How to Lose The Final 10 Pounds

The final 10 pounds can feel like the weight that simply doesn’t want to be lost.  After all your success until this point, it seems as though this should be the easiest part of your strategy.  For some people, it is.  On the other hand, that last leg of the journey can feel close to impossible for others.  In fact, it can feel as though your body just wasn’t meant to get to a lower point. 

Among dieters who don’t give up after the first few pounds of weight loss, the final ten pounds can be the place where many will often give up.  They settle with what they’ve managed to lose so far and choose to maintain that point instead of continuing the battle. 

Can You Lose That Final Ten Pounds?

After everything you’ve gone through, do you really want to give up at the final ten? Wouldn’t it be better to be able to keep pushing forward and reach that point you’ve wanted to achieve?  Don’t you want to say you’ve done it instead of saying you just did well enough?  Of course, you do!  Then again, you need to know how, first.  Otherwise, it will be a disheartening feeling of running in circles instead of getting somewhere.

Here are a few tips to show you how to lose the final 10 pounds of weight. They may sound obvious, but you'd be amazed how many dieters fail to take these elementary steps to lose final pounds.  Give some or all of them a try to see how they work into your new healthier lifestyle.  Remember not to give up on them after just one week.  Things take time, and your health is a lifelong journey.  Give yourself the opportunity to do things right.

Be Patient

The key to losing those last stubborn pounds is to be patient! When you have very little weight to lose it is important to stick very closely to your diet in order get results. Think in terms of losing AT MOST 1-1.5 pound a week. This means following your diet and exercise program carefully for 7-10 weeks. If you do this, even the most stubborn final pounds of fat will disappear.

Increase Your Daily Exercise

If you take regular exercise, increase your workout by 10-15 minutes each day AND change your workout routine. Changing the type of exercise, you do, or the duration, gives your metabolism an extra boost and helps to burn extra calories. Also make sure to incorporate more cardiovascular exercises to burn more calories.

Eat Regularly

Eat little and often throughout the day. This helps to maintain your metabolic rate at maximum speed. Also, it keeps your blood-sugar level stable, which is helpful in reducing appetite build-up and food cravings. Some surveys show that eating "little and often" actually reduces appetite and calorie-intake.

Think Thin!

This may sound like psychobabble, but it's not! Our beliefs really do affect how we behave. If you believe "I can never lose my final 10 pounds", chances are you won't. This is because we behave in a way that makes our belief a reality. However, if you think "Seven weeks from now my last 10 pounds are gonna be history" you will work to make that belief a reality.

Celebrate Your Health

Make the last ten pounds of weight loss a celebration instead of a trial.  Remember that a lot of your success is based on your mind set.  If you use this last leg to be a celebration of everything you’ve done to reach this point, your motivation has a better chance of staying sky high throughout the last stretch. 

Consider giving yourself a treat once per week throughout the last ten pounds of your effort.  Treats should be given once per week as a reward for doing great things for yourself for the other six days.  Remember that your treats shouldn’t be food unless you’re considering making an elaborate meal that fits snugly into your weight loss eating strategy.  The last thing you want to do is set yourself back.  Instead, focus on self-care.

After the first week, get yourself that book you’ve been longing to read.  After the second week, head over to a local festival, event, or awareness fundraiser to give yourself a sense of togetherness and community participation.  At the third week, have your hair cut and styled.  After the fourth week, buy yourself a new piece of clothing that fits you perfectly.  Upon the fifth week, replace those beat-up athletic shoes that have worked hard to get you to this point but that aren’t performing as well anymore.  You can even enjoy a luxurious spa treatment. 

These are just some of the ideas that you can try and that you will certainly find will keep you propelling forward until you’ve lost every one of those final pounds.