When you’ve been keeping up your healthy habits for a while now, why is it that it’s so difficult to lose the last 10 pounds? After all, you’re not new to this strategy. You’ve used it to burn through all the lost fat until now. Why is it that you’re so close to your goal and things are suddenly much harder?
The Struggle to Lose the Last 10 Pounds is Real
You’ve been dropping weight over time through sensible techniques. You’ve seen a pound or so slip away each week as you eat within a calorie range, keep up your regular exercise and give some focus to factors like sleep and stress busting, too. Things haven’t necessarily been easy, but they’ve been steady so far…until now. What is it about those last 10 pounds that make all the difference – and not necessarily a good one?
It’s a common occurrence. Suddenly, you’ll feel hungrier, your strategy is more challenging, the pounds don’t come off as fast or you may have completely plateaued. The last 10 pounds are among the most frustrating throughout your entire journey toward your goal. It can feel as though you’ve hit a physical and emotional wall that simply cannot be scaled.
Don’t throw in the towel! You may have reached a frustrating new step along the way, but you’re not doomed. It’s completely possible to overcome it as long as you do the right strategy clean-up.
Tips to Reach Your Weight Loss Goal
To break through the barrier of the last 10 pounds, use the following tips to get things moving again.
- Track everything – Make sure you really are sticking to your weight loss strategy. Often, as time goes by, we slip in certain areas. Sometimes consciously, sometimes we don’t even realize we’ve done it. If you’ve stopped tracking your nutrition and fitness, pick it back up again, if only for a while. This will help you to find potential correctable areas.
- Drink water – Some of those last 10 pounds could be fluid retention. Keep yourself hydrated to flush out any extra weight that has nothing to do with body fat.
- Re-examine your calorie range – Your healthy calorie range shifts depending on many factors, including your current body mass. If you’ve lost a lot of weight already, you may not need as many calories anymore and it could be important for you to trim them back a little. Use a good quality calculator to help guide you or, even better, talk to your doctor or a dietician to recalculate.
- Bump up your workout intensity – Diet is the most important factor for weight loss, but exercise is the most important factor for preventing weight gain. If you’re getting fitter after all that regular exercise, you may need to boost your workout intensity to get the same results you once were. Re-examine your current workout to see if it needs a bit more oomph to help you through those last 10 pounds.
