Losing Those Last 10 Is Simple, but Hard
Entering the restaurant’s ladies’ room, I stumbled on one of those scenes that happens so often it’s become a stereotype: three well-coiffed and well-dressed young women standing in front of the mirror, talking to the others’ reflections about their weight and how much they needed to lose. In movies and television, this exchange is usually played for laughs. But in real life, it’s no joke.
What I overheard represents a dilemma that I’m asked about as often as any other in the health and fitness arena: After working out for months and months, altering their lifestyles and changing their diets, a lot of women (men too) seem to get permanently stuck on a plateau that leaves them in sight of their target weight but unable to hit the target. Feeling depressed and defeated, certain that they’ve achieved the limit of their physical potential, they ask, “How come I’m not losing weight? And how the heck do I lose those last 10 pounds?”
The answer to the first question is that most people become locked in to, and comfortable with, their everyday routine, the one that they used to reduce their weight and improve cardiovascular health. But the truth is that since beginning their workouts, their bodies have changed--they’ve become more efficient--so the routine that once seemed like a killer now burns fewer calories. At best, this level of activity helps to maintain current weight and fitness levels. But it does nothing to move the exerciser off the 10-pounds-to-go plateau.
This brings me to, “How the heck do I lose those last 10 pounds?”
The good news is that there’s an easy answer. The bad news is that the easy answer means a lot of hard work.
Studies show that losing those stubborn remaining pounds requires a significant increase in exercise intensity, one that enables you to reach and maintain 80% to 85% of your maximum heart rate once or twice a week. When you reach that level, you give your metabolism an additional boost; moreover, the benefits of that boost last longer, so you burn more calories and fat at rest, not just during the workout.
While the idea of working out harder or faster or longer than you’ve become used to can be daunting, the process itself can actually be pleasurable if you approach it correctly. I like to incorporate “intervals” training, which means picking up the intensity of the workout for short bursts, then recovering by continuing at normal speed. So if, for example, I’m walking for 30 minutes, I’ll alternate three minutes of sprint-like (not really sprinting) intervals with three minutes of my ordinary pace. (Keep in mind that intervals training can be applied to any aerobic activity, from swimming to jogging to cycling.)
If you’re working out alone, try getting into a class situation in which you might be inspired to work harder by the people around you. You can also try working out to faster music than you’re used to; your body will probably want to keep pace with the rhythm all on its own.
Then too consider incorporating into your daily life some other ways to increase the calories you burn, like parking your car farther from work and walking briskly over that distance, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator. And when the phone rings, don’t necessarily reach for the closest extension. (One study I read concluded that the average person would walk an additional 17 miles annually if there were only one phone in the house. This sounded fishy to me until I did the approximate math. Now it seems possible.) The point is to find any way at all to raise your caloric output.
I also recommend keeping a food and activity diary for a week or two. The reason is that you (like many of us) may actually be underestimating the number of calories you eat and overestimating the amount of exercise you get. You need some way to keep yourself honest. By jotting down everything that passes your lips, you’ll be able to see whether you’ve inadvertently settled into some counterproductive eating habits. (One woman I talked to about this told me she’d been shocked to find that a few too many baked goods and “healthy” energy bars had sneaked into her diet when she wasn’t looking.) And by logging how often and how long you work out, you’ll be able to validate your exercise regime. Through these reality checks, you may discover that the diet you thought you were adhering to is really not quite as moderate as you’d believed, and that your four workouts a week are really only two.
All in all, this is a sure-fire prescription for losing those last 10 pounds. But before you begin following it, please be certain that you really need to shed the weight. Like those three young women I came upon in the ladies’ room, who probably didn’t have 10 pounds to lose among them, don’t succumb to the false notion that one can never be too thin. Ask yourself whether you’re trying to lose the weight because you want to look like, say, an actress or model. Are you hoping to please yourself or someone else? And once you lose those pounds, will you be satisfied?
Just recently, I saw a greeting card that depicted a frantically exercising woman over the caption, “I’m desperately trying to get to the weight I was when I thought I was fat.”
Though I laughed, I couldn’t help thinking how many women--whether they’re in the bathrooms of upscale restaurants or confronting their reflections alone at home--would fail to get the joke.
*
Copyright 1998 by Kathy Smith
* Kathy Smith’s fitness column appears weekly in Health. Reader questions are welcome and can be sent to Kathy Smith, Health, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053. If your question is selected, you will receive a free copy of her book “Getting Better All the Time.” Please include your name, address and a daytime phone number with your question.