Question for those who are at or near goal ---

[floydgirl]

I have about 25 lbs. more to go. Yipee!!! However, my weight loss has slowed down tremendously. I am very lucky if I lose 2 lbs. in a month. I am measuring myself and I am losing inches. At this rate it will take me a year to get to goal! I was a size 20 last year at this time, now I am fitting into a size 12! Great news!

As you have gotten closer to goal, did you find that the pounds are coming off slower and slower? What, if anything, can I do to make them come off faster? Or is this just the way it goes? Could it be my age?

Yes, I do drink tons of water, and I exercise a lot. I've been hitting the weights regularly and am constantly adding more weight and more reps. I also try to walk 30-45 minutes every night after lifting.

Am I doing something wrong? Am I missing something?

[kellygirl2]

Hi, floydgirl! Your weight loss is amazing! You have really done well with this WOL.

I, too, hit periodic slow periods in my weight loss journey, but have found if I up the cardio intensity of my exercise, the losses pick up again. By intensity, I mean increasing the incline on the treadmill, the pace while walking/jogging, etc.

When the exercise gets "too comfortable" or relatively easy, it is time to kick it up a notch.

Congrats again on your amazing success!

[sadie147]

I agree, I found that upping my cardio really helped. Also when i got closer to my goal i also found that cutting back on some f the higher calorie legal foods like cream, cheese etc, and adding in a bit more veggies really helped too! I know it's not a calorie counting diet but i'm a believer that calories do count eventually...whenever i go up a lb or two from my goal weight i find that cutting my carb intake back a bit, and lowering my cals by adding in more veggies and cutting back on dairy does the trick...

[floydgirl]

Thanks for your responses. :wave I guess I'll have to kick the cardio up a notch to see if that helps. I'll also try to cut back on the cheese, cream, etc. Adding more veggies is not going to be a problem, I have really learned to love my veggies! I just want to be there -- now!!!! I never was a very patient person!

[2big4mysize]

you may be closer to your healthy goal weight then you think too. Eating Atkins adds lean body mass to our bodies even without any exercise so as we loss fat pounds we add lean pounds and the ratio of body fat can change more then the sclae indicates as I found out.
I was stuggling to lose those last few pounds and had been with in 14 pounds of what I thought was gaol weight dictated by the charts for 7 months when I finally figured out that having lost 9 of those pounds I was actually underweight based on my body fat and had passed my healthy goal weight by the full 7 months before. Check your % body fat and se where a heathy goal weight for you actually is. You'd be surprized how well those fat googles are welded onto your face!.

Happy low carbing.

[ttdriver]

Go to www.countcarbs.com and figure out what your basal metabolic rate and active metabolic rate is to determine the proper calories you need for losing. Use their tools link. Its been an invaluable aid to me.

Yes, increase your cardio ... that should help. But be ever mindful that you've got to burn more than you take in to lose. Those last few pounds can be frustrating, but hang in there!! IT WILL HAPPEN!

Betty

[floydgirl]

Well you know, I have been weightlifting pretty hard and heavy for about 3 months now. I know I am gaining muscle and my body does seem to be morphing. I am in the smallest size I was ever in, but yet I weigh about 25 lbs. more than I did when I was at my lowest weight before (which was when I was about 20 years old). I do weigh a lot for my height, though. I know everybody thinks this, but I do have a large bone structure, I've been told this by my Doctor before. I still have some problem areas that I need to work on, mostly my arms and abs. Thanks so much, 2big, for pointing this out. This is something I guess I better consider -- I haven't considered it before.

Betty, I plugged my stats in and I found out I am not eating enough!!! Maybe I'm in starvation mode? Maybe thats why its coming off so slowly? I'll try to up my calories (I'll make sure they are good, atkins-friendly calories) and see if that makes a difference. Wow, I'm not eating enough??? Thats hard to believe, my appetite is definitely suppressed.

Thanks everybody for your kind words of wisdom! It looks like I have a lot of experimenting to do yet!

[2big4mysize]

Just rememeber that calculater is the average amount everybody your sex age height and weight needs and it doesn't know if you are a fluffy 2000 pounder or a hulking muscular 2000 pounder. their cal needs will be very different.

If you know youe lean body mass or can figure it out from your body fat % you can calculate your basal with the Katch McArdel formula more accurately

[floydgirl]

Could you please tell me where to go to get this information?

[2big4mysize]

well you can get your bodyfat measuresd at your gym if you are using one or your doc should hasve one too. you can use the measuring method on mybody.com or one of those scales that does it if you don't have a dunk tank you could pay for a session in. Health fairs are a good place too. once you know your body fat you just subtract that from your total weight and that is your lean body mass.

once you know that here isa the formula

BMR = 370 + (21.6 X lean mass in kg)

[tickletussler]

Re: Question for those who are at or near goal ---

I wanted to bump this thread up because I have been searching for answers to questions like these and figured, surely there must be others asking the same thing? (... plus I didn't want to ask the same questionagain)

I'm 20lbs from goal and have been struggling with getting the next 10lbs off - I keep vacillating around 138-140lbs and of course it doesn't help that I slip up often because I am just so impatient!!! I keep missing the foods that I can't add back into my diet yet because they are further up the rungs

However, there was one really good idea I liked in this thread and that is to up the exercising and do something different. My body's in some sort of rut, and so's my mind I guess. Plus I am learning from reading these threads that I need a LOT OF PATIENCE to lose these last few pounds.

So thanks Floydgirl for bringing up this question months ago!