Beyond the plateau: How to lose those last 10 pounds

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How to Lose the Last 10 Pounds

Key Takeaways:

Hitting a plateau is normal as your body adapts to weight loss, but it can make losing those last 10 pounds challenging.
To break through a plateau, patience and variety are key, which might include adjusting your macros, training approach, and recovery process.
Sustainable, long-term habits are what ultimately help you reach and maintain your goals.

Every weight loss journey comes with its own unique challenges, but nearly everyone eventually comes up against a plateau.

That final stretch toward your goal can be the most frustrating, especially if you’re only, say, 10 pounds away. But it’s also where the most transformation can happen — if you approach it with a healthy, targeted strategy.

We’ve broken down why those last few pounds can be so stubborn and how to outsmart them. No quick-fixes here; only approaches that focus on precision, consistency, and whole-person health.

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Why the Last 10 Pounds Are So Stubborn

If it feels like the movie Groundhog Day staring at your scale over and over again, it’s not all in your head. There are real physiological reasons why losing those last few pounds is often so different from the initial weight loss.

Understanding the Weight Loss Plateau

As frustrating as it can be, your body is a highly intelligent, adaptable machine.

When you first start losing weight, especially if you have a significant amount to lose, your body is often quick to jump into action. You’ll first notice a drop in water weight, but then the initial energy deficit you create, through diet or exercise (or both), is usually substantial enough to force your body to tap into its fat stores. But eventually, things slow down and can even become stagnant.

Let’s be clear: A weight loss plateau is not a sign of failure. It’s a natural consequence of your body adapting to its new, smaller size.

By the time this happens, you’re a lighter individual, which means your resting metabolic rate (RMR) — the energy your body burns at rest — has decreased.

This means you need fewer calories to maintain your current weight than you did at your heavier weight. The previous calorie deficit that worked so well may no longer be a deficit at all.

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The Body’s Adaptive Response

While one of the foundational aspects of weight loss is the calorie deficit (burning more calories than you’re consuming), it goes beyond that.

Your body has a sophisticated defense system in place for times when it thinks you’re not getting enough fuel.

When you restrict calories for an extended period, especially as you get leaner, there are hormonal and metabolic changes that kick in to conserve energy, slow fat loss, and hang onto pounds.

This includes effects on two main appetite-regulating hormones:

Leptin. Levels of leptin (the “satiety hormone”) may decrease when body fat goes down.
Ghrelin. Often called the hunger hormone, ghrelin may increase when you lose weight.

Your body becomes incredibly efficient at using every calorie, almost like a camel storing water in the desert.

While this survival mechanism served our ancestors well in times of scarcity, it can be pretty annoying when you’re simply trying to reach a health goal. But understanding what your body is doing can help you formulate strategies forward.

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How to Lose the Last 10 Pounds: 12 Tips

It’s a very human experience to think we just need to “work harder” to achieve our goals. When it comes to weight loss, this might look like drastically cutting calories or hitting the gym twice a day. Not only is this approach unsustainable, but it often backfires.

Extreme deprivation can worsen your body’s adaptive response, leading to more plateaus, increased cravings, and overall burnout.

Instead, we’ve compiled 12 things you can do to help shed those last few pounds for good, and support your overall wellness on the way.

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1. Master Your Macros (and Micros)

Losing weight isn’t just about reducing or counting calories. It’s essential to prioritize the nutritional quality of your diet.

You’ve probably heard of macronutrients: protein, carbs, and fats. When it comes to losing the last 10 pounds, it’s not enough to generally “eat healthy.” You need to understand how much of each macro you’re consuming and how it affects your body.

Protein. Aim for a higher protein intake, perhaps 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight daily. Protein keeps you full, helps preserve lean muscle mass during a deficit, and also increases the thermic effect of food (TEF) – meaning your body burns more calories digesting it than some other foods.
Fats. Fats aren’t inherently bad, but they’re also not all equal. Healthy, unsaturated fats are essential for hormone production and nutrient absorption. Focus on sources like avocados, nuts, seeds, and olive oil, and keep your intake moderate, as fats are also calorically dense.
Carbohydrates: Some people thrive on lower-carb approaches for the final push, while others need more carbs to fuel intense workouts. Regardless, carbs also aren’t all the same. Choose complex carbohydrates from starchy vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, and time their intake around your most active periods.

Getting adequate micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) is also critical. Nutrient deficiencies can affect everything from energy levels to metabolic function. Eat a variety of colorful fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins to cover your bases.

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2. Prioritize Protein and Fiber

Protein gets a special shout-out because it’s an MVP of weight loss. When you’re in a caloric deficit, your body will try to break down muscle along with fat. Adequate protein intake helps signal to your body to preserve that precious muscle.

This is key to getting past your weight loss plateau because muscle is metabolically active, burning more calories at rest than fat tissue.

Fiber is another unsung hero — and a nutrient most people are lacking.

It adds bulk to your meals without adding excess calories (promoting satiety and helping you feel full longer), supports digestion, and helps regulate blood sugar. Plus, studies show that fiber intake supports weight loss independently of calorie intake.

The best places to find fiber? Right here:

Fruits, like bananas, oranges, apples, berries, pears, and grapes
Vegetables, like broccoli, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, carrots, and cauliflower
Nuts and seeds, like cashews, pistachios, chia seeds, flaxseeds, and walnuts
Whole grains, like brown rice, 100 percent whole wheat products, quinoa, oats, and barley
Legumes, including beans, peas, lentils, and soy foods

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3. Stay Hydrated

Your body is predominantly made up of water, and staying hydrated is a vital, often underestimated component of successful fat loss because:

It promotes improved insulin sensitivity. Increased hydration levels can help promote insulin sensitivity, which helps your body process carbohydrates.
It supports metabolic function. Water is involved in almost every bodily process, including metabolism, and is crucial for supporting blood sugar balance.
It increases lipolysis. Lipolysis, or the breaking down of stored fats, is increased in those with increased hydration levels.

Carry a water bottle with you and sip throughout the day, versus trying to chug it all at once.

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4. Practice Mindfulness in Eating

Mindful eating is not a diet. It’s a practice that involves paying full attention to your food as you buy it, prepare it, serve it, and consume it.

Here’s how mindfulness works:

It increases your awareness of hunger and fullness cues. Are you truly hungry, or are you eating out of habit, stress, or boredom? Learn to differentiate between physical hunger and emotional cravings.
It helps you slow down. Eat slowly, savor each bite, and put your fork down between mouthfuls. This allows your brain time to register fullness signals.
It eliminates distractions. Turn off the TV, put away your phone, and focus solely on your meal. When you’re distracted, it’s incredibly easy to overeat without realizing it.

Mindful eating can uncover hidden calorie intake from mindless snacking or oversized portions, helping you naturally reduce your overall consumption without feeling like you’re missing out.

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5. Amp Up Your NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis)

NEAT refers to the calories you burn through activities that aren’t formal exercise, like walking, gardening, cleaning, or taking the stairs. Even fidgeting counts.

As you get leaner, your body naturally tries to conserve energy, and NEAT might drop without you realizing it. You might find yourself sitting more and fidgeting less.

This is a powerful, yet often overlooked, lever. So, here are some ways you can boost your NEAT:

Stand versus sit at your desk
Set alarms to take frequent walking breaks during the workday
Park farther away from the storefront or office
Take the stairs instead of the elevator
Track your steps, aiming for a specific goal, like 10,000 per day

Boosting your NEAT can increase your daily energy expenditure without adding intentional exercise time.

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6. Pair Cardio With Strength Training

“More cardio” is often the knee-jerk reaction when hitting a plateau. But cardio, especially on its own, isn’t always enough to move the needle.

First, it’s important to consider what kind of cardio and how much you’re doing. A smart approach combines both of these:

HIIT (high-intensity interval training). HIIT involves short bursts of maximum effort followed by brief recovery periods. It’s a great way to boost your metabolism post-workout, leading to the “afterburn effect” (also called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC), when your body temporarily continues burning calories at a higher rate. It can also be a powerful tool for fat loss. However, only doing HIIT is also stressful on the body, and too much can lead to overtraining, elevated cortisol, and hindered recovery.
LISS (low-intensity steady-state). This is a type of cardio that includes things like brisk walking, light cycling, or jogging at a comfortable pace for 30 to 60 minutes. LISS is less taxing, making it easier to recover from.

Cardio is great, but it can’t do the job alone. Strength training is non-negotiable for anyone looking to lose those last 10 stubborn pounds. Why? Muscle.

Muscle doesn’t burn fat directly, but having more muscle allows you to burn more calories at rest than you would with less muscle. Strength training also creates that desirable afterburn effect.

Here’s how to approach strength training:

Focus on compound movements (squats, deadlifts, presses, rows) that work multiple muscle groups simultaneously.
Aim for at least two strength training sessions per week, progressively challenging yourself with heavier weights or more repetitions.
Don’t fear “bulking up,” as building significant muscle is incredibly difficult, especially in a caloric deficit.

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7. Keep Your Body Guessing

Have you ever done the same exercise routine week after week and noticed that it becomes easier? That’s because your body is a master adapter.

As it becomes used to the same movements, it also becomes more efficient, burning fewer calories and experiencing less stimulus for change. This is where periodization comes in.

Periodization involves intentionally changing how you’re training and challenging your body. This includes things like varying the types of physical activity, intensity, frequency, and rest periods.

For example, you might spend four weeks focusing on max strength with heavy weights and lower reps, then switch to a phase of higher reps and moderate weights for hypertrophy (muscle growth).

This keeps your body challenged, prevents adaptation plateaus, reduces the risk of overuse injuries, and helps prevent boredom.

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8. Step Up Your Sleep and Stress Management Game

When we’re chasing goals, sleep is often the first thing we sacrifice. But getting enough sleep isn’t just a critical piece of fat loss. It’s foundational for your overall health. Here’s why:

Hormonal regulation. Poor sleep disrupts your appetite-regulating hormones, which ultimately makes you hungrier and less satisfied. Sleep deprivation also increases cortisol, your primary stress hormone, which serves an important purpose in temporary bursts, but is problematic when elevated for longer periods.
Insulin sensitivity. Lack of sleep can decrease insulin sensitivity, making your body less efficient at processing carbohydrates and more prone to storing them as fat. This also encourages elevated blood sugar levels.
Energy and recovery. Adequate sleep is essential for muscles to recover after a workout and for having the energy to hit the gym and maintain NEAT throughout the day.

Experts recommend that adults get seven to nine hours of quality sleep per night. If that sounds like a pipe dream, start by examining your sleep hygiene.

It can help to create a consistent sleep schedule, make your bedroom dark and cool, and avoid sleep disruptors before bed, like heavy meals, alcohol, and screens.

Rest is also essential for helping your body keep stress in check. Facing stressors is inevitable, but when it’s not managed well, elevated cortisol can become a major hindrance to fat loss because it:

Increases fat storage, particularly in the area around the organs (called visceral fat).
Increases cravings for sugary, fatty foods (comfort foods).
Impairs muscle growth and recovery, possibly making your strength training less effective.
Alters metabolism.

Find effective stress management techniques that work for you and include them regularly — not just when you’re feeling overwhelmed. Things like meditation, yoga, journaling, deep breathing exercises, or enjoying a mug of green tea outside can help.

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9. Hone In on Your Gut Health

Researchers continue to uncover more about how the health of your gut microbiome (the trillions of microbes living in your intestines) and weight management are linked. An imbalanced gut (a condition called dysbiosis) can affect:

Nutrient absorption. When your gut microbiome is out of balance, this impairs how well you absorb beneficial compounds from your food.
Metabolism. The balance of microbes in your gut can also influence body composition. For instance, having a higher ratio of Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes appears to be associated with obesity, whereas having more from the Christensenellaceae family appear to help prevent the accumulation of fat cells.
Inflammation. A leaky gut can encourage whole-body inflammation, which is linked to insulin resistance and weight gain.
Cravings. The gut-brain axis is powerful, as your gut microbes can even influence your cravings.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to promote optimal gut health, such as:

Eating a diverse diet. Focus on a wide variety of plant-based foods (fruits, veggies, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds) to feed diverse gut bacteria.
Include probiotics and prebiotics. Fermented foods (yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut) provide beneficial bacteria (probiotics), and high-fiber foods (onions, garlic, bananas, asparagus) provide prebiotics, which feed those bacteria.
Minimize ultra-processed foods and artificial sweeteners. These can negatively affect gut flora and set you up for continued imbalances.

Improving gut health is a long-term strategy that can subtly, yet powerfully, support your fat loss efforts and overall well-being.

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10. Keep a Food Log for Insight

Many people think they know what they’re eating, but the reality can be vastly different. Even if you’ve logged what you’re eating (and drinking) before, it’s worth revisiting this strategy to help you lose the last 10 pounds or so.

It can be helpful to temporarily use a reliable app to track your eating habits. For the most accurate picture, include even small things like condiments or splashes of olive oil on your salad.

While not recommended for forever use, food logging can help you identify where small discrepancies in perception versus reality might be adding up over the course of a week or so.

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11. Try Intermittent Fasting

The quality and balance of what you’re eating matters most, but when you’re eating can also play a role. Many people find success with intermittent fasting (IF), which involves cycling between periods of eating and voluntary fasting.

Common approaches to IF include 16:8 (fast for 16 hours, then eat within an eight-hour window) or 5:2 (eat normally for five days, severely restrict calories for two non-consecutive days).

Used temporarily, IF can be a powerful tool for some people struggling to lose the last few pounds because it:

Naturally restricts calories by shortening your eating window, which can make it easier to stay within your caloric budget without feeling deprived (as long as you don’t overeat during your eating window).
Improves insulin sensitivity, as fasting periods can give your digestive system a break and improve your body’s response to insulin, potentially aiding fat loss.

However, IF isn’t a good approach for everyone. If it causes more stress than it’s worth or is otherwise unsustainable, stick to prioritizing the nutritional quality of your diet and practicing mindfulness. Notably, it can cause hormone disturbances in women, which can lead to a host of further health issues.

If you’re interested in trying out different timing methods as part of your eating pattern, it’s always best to consult a dietitian for personalized guidance.

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12. Consider Seeking Professional Guidance

People with conditions such as thyroid disorders, diabetes, or cardiovascular disease should always consult a healthcare provider before making significant dietary or activity changes.

But even if you don’t have existing conditions, if you feel like you’ve tried everything and are still struggling, there’s nothing wrong with asking for help.

Consider these types of professionals, depending on your goals:

Registered dietitian (RD). Can help you fine-tune your nutrition, identify gaps, and address underlying dietary issues.
Certified personal trainer (CPT). Can optimize your training program, ensure proper form, and help you with periodization.
Physician/endocrinologist. If you suspect hormonal imbalances (thyroid issues, PCOS) are playing a role, a medical professional can run tests and provide appropriate treatment.
Health coach. Can provide accountability and guidance, and help you address behavioral patterns.

Investing in professional guidance can provide the personalized insights and accountability you need to break through that final plateau.

A licensed healthcare provider can also help you determine whether weight loss medications make sense for your long-term goals and needs.

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Bonus Tip: Celebrate Non-Scale Victories

Losing the last 10 pounds is a battle of inches, not miles. Progress will be slower, and fluctuations will be more common. This is normal. At this point, a sustainable rate might be less than a pound every two weeks, or even slower.

It’s easy to get fixated on the number on the scale, but for these last few pounds, the scale can tell an incomplete story.

To stay motivated, shift your focus to non-scale victories, like these:

Do your clothes feel looser or fit more comfortably?
Do you have more energy?
Do you feel physically stronger?
Have you noticed that your body composition measurements are changing?
Are you lifting heavier weights, running faster, or recovering quicker after your workouts?
Have your blood pressure or cholesterol levels improved?

Remember, the goal isn’t just a number. It’s a healthier, stronger, and more confident you.

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Your Journey to the Finish Line

Conquering those last few stubborn pounds is a testament to your dedication and resilience. Embrace the challenge, be patient with yourself, and celebrate every small victory.

At the end of the day, this isn’t all just about losing weight. It’s about refining your habits and improving your health with the added benefit of proving to yourself what you’re truly capable of.

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FAQs About Stubborn Weight Loss

Below, we’ve put together answers to some common questions about how to get past a weight loss plateau and drop those last few pounds.

Why is it so hard to lose the last 10 pounds?

As you lose weight, your body burns fewer calories at rest, and appetite-regulating hormones like leptin and ghrelin shift to increase hunger and conserve energy. This adaptive response slows fat loss to protect your energy stores.

Do I need to cut calories even more?

Not necessarily. Cutting too much can trigger a stronger adaptive response. Instead, try recalculating your calorie needs for your current body weight and focus on improving food quality, sleep, and daily activities that contribute to overall energy expenditure.

Will more cardio help me break through a plateau?

Cardio helps, but strength training is essential. Building muscle increases your resting metabolic rate, helping you burn more calories over time. A mix of high-intensity workouts, endurance workouts, and resistance training is most effective.

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This article originally appeared on Forhers.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org