Please help my friend!

[UmbongoUnchained]

Just finished my workout with my friend who is trying to lose weight.
She's 15 stone and wants to get down to 9 (she's 5ft7).
For a week now she's been eating lean meat and green veg or salad for lunch and dinner and special K porridge for breakfast and she's been working out every evening with me and going for hour long walks every afternoon.
She's just weighed herself and she's put on 3 pounds! She obviously absolutely devastated as she was just starting to feel really good.
Is this normal for the first week? Should she be adding something else to her diet? She's using MFP and it says that she's been eating within her calories each day.

[RunnerOnTheRun]

She needs to cut out the Special shit porridge K and replace with wholesome and real food.

She needs to stop the calorie counting and just concentrate on eating nature's food. Not processed sugary junk. For example avocados have more calories than a twirl bar but which would you say contains more healthy fats and more nutrients?

Breakfast could be: eggs, bacon, smoothie, cold meats, fruit and natural yog (full fat, more natural, not low fat/fake).

[littlepinkgiraffe]

If she is exercising then it will take a while for her body to lose that weight as the muscles hold water around them after exercise. The results from that should show in a few weeks.

[UmbongoUnchained]

Ah ok so it's normal to gain at first?
Is special k really bad? I never knew that!

[Wolfiefan]

Special K is full of sugar. She also needs to consider her portion sizes. An adult portion of Special K looks tiny.
Also things like salad dressings and drinks count towards the calories.

[UmbongoUnchained]

Ah ok I will let her know. Luckily she is very fussy and doesn't eat anything with sauce and only drinks water so that's a huge help to her!!

[Pinkheart5915]

Maybe she should keep a food diary not to count calories but to write down and keep an eye on everything that's being eaten. Sometimes people mis lead themselves and eat other things.
Is she having high calorie dressings on salads?
If she's drinking fruit juice and fizzy drinks they have calories in too, I know it sounds simple but some people don't think of these things.
The special k does need to go, it does have sugar in it and the calories on the pack are for a 30g portion which is tiny ( she could easily be doubling that size portion at the moment)
For my breakfast I have porridge with a handful of berries and a smoothie that my husband insist I drink
The lean meat,veg and salad is nice and healthy but how big are her portion?

I dont understand the putting on 3 pounds, she must be going wrong somewhere.

[RunnerOnTheRun]

What kind of workout are you doing together?

[UmbongoUnchained]

She doesn't eat any sauces and only drinks water.
Her portion sizes seem OK to me. She fills the plate with half salad it veg and than has 1 piece of meat (I.e a chicken breast, a pork chop with fat cut off)

Exercise wise we do the hour power walk with toddlers in carriers so power walk while carrying a 2 stone load. Then in the evenings we do 30 minutes of cardio like mountain climbers, burpees, jumping jacks and fast running on the spot then we do half an hour of Pilates for strength building. Sometimes we do yoga after to stretch out.

[Not2bObvious]

I would say that her starting weight wasn't her true weight. I believe what you see on the scales is a reflection of where she was 1 week-10 days ago. Advise her to put it behind her and keep going. Second/third/fourth the opinions to ditch the Special K, expensive sugary muck. Personally I'm following the Blood Sugar Diet plan, it's not for every one I know but for beating cravings and getting a kickstart to lose the first stone or so, it might be a winner. Full fat, no bread/potatoes/rice/pasta, vlcd for 8 weeks to start. Low to moderate carb, Mediterranean diet basically, full fat, loads of green veg, protein, limited fruit (natures candy apparently, excuse the Americanism) You're meant to only eat 800 cals a day but you can tweak it, I rarely manage to stick to that but I'm down nearly 10lb in just over 3 weeks and it's very doable. Sleeping well, seeing changes daily. I started at just over 12 stone, if she has a look at it, it might be a winner.
You're a good friend to help

[UmbongoUnchained]

I'm going to try and take her swimming tomorrow as that's an amazing exercise but she will hate people seeing her in a cozzie.
She's doing incredibly well considering she's gone from doing about 500 steps a day to 10-15000!
I'm quite fit (a dancer) so I work her quite hard in our work outs and she's not complained or given up once so she's doing amazingly well!
I've promised she can have a dress that I own that she wants to wear to an even next year if she slims down to a size 8 so that's a big motivation for her.
I've just realised that I eat the Quakers oats sachet porridge and they have even more sugar in than the special k! Oops!

[Pannacott]

She must take body measurements regularly! And lots of half naked selfies. If she's massively increasing her exercise (good for her) it's very possible she's putting on weight, whilst actually getting smaller and getting a better shape, because muscle weighs more than fat.

[oldlaundbooth]

She needs to use MFP and record exactly what she's eating.

It doesn't seem like she's being totally honest if she's gained 3 pounds eating lean meat and veg, it's just doesn't make sense.

She should try low carb high fat for a bit a small a PP said, that would give her a boost.

[oldlaundbooth]

A small a = as a

[UmbongoUnchained]

I'm cooking tea for her tonight. Is brown pasta ok or is that a big no no? It's just what I would usually have!

[RunnerOnTheRun]

Brown pasta is a highly refined/processed energy dense food. So eat it sparingly if the goal is fat loss.