What frustration! After all the weight you’ve worked so hard to lose, last pounds are the hardest to lose and seem impossible to shift.

If it’s any consolation, you’re not alone.

Countless people search for “how to lose last pounds” because they have hit the dreaded “weight loss wall”. And as you close in on your goal, keen to lose the last pounds – the last 10 pounds, the last 5 pounds – the wall seems to get higher and higher.

The reason it’s such a common problem is that it is a perfectly natural problem.

Why it’s so hard to lose the last pounds

Our bodies are designed to work in ways that keep us alive in the worst possible situations.

One of those ways is to store up fat to use as fuel in times of starvation. Of course nowadays, it’s not really necessary – in the developed world, at least – but our bodies keep doing it anyway.

Shedding some of this fat is does not trigger alarm bells. But when we want to lose the last 5 or 10 pounds, we face a difficult battle with our own bodies. Sensing imminent “starvation” the metabolism slows down so that fewer calories (stored as fat) are burned up.

This means that however little we eat, we still can’t lose last pounds of fat that our bodies are designed to hold on to. In fact the less we eat – the more we seem like we really are starving, which just makes things worse.

So what is the solution?

How can we outwit our own bodies?

The obvious answer is that we must convince our bodies that we’re not starving. Once our bodies feel “safe” on this front, the metabolism will pep up again.

But how do we seem like we’re not starving without actually eating more – and gaining back some of the weight we’ve lost?

As you may know from TV shows like The Last 10 Pounds Bootcamp, the key is exercise.

Why workouts are the key to losing last pounds

  • When you exercise, you burn up calories whether your body likes it or not.
  • Exercise also allows you to eat more without gaining weight. This makes your body switch out of panic mode and speed up the metabolism again. As a result, you will start losing weight even if you are eating more.
  • Another way that exercise boosts the metabolism is that it boosts the hormones that keep the metabolism functioning efficiently.
  • At the same time you will develop muscle. The great thing about muscle is that an ounce of muscle takes up less space that an ounce of fat, and muscle burns more calories too, even when you’re resting.

And of course, you will have a firm, well-toned body, too.

Many women worry that they will bulk up and appear too masculine if they workout but this is not a problem. Women do not have sufficient testosterone for this to happen, and will only develop a “feminine” level of muscle tone. (Women muscle builders go to extreme lengths to overcome these natural obstacles to bulky muscle.)

But as many people who have included exercise throughout their fat loss plan know, even exercise can fail to help you lose the last 5, 10 or 15 pounds. This is because you need to be doing the right kind of exercise.

The best workouts to lose last pounds

The fact is, not all workouts are created equal. Even the best workouts have shortcomings that limit their overall benefits.

The most effective way to workout to lose last pounds of stubborn fat is to mix and match workouts that complement each other. You then get the full benefits of each workout with none of the drawbacks.

This is a tactic that fitness expert and model John Romaniello has fine-tuned with his Final Phase Fat Loss System.

It’s a ready-made system of the best workouts for burning fat – the combination that will blast away those last 5, 10, 15 or 20 pounds. Hence the name “Final Phase” Fat Loss.

The FPFL system (outlined in this Final Phase Fat Loss Review) reflects something John’s well known for in the world of fitness. That is, thinking outside the box to develop a system that really performs to lose last pounds of unwanted fat.

So, for anyone who wants to do just that – lose last pounds of stubborn fat – you get the results without having to go through a lengthy process of trial and error.

For more details, see this Review or go straight to John’s Final Phase website, here.

Lose Last Pounds – an original article, exclusive to this site.
Copyright © 2011 Caroline Mackenzie