higher BMI than others?0 -
If I have 100 lbs to lose, and I lose 10% of that in a month, it's 10 lbs. If I have 10 lbs to lose, 10% is just 1 lb in a month. It's easier for me to be patient if I think in terms of percentage rather than comparing a 10 lb loss the first month to 1 lb loss when I am nearer to goal.2
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phosphorene wrote: »I'm hitting the end of my weight loss journey and it's taking longer and longer to drop weight. Everyone keeps saying "well, those last 10 lbs are always the hardest."
Why is this a well-known fact? What's going on in those last 10 lbs that make it so difficult to lose them?
Presumably with only 10 lbs left to lose most people are really close to not being overweight or not actually overweight anymore. Your deficit is small and you have to be much more accurate than someone who is 50+ lbs overweight. It takes longer to lose a pound so you have to be patient. You don't see as big a difference in measurements, health, weight, appearance, clothing size anymore so there isn't as much reward in the last 10 lbs as there was at first. If you have been doing this for a long time it can be hard to keep going.0 -
I quit worrying about my last 10lbs and concentrated on body composition. If Im not losing weight but Im seeing NSV's, then those are wins.3
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I quit worrying about my last 10lbs and concentrated on body composition. If Im not losing weight but Im seeing NSV's, then those are wins.
Yeah. I never lost the last 3 pounds, heck I gained 5 back... but I lost inches. So I'm trying to not worry too much about the scale at this point, although it can still be a bummer.1 -
I have found that, being fairly lean but still wanting to lose more fat and having loose skin, I have way more water retention issues than ever before. That's what has made the final pounds much more difficult for me. I have to be very steady with sodium and carb intake or else I retain a lot of water and it takes weeks and weeks to go away. My birthday was on Friday and I've had a very laissez-faire few days, diet-wise, and have gone from 148 last Tuesday to 155.5 this morning. It likely will take me until Labor Day to get back down.
I haven't found any good articles about loose skin and water retention. But the second poster in this thread has mentioned it several times in what I've read and there seems to be a fair amount of anecdotal evidence of it.1 -
Maxematics wrote: »phosphorene wrote: »I'm hitting the end of my weight loss journey and it's taking longer and longer to drop weight. Everyone keeps saying "well, those last 10 lbs are always the hardest."
Why is this a well-known fact? What's going on in those last 10 lbs that make it so difficult to lose them?
You have less calories to eat per day so it's going to be much harder to achieve a substantial deficit. That's why it's recommended for people around here losing the last ten pounds to aim for a rate of half a pound per week. Furthermore, a person trying to lose the last ten may not weigh in every day, so they may have lost two out of the ten pounds, but they weighed in after a day of harder exercise, a cheat meal, during their time of the month, etc. so it appears like they've gained weight when it's a one-off higher measurement. I was able to lose my last ten and it really wasn't too difficult but that's because I weigh in daily and use a food scale for everything so I knew exactly what was up. Even then, it took a while to achieve.
This. Im on the last 15. I maintain, without exercise on about 1800 cals. To lose 1lb a week im down to 1300 cals (which is HARD for me). .
Same here. I'd have to eat 1300 to lose 1 lb per week at this point. Even with exercise, I still had a hard time with it, which is why I'm only set to .5 lb a week now, with only 13 lbs left to lose. The diet fatigue point is very true, also...I'm at the point where I'm soo ready to stop trying to lose weight and just do maintenance already. It doesn't help that if I didn't still carry so much flab around my belly, I'd be OK with my current weight, even though I'm 6 lbs above my normal BMI range.1 -
Have any of you who are sick of trying for those last 5 or 10 thought of just switching to maintenance eating at your goal calorie level?
ie: if you are 140 now but want to get to 135. You would eat at the 135 maintenance and just let those last 5 dribble off.
Or even doing that every few weeks as a diet break.The 'last 10 pounds' is really a 'joke' IMO because my last 10 pounds won't be the same as someone else... there's a difference between 10 pounds taking you into the 'normal' BMI and 10 pounds taking you to the low side of the normal BMI... obviously the latter will be much harder to lose.
I think it's just the psychological effect really. You're almost there, you already look good, it can be easier to slip up.
The problem with the last 10lbs being a 'joke' because it won't be the same as someone else, is that the whole of ones weight loss endeavour is not the same as some one else.
Just as with weight loss there are similarities with losing the last 10. One has less fat to burn, where ever your goal is on the BMIscale when you are near goal your calories are going to start to converge making accurate logging more important.
Not everyone is losing to get into the normal BMI range, some are moving within it.
I think, for many there are physiological reasons as well as physiological. JMHO.
Cheers, h.0 -
Like others have said, that last 10 pounds( or 15, 5, 2, 1...whatever arbitrary number) is hardest because you either have to A.) significantly decrease you food intake, B.) Significantly increase your activity/exercise, or C.) Find the right balance between the two to keep the weight going off.
Also, once you hit that "magic number", you then have to attempt to find your correct maintenance calories, again taking activity into account. If you slip on either one, be it food or activity you'll spike up and have to try to work down again.
This is why I think the "magic number" is a significant detriment. I think the better mindset is a general range with your number inside it. So if you want your weight to be 150, say ok, between 145 and 155, or make it slightly smaller or larger, depending on your own individual needs. That will also help account for variations, be it holidays, illnesses, training for a marathon, or any other caloric shift.1 -
Often times it's because the individual doesn't actually have the fat to lose and they're just trying to get to some arbitrary number or arbitrary end of the BMI scale without taking into account that the BMI scale is a range, not so that you can pick and choose where in that range you should be, but to accommodate a variety of body types. I see a lot of people, particularly women arbitrarily trying to get to the lower end of BMI or whatever when in reality it doesn't suit their actual body styles so it becomes an exercise in frustration.
Personally, I think looking at BF% is much more productive than some arbitrary number on the scale. But even then, the human body generally doesn't like being super lean and all kinds of hormonal changes happen when you get really lean.2 -
Super interesting discussion with lots of great points. I remember I used to roll my eyes at people who said they only had 10 lbs left to go. After being on MFP for a while, I now know that whatever your last 10 lbs are, they are physically the hardest to lose. Along with the psychological effects of being so close or having worked hard for so long, and potentially already feeling good and looking good, I can easily see why those "last 10 lbs" are so hard!
I can't wait to have that struggle
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cwolfman13 wrote: »Often times it's because the individual doesn't actually have the fat to lose and they're just trying to get to some arbitrary number or arbitrary end of the BMI scale without taking into account that the BMI scale is a range, not so that you can pick and choose where in that range you should be, but to accommodate a variety of body types. I see a lot of people, particularly women arbitrarily trying to get to the lower end of BMI or whatever when in reality it doesn't suit their actual body styles so it becomes an exercise in frustration.
Personally, I think looking at BF% is much more productive than some arbitrary number on the scale. But even then, the human body generally doesn't like being super lean and all kinds of hormonal changes happen when you get really lean.
I don't pay attention to the BMI, i don't even know what mine is. I'm 5'8 147lbs, goal weight is 143lbs, pretty much the only reason I've chosen that weight is because i can comfortably fit into my jeans without lying down on the bed to do them up! I was at 143 for a nano second last year, aaahhh memories
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Adaptive thermogenesis, mental state after pro-longed dieting, lower calories or more exercise required. Any number of things.1
This discussion has been closed.
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