This week let’s review what the last 10 pounds means for you, and what you can do to get “through” this often-tedious phase of weight loss. To be honest, everything you thought about losing weight from the past does NOT apply to lose the last 10 pounds – which is why it’s the hardest for most people—but it does not have to be!

Almost all weight loss plans focus on an outdated and inaccurate formula to eat fewer calories than you consume, but as you’ve learned from our blogs and from your Diet Center Counselors, this isn’t the case. Many things impact our body weight, and calories is about the least useful and least impactful of any. Nourishing our body with proper food groups and lifestyle modification is key. In fact, there are even new terms to describe weight gain. For example, stress-induced obesity is its own medical term — regardless of calorie intakes, the weight comes from the physiological response to stress.

Yes, you read that correctly – for some people, the stress response is such that their weight-related hormones determine their body weight, NOT their caloric intake.

In order to lose the last 10 pounds, it’s important to focus on the things that stall weight regain: proper meal timing, balanced meals, increased activity, managing stress levels, targeted supplementation and appropriate sleep. These things have the biggest impact on the things that cause plateaus and regains: hormone balance, body toxicity, cellular inflammation, gut health and immune function. Here is a “to-do checklist” below to lose the last 10 pounds.

We encourage you to take a step back and look at a few things honestly and objectively, using a food journal to be certain:

• Do you have breakfast every day (with protein, fruit or veggies) within 45 minutes of getting out of bed? This is important as it helps to kick-start the metabolism for the day, and resets your internal clock for a new day.
• Do you ensure that you never skip a meal? For weight loss, it’s crucial that you eat your lunch within 3-5 hours after breakfast, and your dinner within 3-5 hours of lunch. This helps to keep your metabolism working, and helps to ensure that your body is receiving all of the nutrition it needs to function at full capacity! Eating every 2-3 hours is key in both weight loss and weight maintenance, so eat often!
• By following the above, you ensure that you are adhering to the golden rule: eating 2/3 of all your food within the first nine hours of your waking day. This balances your weight-related hormones, reduces cellular inflammation, improves detox, and will help you with that uber-stubborn last 10 pounds.
• How many DIFFERENT fruits and veggies do actually eat in a week? Shoot for at least five different fruits and five different veggies each week when in the last 10 pounds. Make it a rainbow of different colors to nourish your body and receive tons of benefits.
• Are you at all physically active? We don’t necessarily mean exercise—we mean simple movement. TRY and move for 30 minutes without stopping! Walking is a great form of movement, and if you need something more intense try walking faster, especially outside! Rock out to your favorite jams to energize your day and tone the new body you have worked hard for.
• Analyze your stress level. Everyone says “I have stress,” but almost NOBODY does anything about it. You can reduce the cortical response of stress, which is what holds onto and creates belly fat, by breathing deeply and intentionally in a quiet space for 10 minutes a day, by walking, by reducing your recreational TV or computer screen time to less than seven hours a week, and by eating your work meal AWAY from your desk. Ask your Diet Center Counselor about both the Herbal II Formula and the PM Patch. Both have special ingredients to assist with stress management as it boosts your fat burning power!
• What time do you fall asleep? Notice we didn’t ask how much you sleep. This is one of the killers for losing the last 10 pounds, along with more than seven hours a week of recreational screen time. WHEN you go to sleep is what determines how your hormone cycles will flow (or not flow). If you are serious about optimizing the weight-related and stress-related hormones, then you should ideally be asleep by 10 p.m. Falling asleep later than that produces increasing deterioration in these cycles for every half hour you delay falling asleep. Again, the Diet Center PM Patch can assist with a restful night.
• Use supplements to your advantage. There are basically two styles of supplements that Diet Center provides): The first includes the Diet Center Nutritional Supplement (Gold Protein, Dairy Bars, and Snacks) family, which promotes compliance to the plan and quickens behavior modification. The second includes the nutraceuticals, like Vitamins, Minerals, Fat Burners, and Enhancers that are “repair supplements” which promote and support the body during weight loss. These repair supplements most often work synergistically with all the above points to move people through the last 10 pounds more easily.

In closing, we can reveal that coming very soon, we will be introducing some enhancements specifically designed and formulated for assisting you all through the last 10 pounds and more consistent losses. Until then, you can feel confident that the tips and strategies above will make this phase dramatically easier and faster the more of them that you incorporate into your Diet Center daily routine.