You've been dieting for a while and you are almost to your target weight. Everything is going well -- and then you hit a wall. The last pounds just won't come off. In all likelihood, you're not doing anything wrong. That single potato chip you cheated with last week is probably not to blame. You've just hit a weight loss plateau.
Changes in Metabolism
Losing weight through dieting entails cutting your calories back by about 500 a day from your resting metabolic rate, the number your body needs to maintain its weight. Your RMR is about 10 to 11 calories per pound. Therefore, when you started your diet and you weighed more, your resting metabolic rate was higher. If you've lost 15 or 20 pounds since you started your diet but haven't adjusted for that, then you are probably eating between 150 and 200 calories more per day than you need -- not quite enough to make you gain, but enough to sabotage your best weight loss efforts.
Adjust Your Diet
Depending on the amount of weight you've lost, multiply that number by 10. This is how many additional calories you need to shave off your daily caloric intake in order to start losing again. You are essentially starting a whole new diet, this one matched to your current weight. If you've lost 30 lbs., you need to cut back another 300 calories. If you've lost 15 lbs., you need to cut back another 150.
Shake Up Your Exercise Routine
You can also increase your activity to address the fact that your body needs fewer calories these days just to maintain. If you have been regularly exercising as part of your plan to lose weight, add 15 more minutes to the amount of time you've been dedicating to exercise per day. If your day is jammed from sunup to sundown and more time is not an option, work out a little more strenuously in the time that you do have. Or shake things up by adding an entirely new activity to your day in addition to your regular routine. If you now weigh 130 lbs. and you spend half an hour walking at a moderate pace, you'll burn more than 120 of those calories that your new, thinner body no longer needs.
Other Considerations
There is also the possibility that you have hit your ideal weight and just don't want to admit it. Many times dieters set unrealistic goals for themselves that are not healthy. If reducing your caloric intake and changing your activity routine doesn't work, speak to your doctor to find out if you really do need to lose more weight.
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