Why are the last few kg so hard to shift?

[doyoulikemyyams]

I'm 5'4 and 61kg (which is 9 stone 6).

Aiming for 57-58kg (bang on 9 stone), so only really about 6lbs to drop.

But it will not come off – I'm eating lightly, exercising sustainably, lots of fibre and protein, and the scales have been stuck at 61 for months.

I've heard lots of people say that the last few pounds are the hardest to lose – can anyone help me understand why that is, and what I could do to get to my goal weight without doing anything excessive or unsustainable?

I’m the same height as you but 64kg and I find it hard to lose weight. The lowest I’ve been in the past 10 years is 61kg. I was 54kg when I lived off hummus and pitta bread.

It’s because the less you weight the less calories you need to maintain your weight. If you’re 100kg you can eat 2000 calories and still be in a deficit and lose weight.

At ~60kg your maintenance calories will be around 1700. To be in a deficit you have to exercise far more and eat far less than a heavier person.

To add the only time I lost weight was when I did a lot of cardio!

Ah, @CraftyNavySeal that makes sense - and it feels really frustrating!

I guess this is one of those times when the "you can't outrun a bad diet" / "it's all about what you eat" narratives start to become less true...?

I really don't want to cut down on what I eat drastically because I know it won't be sustainable in the long run and I'm not interested in yo-yoing.

So maybe I just have to turn to exercise now, and, as you say, get serious about the cardio?

Yes exercise definitely comes into play now, plus it’s good for your overall health as well.

I do weight training 3x a week which is good for building muscle and looking “toned” but adding 20 mins of running at the end is the only time I lose weight.

I’ have the opposite problem, I had to increase my calorie intake significantly otherwise I keep losing weight.

I exercise most days (trail running twice a week, strength training, martial arts, yoga for recovery) and my diet is mostly based on plants (I had meat and fish twice this week). If I don’t eat over 2000 kcal a day I will keep on losing weight. I’m only 5’3 and trying hard not to go lower than 48 kilos.

I personally think that the number and amount of plants I eat make a difference. I counted out of curiosity and I had 17 today, even though I had really crap fast food lunch (with a micro salad, not counted).

I am also addicted to exercise, I feel sad and restless when I cannot move, especially outside, I get cabin fever when I have more than one meeting at work in a row 😅.

Same it’s taking me so long. I have 3lbs to lose now and it will take me weeks! I lost the first load of weight more easily but it’s taken me the last 7 months to lose 10kg and now it’s slowed down to 0.1-0.2kg a week 😂

unless I go at it with exercise then I have a better weight loss week, I walked 10 miles yesterday and I think this has finally going to have an impact. You don’t need to do high impact cardio but obviously walking takes longer than running so I did mine in sections of 3 miles and 7 miles. I’m also not prepared to keep cutting calories

it is totally down to calorie intake at this point, because you are not overweight it’s hard to cut it further so exercise usually does help by making you have a deficit, it’s still probably pretty small but keep going. The exercise had little impact on weight loss when I was 100kg but now I am 68kg it does seem to have an impact. When I was 100kg I just ate less

however it might not be worth flogging yourself too hard over a few lbs, maintaining that lower weight is also a challenge in itself so don’t be too hard on yourself. You will get there

@CortieTat um... congratulations?

@Menora thank you! I totally hear you on not flogging myself – it's not important enough to me for that, but I'm in my late 30s now and thinking about setting myself up well for perimenopause, so I'd like to get to a point where it's pure maintenance.

I have a hunch getting back to weights will make a difference, too - just got to do the initial few days and get it all back into my routine...

@doyoulikemyyams no need for congratulations, I hope my tips can help you move the final pounds.
I always got the most visible results re muscle definition from pilates-like exercises.

I'm in the same boat, I have a small frame and want to lose 14lbs, from 9st to 8st. No one agrees I should because I'm technically in the healthy zone but I'm a narrow boned pear shape and that stone is just sitting there as fat on my bum/hips and making my cellulite much worse (I'm prone to it and even had it when I was ill at 7st 5!)

For the life of me I can't seem to eat less than about 1,500 cals/day, and even that is very rare, usually 1,700-1,800. I work out with weights most days, and that's not helping at all, though good for my muscles. So I reckon cardio is the way to go.

Would anyone be up for a support thread specifically doing cardio for weight loss?

@Potterton you can just walk more, you don’t need to do anything special. Walk as fast as you can handle to get your heart rate up. I love to see how fast I can walk a mile it’s a challenge. It’s also free!

Also do like Pilates but from that I have just become more flexible I am not sure it’s toning me as much as the weights do

Have a look at slow jogging or niko-niko pace. It’s very slow running that anyone can do even if you have never run before. There are YouTube videos showing the technique, it is quite counterintuitive at first but once you get the idea you just keep going.

I recently started experimenting with this and I had to slow down considerably to do get the technique right, but it is really different from running and from walking. When done correctly it happens in the fat burning zone. It gets the body and mind into a kind of meditative state which is quite relaxing actually so I’m not tired afterwards but full of energy and happy. There’s a book called Slow Jogging that explains that at that pace our body releases specific types of endorphins that are similar to THC!

I'm 48, 5'7" and 12 stone odd, would like to be 11 stone. I've not managed to get below 12 stone for the last 16 years. I'm fit and healthy, have a good exercise routine which I stick to and is manageable, and my measurements are 37", 29", 38", I eat a good balanced diet and keep alcohol consumption moderate.

My height to waist measurement is the in the healthy range, my cholesterol is perfect, resting heart rate in the low 50s, BP 110/60, cardio fitness very good to excellent, am strong and flexible from weights and yoga, am quite muscular, my skin is very good and I hardly ever get so much as a cold.

So I've decided to just carry on what I'm doing but never weigh myself or track food unless bad habits start to creep back in and I feel clothes getting tighter.

It’s physics
When you were bigger you used more energy (calories)
Now you aren’t you’re using less, making the weight harder to shift
Get a weighted vest - mine weighs 12lbs and is filled with sand, but there are lots of options, tricks the body once more into burning through those calories.

I wear mine at work under my tee-shirt, for about 4 hours at a time each day. I own a tea shop, so I am on my feet. But wear it when you’re walking or whatever you do for exercise….