When I was well over 250 pounds I would read posts from women who were a few pounds away from their goal on weight loss sites I was on and would get so angry reading their posts that they couldn't lose the last few pounds. I would think - sarcastically - "Oh, POOR YOU! You weigh 128 pounds and can't get down to 120!!" Now this is the position I find myself in. For the last 3 weeks at least I have been bouncing between 123 and 125. It is so incredibly frustrating to be this close to achieving my goal weight and nothing is working to get these last few pounds off.
I posted something about this on myfitnesspal, and a friend (thanks Nicole!) suggested I listen to a podcast by Dr. Robert Maki. The essence of what he said is that when someone has lost a lot of weight and is a normal BMI, the harder you work to take off the last few pounds, the more the body fights you on this and hangs on to the weight. (Naughty body!)
I then started thinking - for the last 2 years and 4 months, I have been constantly losing weight. There has literally not been more then a 2 week stretch when I haven't lost at least some weight. In addition to eating less to lose weight I have exercised. With the exception of the time I was recovering from surgery - and most of those days I at least walked a couple of miles - since September of 2011 I have exercised every single day and MOST days I exercised twice for a total of 1.5-2 hours per day. I'm not a doctor or any other type of expert, but this has to have some sort of effect on hormones and brain chemistry and other stuff, right?
So, as of 4PM today, I started a 1 1/2 week vacation. Starting tomorrow, I am going to try an experiment. I'm going to try to not obsessively count calories. I will continue to exercise, but will be maybe a little more relaxed. I am going to listen to my body and eat when I'm hungry and try to just be a normal human being. We'll see what happens at the end of this 1 1/2 weeks and what the scale says.
I am terrified that I will gain weight during this experiment, but, as they say, if nothing changes, nothing changes. And right now, nothing is changing. So it's time to shake it up a bit.
Wish me luck!
Not only good luck, but enjoy the "vacation"....live your life, you have worked so hard for your achievements...now enjoy everything because it is new all over again. I go in for my surgery tomorrow morning your posts have helped me and I am sure many others. Cannot wait to see how you are making out.
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