Look, the last few pounds are super-tough and I am testament to that.
I was stuck at 170lbs for months. I found I was eating too much hummus, eliminated that from my diet, started to lose and I an now stuck at 165lbs. And this from a guy who was losing 4lbs a week until I was about 180lbs.
My advice would be to play around with your diet and exercise to get the scale shifting. From my experience, you may have to do this multiple times as you may continue to stall as you get smaller. It is just so hard at the lower weights.
I would suggest you try to exercise longer. An hour of cardio, if you have time, and alternate weight training on different days perhaps with another gym visit (I try to go twice a day). Try exercising at the weekends as well. I joined a second gym to do that. Housework does not count when you are 5'8.5" and 159lbs. At least not like it did when you were 220lbs.
Regarding your diet, cut the fruit and eat veggies instead. And target those carbs. Ditch the pita, reduce the honey. Tacos, rice and beans. Change them. Too many carbs. Try some lean protein instead. Fish, eggs, oats (for breakfast).
That will get the scale moving again. But you may have to keep stepping it up to reach goal. I know I will.
As you age, your body changes (especially with hormonal changes), and the weight you knew before children may not be what your body settles at. I know my weight plateaued at 180 and wouldn't budge no matter what I did. (Unfortunately I gained it back because of unhealthy eating habits) We are about the same height and I know that at about 180 I was a size 8, and felt healthier than ever. Pre-baby, did you exercise a lot? You may have built up a lot of muscle weight. I'd go by measurements and how you feel, rather than a scale. BMI & weight can be inaccurate, especially if you have been working out a lot and your body has changed.
Look, the last few pounds are super-tough and I am testament to that.
I was stuck at 170lbs for months. I found I was eating too much hummus, eliminated that from my diet, started to lose and I an now stuck at 165lbs. And this from a guy who was losing 4lbs a week until I was about 180lbs.
My advice would be to play around with your diet and exercise to get the scale shifting. From my experience, you may have to do this multiple times as you may continue to stall as you get smaller. It is just so hard at the lower weights.
I would suggest you try to exercise longer. An hour of cardio, if you have time, and alternate weight training on different days perhaps with another gym visit (I try to go twice a day). Try exercising at the weekends as well. I joined a second gym to do that. Housework does not count when you are 5'8.5" and 159lbs. At least not like it did when you were 220lbs.
Regarding your diet, cut the fruit and eat veggies instead. And target those carbs. Ditch the pita, reduce the honey. Tacos, rice and beans. Change them. Too many carbs. Try some lean protein instead. Fish, eggs, oats (for breakfast).
That will get the scale moving again. But you may have to keep stepping it up to reach goal. I know I will.
Changing things up definitely helps, I was stuck in the 160s up and down for almost the whole year last year, I decided to do c25k and switched out some of the red meat for fish and plant based (avocado a day for awhile) changing the diet and exercise unlocked something, now I'm in the lower end of the 160s and more days in the 150s. Now I feel like I can make my goal weight.
I'm a lot shorter than you, and only shooting for a few pounds less than you are but totally understand how body composition, the size of hips, boobs, etc. can make a big difference in what somebody's scale number should be, or whatever your goal that's going to make you happy.
Be proud of maintaining for a year, make sure you don't have some underlying health condition causing your stall and change things up.
I actually visited the doctor yesterday to rule out any physical issues before I started messing with my diet. And because I've been having weird rib cage, back and chest pains when I breathe during workouts (and other random times). Having some tests done to determine why that's going on, though probably not tied to weight loss.
While we await the results of those tests and x-rays, I'm working on keeping my diet 100% clear of any undocumented snacks, and refocusing on logging EVERYTHING I'm eating. Maybe my "here and there" snacks added up to more than I expected. Gonna give this a couple weeks before tackling major diet changes that will cause a lot of stress at a potentially stressful time, health-wise.
Oh, and the doctor said he doesn't want to see me below 150. :/ Still may shoot for 145 to give a cushion.
Hi, good you're discussing your pains with your doctor, I was just reading an article in this months Health magazine, it it's called Body Clues You Shouldn't Ignore, you might like reading it.
Thyroid is fine. Doctor refuses to believe ANYTHING could be wrong hormonally since I'm on birth control. My back is majorly messed up but that won't cause weight gain.
Past couple of weeks I've been below my calorie range, eating well again, working out and varying my workouts with running. Weigh-in this morning was UP another pound.
Guess it's time to do major dietary changes, or cut my calories even more. I don't function well on less than 1,500 calories - blood sugar issues and nausea galore. Gotta do some research.
Hi Mindi, you might remember me from years past. Your story sounds a lot like me, except I didn't have a baby in the last 2 years!
After my huge weight loss by counting calories I had little problem staying at 140. I got to raise my calories to around 1800 a day to maintain and to be honest, I really didn't believe people when they said they were doing everything right and still not losing weight. Then, little by little, my weight began to creep up. At first I could just cut calories and I would get (almost) back to 140 and then go weeks without a loss despite restricting. I would get frustrated and binge. I would repeat this cycle several times over the next 2 years until I found my way up to 173. None of my pants fit and many of my tops were getting too tight. I tried weight watchers and managed to get off 10 pounds and kept that off during the holidays for the most part.
Sadly the same thing happened with weight watchers though, my weight stalled and after weeks of being perfectly on plan the loss just stopped....SOOOO, I decided to try something new.
At the beginning of January I decided to give up all grains and sugar. I have to say, the first week sucked, but now I feel really great, and the weight is coming off again! I'm not craving bread/sweets and staying within my calories has been very easy. I'm thrilled to find something that is helping the scale to move again!
It's fairly low carb, but I still eat potatoes and/ or some fruit each day and getting in at least 3 serving of "good fat" per day.
I'm giving it a dedicated 3 months trial to find all the benefits of gluten/grain/sugar free and so far I have nothing but good to show for it.
I'm sitting here getting ready to go to the gym and asking myself why I bother doing all this - eating right and working out 5 days a week (cardio and strength training) - when NOTHING is doing any good at all. I just want to cry.
I understand the context here is in relationship to losing the last weight and not to overall well-being, health, quality of life, and longevity. But as someone who didn't eat right and didn't work out to someone who now does: it is transformative to eat better and exercise every day. Every second of every day is better.
Body, mind, energy, clarity, mood. I can't even list the ways it is probably helping you: more energy, better mood, whole body being healthier from the inside out.
That being said I have heard bodies get used to whatever you are doing and max out their efficiency. Which means if you keep doing the same thing your body is not working as hard. So you need to keep changing.
