Those struggling to lose the last 10lbs

Why is it “harder” to lose the last 10 pounds? Why does Mary over there lose 2 pounds a week and I only lose 1? It has nothing to do with what kinds of foods you are eating or what time you eat, or when you workout, etc. It’s still the simple calories in vs calories out equation. This is basically how I understand it and I thought I would write about it in case anyone else was interested.

As you lose weight, you need less and less calories for your body to function (maintenance calories, or TDEE (total daily energy expenditure)). Of course, TDEE varies based on body composition and activity, but here’s a basic example for you:

Susie weighs 175 pounds. At her weight, her TDEE is roughly 2450. She deducts a generous 1000 calories a day to create a deficit. Now she is going to eat 1450 calories a day. This will allow her to lose approximately 2 lbs per week. (1lb = 3500 calories)

TDEE: 2450
Daily Calorie goal: 1450
Deficit: 1000 calories (1000 calories x 7 days a week = 7000 calories under maintenance = 2lbs loss per week.)


Now, Susie has lost 25 pounds. Yay Susie! She can eat the 1450 calories a day, but if she wants to still lose 2lbs a week she needs to decrease her calories, because NOW her TDEE is only 2100. So in order to still lose 2lbs per week (1000 calorie deficit), Susie needs to eat 1100 calories a day. Now MFP (and it’s generally recommended) will not let her go down past 1200 calories a day—she won’t get adequate nutrients below this. So Susie goes down to 1200 calories a day. Her total weekly weight loss goes down some to around 1.8lb per week loss. So she is eating less calories and still has less of a deficit. Sucks, doesn’t it?

TDEE: 2100
Daily calorie goal: 1200
Deficit: 900 calories (900 calories x 7 days a week = 6300 calories under maintenance = 1.8lbs loss per week.)


Now, Susie weighs 125 pounds. Awesome job Susie!! But she’s 5’3” and would like to get down to 115. This is where it gets even harder. Her TDEE now is 1750. She can’t eat any less than 1200 calories a day. She won’t get adequate nutrition if she does. She stays at 1200, because she can’t go any lower. Even though she is still eating the same amount of calories, her deficit is smaller because her TDEE decreased with her weight loss. She will only lose about 1.1lbs per week now at 1200 calories.

TDEE: 1750
Daily calorie goal: 1200
Deficit: 550 calories (550 calories x 7 days a week = 3850 calories under maintenance = 1.1lb loss per week.)

SO, as you lose weight and your TDEE/maintenance calories decrease, weight loss becomes slower because you cannot create as large of a deficit as you were able to before. And with a smaller deficit, you have less and less room for error (aka underestimating intake and over estimating expenditure), and more of a chance that water weight will mask your fat loss.

Moral of the story? Keep up the good work! Fight the good fight and the weight will come off. Just understand that it happens more s…l…o…w...l...y than before.


Side note: This is also why it’s recommended to add strength training and get adequate protein in your diet. It will help you to preserve your muscle mass while in a deficit. The more lean body mass/muscle mass you have, the higher your TDEE, the larger of a deficit you will get.

Hope this helps someone out there! :flowerforyou:

I'm on my last 10 pounds here! My weight is about 158.4 or 159! I was told to up my calories but when I TRY i gain a couple pounds! CAN someone look in my diary and tell me what they think!