Females only - how did you lose the last 10 pounds?

Weigh every food you can possibly weigh. Estimate high when you can't weigh. When you are close to your goal weight, your calorie deficit gets very small, and even a few errors can put you in maintenance or cause you to gain. I had to be meticulous about it.

Don't trust exercise calorie estimates from gym equipment or the MFP database. They're notoriously high. This is why many people say to eat half your exercise calories--not because you only need half, but because estimates are often wrong.

Get comfortable with water weight fluctuations. Intense exercise will cause water weight gain. So will some foods. So will hormonal changes. It's annoying and normal.

Be patient and realistic about how long it takes to lose the last 10 pounds. It took me eight months.

HoneyBadger155 wrote: »

KickassAmazon76 wrote: »

At some point, life became too overwhelming and injuries were in full force, that I skipped the "Pay attention... -5" part, and just repeated the "slack on logging... +5" cycle a few too many times. lol

Oh boy do I know that feeling. I was losing nicely, had made activity a part of my life again (after my first "desk" job saw the weight gain in the first place), was making solid progress, and then a bad injury with the stress that came with it, plus a move and other "life" stuff, put back on most of what I had lost Now back to slowly taking it back off.

at least we know we can do it! Now it's just a matter of wanting it badly enough TO do it. haha

Discipline, consistency... and PATIENCE!! It took about 6 months to lose the last 10!

The first time, food scale and accurate logging, and lots of patience. The following times (after pregnancy, several bulk cycles, so I lose those last 5-10lbs often), I didn't track, but I had decent calorie awareness so just kept going until I was happy.., adherence, consistency and patience.

I lost 20 lbs in 2 months and can't lose the last 10 lbs as fast! I really shouldn't be so surprised by it's frustrating when you don't see the scale move!

celeste_2009 wrote: »

Hi ladies!! I am 5'4, 135 pounds, and I've been trying to lose simply a pound since January, to no avail. I was doing intuitive eating before, but finally started MFP this week, with the aim of eating 1800 cals/month. Any advice? I feel like when there is less to lose, it's much harder! (as is evident from my lack of progress!)

I find that it's more mental than physical at this point. I've always been weighing and logging food, so I'm good with that side of it and I pretty much get the expected rate of lose. You just have to keep plugging along! Time of the month can hide any loss for 2 weeks out of the month for me. I find .5lb per week really hides it's self sometimes. But it is happening! I'll get a whoosh every couple of weeks, then stall again. I have one stinking pound to go and have been bouncing around it for 2 weeks now. It will happen eventually! There's a lot of temptation to slack now that I am basically done and I am really fighting that. I'm also eager to get on to maintenance calories and finding myself a little more hungry every day. Hang in there!

I got down to 125 after a year and a half-but probably the last 6 months was the last 5 pounds. I'm also 5'4", menopausal, hypothyroid and 50 years old (got to the lowest weight at age 48 in 2016). I would agree with all of the above- you have to be very meticulous- no cheat meals because they can throw off your whole week, no bites, licks, tastes, weigh everything and be patient. Avoid sodium, or if you eat something with high sodium, don't weigh yourself for a day or two because it can be discouraging. Also I changed up my exercise routine, added intervals and toward the end stopped eating back exercise calories. After I got to 125 I kept losing without meaning to and got to 121 for a few weeks. Maintenance is definitely much harder than losing because it's all about striking a balance. Getting back into some bad habits I gained back up to 141 this last winter and am trying to get into a range between 125-130. I was back to 130 about a year ago, but then relaxed and lapsed back into the bad habits of eating too many sweets and bad carbs. But instead of ignoring it I am trying to get back down and I am down around 137 at the moment. I almost like the losing thing better because you get the encouragement of good habits on the scale- with maintenance you have to not eat too much, but not eat too little- very hard to get that balance just right!