Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Congratulations! That's quite an accomplishment.

I too have lost a lot of weight recently. Since May 1st, I've lost exactly 40 pounds as of this morning. I've gone from 265 to 225. My goal is 165, which I hope to reach by May 1st 2010. I'm still on pace for that. However, if I can "only" get down to 180 or whatever, I would be very happy with that. As a teenager and as an adult, the lowest I've been is about 205.

I have, however, hit two plateaus since I've been losing weight. One was about 2 weeks in, after I lost a lot of weight right away and the plateau lasted around 3 weeks. I just kept on with what I was doing and I eventually busted through it (all of a sudden lost 5 pounds in two days and started losing weight consistently again).

About 4 days ago, I just got through my second plateau, which had lasted about a month.

Because there's no hard scientific insight on plateaus, it's hard to give advice, but there varying up your diet and exercise does seem like the best advice. For diet, try varying your caloric intake every day (2200 one day, 1200 the next, etc.). Trying mixing up your fat/carb/protein ratio. And for exercise, definitely try new exercises.

And as for why the last few pounds are the hardest to, a lot of that is simply because the lighter your body gets, the less calories it needs.
For example, for me to lose two pounds per week when I was 265, I needed about 1900 net-calories a day. At 225, I'm down to about 1600 . At 165, I'll be down to 1200. That's a huge difference. So your caloric intake and exercise may not be enough anymore.

I got inspired to start making these after seeing Throwdown with Bobby Flay.

For the green chili, I grill poblano, Anaheim, and jalpeno peppers and mix them with cilantro olive oil and lemon juice. I also make the patty on a skillet so near the end I can throw in the green chili mix. The quick sauteeing really improves the taste. I also just use salt and pepper for the patty.