You’ve been watching the pounds drop off, only to hit the buffers. Numbers on the scales stop going down, the final pounds refuse to budge and motivation plummets. For many it is back to the biscuit tin. But while setbacks are almost inevitable, they are not insurmountable and a raft of recent studies provide hope to anyone about to give up on their target weight.
As Dr Gilly Hendrie, a researcher at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, puts it, “periods of maintenance and small regains are normal — but with persistence, meaningful results can happen”. You just need to know how to navigate the ups and downs on the scales.
And if not? Many struggling with the last few pounds will be eagerly awaiting the “Wegovy pill”, under review in the UK, with a launch date rumoured for late 2026. Cheaper than the traditional injectable GLP-1 weight-loss jabs, as a supplement-sized tablet it is also more discreet.
In the US, where it has been available since this January, dieters have dubbed it “the last 20lb pill” for its ability to shift the stubborn stone and a half that dieting has failed to conquer. Will it really spell the end of the dreaded plateau? We shouldn’t count on it entirely, according to Kevin Hall, a scientist at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) who carried out a study showing that even those on weight-loss medication are not immune to progress faltering.
While GLP-1 drugs do prolong the time it takes to hit a weight-loss wall compared with regular calorie-cutting — in his study in Obesity Journal, Hall found that jabs resulted in dieters shedding pounds for an extra year before hitting a plateau — they don’t prevent one from happening after about two years.
Dr Federica Amati, the head nutritionist at Zoe and nutrition lead at Imperial College London, says they are not intended as a quick fix for those final pounds. “The GLP-1 medicines are not a finishing touch for a small amount of weight loss in someone who is otherwise healthy,” she says. “And they do not replace the foundations of healthy eating.”
None of this means you are doomed to fail. We like to think that weight loss follows a linear downwards progression, but as anyone who has tried to hit a target weight will tell you, it is rarely the case. A study from CSIRO, involving 6,500 dieters, found that there is no such thing as constant diminishing weight and that people were able to hit their target weight despite experiencing at least one three-month plateau, often with small amounts of weight regained, before moving towards their goal again.
Over the course of a year the way their weight fell off differed. Some lost most of their weight in the first six months before hitting the plateau, then inched back to their target. Others saw weight drop off for three months, then plateau for an agonising nine months before reaching their goals while 9 per cent shed pounds steadily for nine months, followed by three months of a plateau, and then hit the goal at 12 months. Despite such variations, by the end of the study two in three of them had lost at least 5 per cent of their starting body weight.
Hendrie says it should “give hope to anyone who has ever felt disheartened” about squeezing back into their jeans.
Dr Madusha Peiris, a senior lecturer in enteric neurobiology at Queen Mary University of London and founder of the appetite suppressant Elcella, says that we should consider the struggle as a normal part of the process. “Don’t think of it as a personal failure as it is not,” Peiris says. “In fact, it is just down to biology and your body pushing you to do more because it can.”
Have faith — there are ways to overcome that stubborn stone and a half. Here is what you need to know.
Why do we stop losing weight in the first place?
Nick Fuller is a professor in the faculty of medicine and health at the University of Sydney and founder of the Interval Weight Loss programme (intervalweightloss.com). He says the body activates defence mechanisms designed to resist weight loss from the moment we embark on any weight-loss programme. It’s a full-on battle.
“Metabolism slows, appetite-regulating hormones shift, thyroid activity is reduced, stress hormones such as cortisol increase, and brain signalling changes to heighten cravings for high-calorie, high-fat and high-sugar foods. These responses are driven by the body’s desire to protect its ‘set-point’ weight, an evolutionary survival mechanism inherited from our hunter-gatherer past, where food scarcity was a constant threat.” This is why plateaus — and weight regain — are so common, he says.
Would I lose enough weight on Wegovy or Ozempic before hitting a plateau?
Possibly, although no single weight loss journey is the same. Much depends on how much you had to lose in the first place. And while weight loss drugs do prevent weight regain by reducing normal appetite signals, the weight is likely to return once you stop taking them.
A recent BMJ study showed that people who quit the medication typically regained the lost pounds — and saw a reversal of many associated health benefits — within 18 months. “For someone chasing the last 21lb, I would want to move the conversation towards the real priority: what is their health goal?” Amati says. “The aim is not to ‘push on’ at all costs, but to build habits that support long-term health, and that you can sustain.”
I seem to gain a few pounds before losing a bit more — why is this?
Weight naturally dips and rises even on a daily basis, and if you have 21lb or less to lose these fluctuations can be more noticeable. “Changes in water retention, salt intake, hormones, stress, sleep, and even bowel patterns can affect weight on the scales,” Amati says. “If you weigh yourself often, this can result in what seems like weight regain, when in fact your body fat hasn’t changed.”
Compounding the problem, the body’s natural protective responses are triggered every time weight is lost. “These evolutionary mechanisms prime the body to anticipate future ‘starvation’ by becoming more efficient at storing fat,” Fuller says. “As a result, people often regain not only the weight they lost, but a little extra as well — making each cycle harder than the last.” To stay motivated, it’s better to look at weight loss trends over weeks, rather than focus only on daily peaks or losses, and to track other markers such as waist measurement, how your clothes fit, strength, energy and how you feel overall.
Should I cut calories even more when I hit a plateau?
You can’t afford to let good habits slip at this point, but severe restriction is not going to work either. Consistency is key for success, even if it takes a while longer to get there. “If an approach makes you constantly hungry, tired or unhappy, it won’t last,” Amati says. “You need to stick to eating habits that support fullness and energy levels and fit realistically into your life.”
Keep temptation at bay for the final push
Counterintuitively — and somewhat frustratingly — we tend to get the nibbles and feel hungrier the lighter we get, says Peter Rogers, an emeritus professor of biological psychology at the University of Bristol. This is down to the relationship between the amount of body fat we have and levels of the hormone leptin that affects how much we want to eat.
“When we have a relatively high amount of body fat, the hormone leptin tells the brain to reduce our appetite,” Rogers says. “But as we lose body fat, that brain signal weakens and the brakes are put on leptin production, which means appetite gradually goes up and that contributes to a weight balance point or plateau.”
This is part of the reason you need to be diligent with keeping tempting snacks and evening nibbles at bay. “The effect isn’t huge, but it’s one of the things going on in the background as people lose weight,” Rogers says. “Dieting lapses become more likely later on when weight loss slows, which adds to the perception that a plateau is insurmountable.”
Do I need to do hard workouts to help me shed the final pounds?
When it comes to shifting those final few pounds, the effects of physical activity are complex. “Exercise doesn’t always ‘break’ a plateau on its own, especially if the plateau is driven by normal biology,” Amati says. “As we lose weight, our bodies adapt by becoming more energy-efficient, and hunger signals can increase. That means the routine that worked early on may not have the same effect later.”
What you will need to do, the performance coach Dalton Wong says, is to up the ante in one way or another. “The key is not to go crazy overnight,” Wong says. “I advise my clients either to add an extra workout or two each week or to increase the intensity of an existing session.”
This can be achieved by lifting heavier weights than you have been doing, adding more reps or increasing the number of intervals you do. “In the gym, focus on compound moves that use large muscle groups as they will help with fat-burning,” Wong says. “Squats are great, but do them in different ways and with heavier weights than usual.”
Focus on fibre, fish oils and olive oil
What you eat is as important as how much (or how little) in the battle against stubborn pounds. “Nutritious foods provide more energy and specific nutrients that excite gut cells to release appetite-reducing hormones such as GLP-1 and PYY than ultra-processed foods,” Peiris says.
“On the other hand, eating a lot of processed and fast foods, along with stress, can lead to poor gut signalling, which will hamper weight loss.” Fatty acids found in oily fish, healthy plant oils and short chain fatty acids that come from the breakdown of fibre by the gut microbiome are all important for weight loss. “We have strong published scientific data to show these nutrients are important for the release of the appetite lowering gut hormones,” Peiris says. “If we don’t release enough of these hormones from the gut, we feel hungry more often and more quickly after meals.”
Don’t cut out dairy or carbs
Fuller says that many of the foods commonly excluded on diets are, in fact, those we should be including for better weight management and overall health. “Carbs are often blamed for weight gain, yet they play a vital role in a healthy diet and the key is choosing wholegrain carbohydrates, which are rich in nutrients, rather than refined white varieties that are high in calories and low in nutritional value,” he says. “Dairy is another frequent target, largely due to concerns about fat, yet dairy foods such as milk and yoghurt are nutrient-dense, and research consistently shows that people who consume more dairy have lower body weights.”
Will increasing my daily steps make any difference?
Increasing your step count by just 2,000 a day will mean you burn about an extra 200 calories. “This is meaningful because it is not the type of intense activity that leaves you hungry and it won’t leave you too tired to do your usual workouts,” Wong says. “It’s one of the most powerful additions when you are getting to the troublesome end of a diet.”
Restricting calories in a bid to shift weight can backfire. With less energy, you are less inclined to pick up your step tally — and it takes its toll. “People often move less without realising it when they are eating less, so it is very important to focus on walking, taking the stairs, and getting up regularly through the day,” Amati says. “It can increase energy expenditure without the stress of constantly ‘pushing harder’ in the gym.”
