Why You'll Probably Never Lose Those Last 10 Pounds
Track what you eat and stress less to accomplish the difficult task
Losing weight is hard. Losing weight when you're over 50 is really hard. But losing those last 10 pounds — whittling away the last of the unneeded fat to reveal the sculpted muscle below — that's impossible, right?
"You will hear people say you cannot do this, but that's not true. It is absolutely possible," says Lisa Swanson, the 64 year-old founder of Body & Soul Coaching, an online service aimed at helping women older than 50 reach their health and fitness goals.
If you're already at a healthy weight but are determined to lose the muffin top, love handles or flabby arms that seem to grow just a bit worse each year, you've got your work cut out for you.
"A lot of people think, 'Oh, I've only got 10 pounds to lose, it's going to be easy,' but it's harder," Swanson says. "You're working on something cosmetic and not a health issue, and your body's very happy with where you are, so you kind of have to trick your body."
"We're all so unique, so it's about finding the right macronutrient balance to help lose that weight."
You might think that trickery involves eating less and exercising more, but according to Swanson, doing that puts unneeded stress on the body and seldom works. "You need to lower the stress, so have a little more rest time. Maybe eat a little less, but also exercise less."
Swanson's typical advice also involves carefully tracking what you eat and counting how many grams of carbohydrate, fat and protein you take in every day. "We're all so unique, so it's about finding the right macronutrient balance to help lose that weight," she explains. "Then, once you find that balance, you need to stick with it long enough to see results."
Working hard and sticking with it is the approach for another trainer we heard from, too.
"My transformation began in 2013 with a health scare when my wife insisted I visit a cardiologist for a baseline checkup," Dan Platt, now 59, wrote in an email. "The results were shocking — I had pre-hypertension and elevated cholesterol. The cardiologist offered me two pills to take for the rest of my life if I wanted to extend my lifespan by 15 years."
The news depressed Platt, who asked his doctor if there was something else he could do to reverse his condition. "His response was cold: no. He claimed that only 8% of people can reverse high blood pressure and cholesterol through diet and exercise. However, that wasn't the full story. The 8% who succeed are those with the discipline to adopt a sustainable healthy diet and commit to regular exercise."
Platt, then an award-winning visual effects creator working in Los Angeles, was one of the 8% disciplined enough to change his lifestyle. Over time, he lost 30 pounds of fat, gained over 20 pounds of muscle and was able to get and stay off of the medications his doctor prescribed.
The transformation was so impactful, Platt left the movie business in 2020, got certified as a personal trainer and began coaching clients online. Today, he owns TNT Fitness 365, where he uses functional training to help others transform their bodies and lives.
His advice to those who wants to lose those last 10 pounds? "For your diet, prioritize protein at every meal, aiming for 1.6 to 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. To stay on track, avoid guessing portion sizes, as this can lead to overeating and fat gain. Instead, set a caloric target, weigh your food in grams with a food scale and use an online tool to ensure your portions align with your goals."
But what about bread, chocolate, wine with dinner?
"I enjoy two pieces of delicious dark chocolate every day — it's my Kryptonite," he replies. "However, when I have a specific goal in mind, I put desserts on hold and treat myself only after I've achieved that goal. I never have a 'cheat meal' but a 'reward meal.'"
'Obesity Paradox'
If counting carbs, weighing your portions and skipping dessert doesn't sound fun, right about now you (like me) may be invoking the famous "Obesity Paradox" study published in 2013 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
If you're not familiar, the gist was this: In a systematic review and analysis of 97 studies that looked at mortality and body mass index (BMI), those whose BMI classified them as overweight or mildly obese lived longer than those in both the underweight and normal weight BMI brackets.
Before you reach for the cookies, though, you should know there's a major issue with that bombshell meta-analysis: BMI disregards body composition — the percentages of body weight made up of fat and lean tissue — so it's often a poor marker for making health correlations. Indeed, many follow-up studies and meta-analyses have posited that the 2013 JAMA article merely demonstrates a "BMI paradox," and when variables like fitness level, lean muscle mass, health history and other lifestyle factors are considered, the advantage for the overweight and mildly obese disappears or even reverses.
Maintaining Stable Weight
While the majority of recent research suggests that maintaining a healthy weight (or more accurately, a healthy body composition) is key to aging well, the mindset that weighing less is better can be a dangerous one.
A 2023 article published in the Journals of Gerontology looked at the association between weight change, intentional weight loss and longevity among more than 54,000 women aged 61-81 at baseline. They found that women over 60 who maintained a stable weight had a significantly better chance of living to 90, 95 or 100 than those who had lost more than 5% of body weight at three- and 10-year follow-up periods.
"Intentional and unintentional weight loss both led to a lower likelihood of reaching age 90 or over, though unintentional weight loss was more strongly associated," corresponding author Aladdin Shadyab, professor of medicine and public health at the University of California, San Diego, says. What's more, the results were similar regardless of whether the women began the study in the normal weight, overweight or obese BMI category.
"We didn't look at the mechanisms behind this link," Shadyab says, "but the study suggests that the relationship between weight changes and health outcomes in mid-life — people aged 40 to 60 for example — may be different than in people 70 and older."
Losing those last 10 pounds? It's a lot of work for something that's more a matter of personal preference than a health imperative.
Indeed, other studies suggest that if you're obese, losing weight earlier in life is a good health goal, but as we age, maintaining a stable weight is associated with longevity.
One could get dizzy examining all of the different studies and advice. The preponderance of evidence, though, suggests that there is a Goldilocks weight range for healthy aging: not too thin (and certainly not too under-muscled), not too fat (especially if that fat is concentrated around your mid-section and organs), but somewhere in the middle is likely just right.
Annual lab tests and talking with your doctor can help you find that sweet spot. But losing those last 10 pounds? It's a lot of work for something that's more a matter of personal preference than a health imperative.
