This is the scenario:

You've committed yourself to a healthy eating and weight loss journey, and made significant progress in losing weight. You are 10 kilos away from your goal weight. These are the stubborn last 10 kilos that stick to your body like melted cheese.

Can you do anything about it? Absolutely!

First, you must know why it gets harder to lose weight when you're slimper. And second, you have to apply that knowledge to your weight loss program. The rest, as they say, will be history... and one with a happy ending.

Of course, this is only one approach to tackling down this problem. Low Carbs followers have other alternatives, but this is the one I'm familiar with.

There are three main reasons why losing the last 10 kilos is hard:

First, when you're fatter, you tend to use up more energy. Therefore, when you lose weight, your body tends to burn less calories for the same amount of physical activity.

Second, when you're overweight, you retain more liquids in your body. Once you start your weight loss program (or a healthy eating program), the liquids are amongst the first things your body gets rid of.

Third, your metabolic rates (ie the speed in which you burn your energy) slows down.

In other words, when you have lost weight, your body adapts itself to the new energy consumption requirements that your body has in relation to your new weight. Does that make sense?

To make things worse, if you're frustrated because you're not losing as much weight as you used to at the beginning of your journey, your natural response would be eat even less. But guess what? If you do that, you slow your weight loss even more.

This is because your body goes into starvation mode, and starts burning muscle as well as fat. Muscle is the main fat burner in your body, and the less you have of it, the less fat you are able to burn.

The next link in this chain reaction is that your metabolic rate starts slowing down even further, as your body re-adjusts itself to use its energy reserves more efficiently, just in case the "starvation period" continues for a long time.

Then the string snaps, and you go back to "normal" eating patterns, but the body's metabolic rate stays "depressed". The body burns less fat, even if you're eating healthy amounts of low fat food.

The result? Well, you start gaining weight even if you're being good.

As a bonus, people then think "what's the point?", and get back to eating "no-no" foods in "absolutely-no-no" amounts... And all the lost weight gradually starts creeping up again.

And if you keep repeating this yo-yo pattern, your body will learn to store fat more stubbornly, just in case another starvation period comes. And the older you get doing this, the harder losing weight gets.

But there are several things you can do to avoid this cycle:

1. First, you have to accept that losing weight when in plateau is a slow process. So, there is no point in getting frustrated when you lose significantly less weight than you used to. That is the way it's meant to happen.

This is a necessary psychological step to take, as this will make you less anxious, and more focused on your weight loss endeavours.

2. Accordingly, set yourself smaller weight loss goals every week. Losing small amounts of weight at this stage will ensure that your body retains muscle mass which, in turn, will help you keep burning fat regularly.

3. Eat low fat recipes that fill you up. Remember that although there are hundreds of delicious low fat recipes to try, you have to eat them wisely. Combine to get the maximum amount of food, containing the minimum amount of fat and calories.

4. If you want to take the opportunity to cleans your system, you may want to try a raw food diet at this stage, as this may give your body a "metabolic edge" by consuming less fat and more complex carbohydrates.

Processing the calories from foods like wholemeal bread takes more energy than storing energy from butter.

5. Do "fat burning" exercise, rather than aerobic exercise. Fat burning exercise such as walking or cycling regularly (5 days a week) for about 40 minutes will keep your metabolism going. Aerobic exercise burns fat, but it is rather designed to give you cardiovacular fitness.

6. Give yourself a break. No, I don't mean that you should go on a binge of "no-no food". Rather, allow yourself a couple of treats, and go easy for a couple of weeks. Of course, keep your weight in check on a weekly basis. The trick is to eat more than when on a diet, but less than when you were overweight.

7. Once your weight has stabilised, you can go back to your lower fat regime.

Repeat this cycle till you get to your desired weight.

As Rachel Hunter said in a TV commercial: "It won't happen overnight... but it will happen."

Remember that you're ideal weight is what you can maintain whilst eating 3 or more healthy meals a day, without exceeding your daily calorie and fat intake.

Also remember that before starting any weight loss program, you should always consult your doctor or health professional.

Yours in health,

Jeff, The Skinny Chef.