[kiramira]

OK, so I've read alot about people who choose a goal weight, and then plateau around 10lbs above that weight. It seems like the hardest weight to lose is those last 10 lbs.
SO, what happens if you choose, say, 130lbs as your goal weight, but SECRETLY your goal weight is 140 lbs. Will you lose to 140lbs (which is what you want) and then stall? Or will you lose to 150lbs (which is 10 lbs above your secret weight but 20 lbs above your chosen amount) and THEN stall?

Is there really such a thing as "the last 10 lbs are the hardest" or is it a case of relaxing one's diet/exercise just a bit because you are "only 10 lbs away"?

Is a plateau 10 lbs away from your goal weight inevitable, regardless of the goal weight stated???

Just thinking too much again..
Kira

[sprklemajik]

I'm nowhere near goal so I couldn't tell you the answer to this, but there's a lot of women on this site that have reached their goal, so don't get discouraged. The "last 10 lbs" is entirely possible to loose. Keep your motivation up.

[Ija]

Hahaha, maybe... My original goal weight was 150 (which I'm now less than one pound away from) but I changed that to 140 a couple of months ago. Besides coming off slowly, the last ten pounds I've lost haven't given me much trouble, and I certainly haven't hit a plateau (even though I went out for burgers, fries, and beer three or four times in April...). Will the next ten (which will get me to my new goal) go smoothly, or will I experience the dreaded near-goal plateau? I don't know...

I'm sure there is a psychological component there, but also keep in mind that the closer you get to goal, the smaller the margin of error with your diet. It's supposed to be tougher because by then you're already at or close to a "normal" weight.

I'll let you know how it goes for me!

Well...my goal is 154 lbs, that is overweight for me but is how I weighted when I was wearing a skirt I want to fit in again. After hitting the magical 154 lbs I mean to keep on my current meal plan and I think my body will keep loosing but anyways I don't mind too much. My whole weight loss journey was a stall-restart-stall-restart, maybe more stalls than new beginnings, lol, so I expect a stall anytime, not only the last 10 lbs.

Well, the thing is when you have a lot to loose you are likely to loose more quickly, while when you have little to loose it'll take more to loose the same, you can see this even by comparing the posts in the 50-somethings and the featherweights boards.
I think you should be 'relaxed' all the time, not screw up if you are half a pound heavier than you were last week, but not even indulge too much.

[JulieJ08]

I'm sure there is some psychological component for many, where they subconsciously relax as they approach goal.

But, I don't think there's any reason to assume there has to be such an explanation. Because, we don't have any idea what percentage of people plateau at 10 pound from goal. No idea of the statistics whatsoever. And all sorts of bias confounding whatever impression we do get from this forum. No?