Dieting and exercise for over 6 months and lost no weight

[RabbitsPikasAndHares]

I've been eating clean and exercising since October and I'm starting to get really discouraged by the fact that not only have I not lost any weight, I seem to have gained a few pounds :(

I'm 5 foot 6, and currently weight 14 stone 10 and seem to carry it all around the middle (39 ich waist!!!). And frustratingly, all the time in the gym seems to have made this worse, as my arms and legs have toned up, but I still have a horrible huge fat belly.

I gym 3 times a week for an hour doing a mixture of cardio & weights

For food I;ve been aiming for around 1500 a day which should be well withing the range for a steady loss at my weight & height:

Breakfast: Overnight oats with chia seeds, OR meusli and soya yogurt. Coffee with milk no sugar.

Lunch: Noodle salad with tofu & veg (either veg based noodles for lower carbs or japanese buckwheat noodles) OR Oatcakes with nut butter and carrot sticks.

Snack: Apple

A few coffees throughout the day (just normal instant coffee, not calorific takeaway ones)

Dinner: Curry (Usually lentil & veg based) and rice Or Pasta etc. Normal veggie dinner things. Pudding once a week.

I don't drink, I rarely eat out (probably about 3 or 4 times in the last 6 months)

I'm feeling a bit confused about where I'm going so wrong! I know that my diet could be more restricted, but that is something I know couldn't work as it would be unsustainable, and low/no carb would be tricky as I;m a vegetarian. I don't have the free time or energy to up the hours at the gym. It's depressing as I would have thought considering how heavy I am I would have at least lost a few pounds!

Any suggestions? Am I missing something obvious? Am I doomed to never shifting a single pound?? I'm feeling so discouraged that I'm considering Orlistat...

[Auchan]

I know how frustrating it is, I've been there.

You're eating a lot of sugar (oats, pasta, oatcakes, muesli) and this was my problem too. I went on low carb and lost 8 stone over the last year and a half. I know you don't need to lose that much but I think because you carry your weight around your stomach you could be having insulin sensitivity issues.

Try low carb for about 6 weeks and you'll know if you're doing the right thing. Good luck OP

[FacelikeaBagofHammers]

Your diet seems very low in protein. Do you eat eggs?

Have you had a checkup with the GP? If you are keeping to those calorie intakes, you really should be seeing a change on the scales. I'd have some bloods done, just to rule any other issues out.

Also what do you do at the gym? Do you do classes?

[Scotmum83]

It may be helpful to get some bloods taken to check for thyroid problems. At least to rule it out. Also, I find I put on weight when I go to the gym as you are putting on muscle so that could be a factor.

[Fayrazzled]

Read the Obesity Code by Jason Fung- it explains it all. But yes, basically you are eating too much carb/sugar. The Blood Sugar Diet by Michael Mosley (see also his website) is also very helpful in explaining insulin resistance.

[buggerthebotox]

How do you know you're within your calorie limit? Are you counting/logging?

Could it be your portions are too big?

Or perhaps you need to revise your calorie intake downwards?

I need to stick to 1200 with 10k steps thrown in to lose 1lb a week. It's slow,it's tedious, but, yes, it works as long as you're patient.

Maybe you're still eating too much?

[RabbitsPikasAndHares]

I wouldn't say my diet is low in protein, tofu, nut butter, lentils etc are all protein. I would eat eggs cooked in something but not on their own (texture thing.)

I think i had my thyroid function tested about a year ago, I had bloods done and they just said everything was fine.

[Loubilou09]

It's very simple you are not creating enough of a deficit of calories eaten and calories burnt.

3 times a week in the gym is actually not very many calories burnt. I have been really surprised at how little you actually burn in exercise. I have a fairly good new Garmin with a heart rate monitor and 1 hour of full on Zumba only burns about 250 calories which is one grab bag of crisps! If you are not doing much else during the week and not moving much more than the gym then you might not be burning that many calories.

I am 5'7" and weigh just over 12 stones and my inactive body needs 1760 calories a day to maintain it's current weight. Yours probably needs about 1800 calories a day. If you are eating "about 1500" calories a day it's surprisingly easy to misjudge portion sizes or forget about a few little extras i.e. sauces, oil, butter for cooking, milk etc and you could actually be eating nearer the 1800.

I would go back to basics and log absolutely EVERYTHING into MFP, weigh everything don't guess portion sizes or calorie amounts and aim for 9,000 calories a week. Someone else on here gave some great advice in that you also log in 100 calories a day for misjudgements on portion sizes - I really like that!

Try and do 10,000 steps a day and try and do some form of hot, sweaty, heart elevating exercise on top of that everyday even if it is only for 15 minutes to start with.

[Loubilou09]

Ha bugger - practically the same advice

[RabbitsPikasAndHares]

the issue I have with low carbs us that I'm not sure what I could actually eat! I'm vegetarian, but I also don't eat much dairy (only lactofree milk) as i'm lactose intolerent, don't like eggs on their own.

If i replaced rice/pasta with veg would that be low carb or not?

[foodiefil]

I think what you eat sounds normal not diety and as others have said the 3x a week in the gym isn't enough - it will be burning 750 calories approximately. In total. You probably have that in your pudding that you have as a weekly treat there by completing wiping out the gym work. Can you do more walking?

And definitely less sugar. Are you veggie? Sounds like you have a carby lunch and a carby evening meal

[Loubilou09]

By the way I wanted to add that I have lost about 30lbs in 26 weeks on about 1350 calories a day plus at least 10K steps a day and then in the last three months I have added in 7-9 hours of fitness classes a week - Zumba, HIIT and Personal Training. I still have only averaged 1.2lbs a week.

[foodiefil]

Yes that would be low carb. Have 45g of brown rice with lunch and just the curry - if you make it yourself - with greens on an evening

[RabbitsPikasAndHares]

Yep I have been writing down everything, so I'm sure i'm not overestimating. I say around 1500 because some days its slughtly less, some days nearer 1600.

At the gym i usually do half an hour cardio + half an hour free weights

[innitprawn]

It's basically because the carbs are high. I lost 20kgs in 6 months low carb, low fat diet. When I say low fat - I didn't eat bought low fat items I would basically eat very little fat.

Hard work but that's the best diet I've been told by a surgeon who deals with obese patients and weight loss techniques ie bypass'

[foodiefil]

What cardio? If I run for half an hour (10 minute miles) I burn about 280 calories. Everyone is different actually so you might burn more but it's never as much as it feels. Try lifting heavier weights. That increases your EPOC - excess post exercise oxygen consumption - so you burn more calories post workout

[Loubilou09]

Writing it down where Rabbits? Have you been logging it in a recognized app? It is so easy to misjudge a portion size or read a bar code incorrectly or forget something if you are busy. I have to be religious with my app and I either put in what I have planned for in the morning or I literally log everything the second I have eaten it.

Not saying you are lying but as I said, it's simple maths and there is no magic wand here, you are eating more than you are burning if you have put on weight in the last six months and there are no medical issues.

[RabbitsPikasAndHares]

Cardio is usually running or this wierd machine that us like a cross trainer but differenr set on a high resistance.

Weights is usually 30 reps of dumbell chest press, bicep curls, tricep dips, weighted squats, lunges, deadlifts then machines (pull down thingy, leg press) everything with the heaviest weights I can manage

[RabbitsPikasAndHares]

I've been writing it down in a notebook, not using an app or anything. Looking up calories of things, making sure I measure/weigh things. Also I don't think my weekly pudding would be over 700 calories, its usally fruit and soya icecream.

I think maybe my body just needs a lower calorie intake and lower carbs

[buggerthebotox]

I do weights (bit of a novice though) but don't count it as such. I think people generally overestimate the impact exercise has and underestimate the amount they consume. For me,exercise gives me a bit of leeway and is obviously beneficial to health but nothing more. I still stick within 1200 cals as a rule, and the weight shifts, albeit slowly, at a rate of about 1lb a week.

[grandmainmypocket]

Hi OP. Im sorry to hear that. Something sounds wrong with your programme.
I'm using Samsung health on my phone to log all my food. I think it's important to have the right proportion of protein/fat/carbs. Also less processed carbs e.g. noodles more veg
Increase the amount of good fats you intake e.g. olive oil, avocado

Are you sweating at the gym?
On your none gym days are you active? I also found this website really useful for accurate calorie calculation.
www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z2wcbk7#z9cynbk

[RabbitsPikasAndHares]

Yes I am sweating at the gym, I exhaust myself ever time. My job isn't super active (shop) but I am on my feet a lot and lift heavy stock a lot.

I am wondering if maybe something could be medically wrong because since starting excercising I feel constantly exhausted, to the point wher I know that I couldn't so more excercise. I just feel like the Gp isn't going to take me seriously though :s

[Blodplod]

Excellent advice given already. The one thing I read on here was to keep within 75-100g of carbs a day. That's really very low and currently what I am trying to stick with. What's really helpful on MFP is that it tells you the amount of carbs, protein etc that the food you have eaten contains so I can quickly look and see how many carbs I've eaten and then adjust my food accordingly. I am hoping this works for me. I have been faffing about really for about a year and keep losing and putting back the same 10lbs but it's only now I realise how much more i've been eating than I thought and how carb laden my food intake actually was. I am religiously logging everything into MFP and already after 4 days have eventually started to see the shift in the scales. Sorry I can't help with food ideas though! I'm still trying to figure out what I can eat and I'm not vegan or vegetarian.

[Loubilou09]

bugger - I also don't "count" any exercise I do in my calories I eat.

I just keep it really simple and aim for about 1200 calories a day but over the six months there have been nights out for meals, high days and holidays, days when you are due your period and JUST MUST HAVE THE ICE CREAM and on those days I also log absolutely everything. When I plugged it all into one very long and boring spreadsheet it averaged out at about 1350 a day. Those odd days or special occasions can have a huge impact on your weekly/monthly intake.

Exercise as much as you can and drop your calorie intake to about 9,000 a week, and you will lose weight.

Low carb is good in that you don't feel hungry like you do when you eat carbs, this naturally causes you to lower calories.

But above all there is no other magic formula to weight loss apart from more calories out to calories in.

[Loubilou09]

Blod, I wouldn't say 75-100g of carbs is very low at all.

20g of carb is very low, although saying that we all have different tolerances. Some people wouldn't lose weight on 100g of carb.

[RabbitsPikasAndHares]

I will have a gander at myfitnesspal

Also, i'm not counting excercise so i'm not deducting the calories burned from excercise/eating thosr cals