Why am I putting ON weight?

That’s part of your problem. Weight yourself everyday for a week at the same time, average it. Then do the same a month or two later.

You need to spend the day feeling hungry and whenever you eat, you stop eating when you no longer feel hungry and NOT when you're full.

I'm the same height as you and have been overweight for several years now. I was 75kg a couple of weeks ago and am now at 70kg. Admittedly it's getting a bit tough as I've dropped the ball this week, but I've lost most of the weight simply by not eating as much, going to the gym (I'm doing the Couch to 5k app) and it's going in the right direction.

It's an oversimplification, but as someone else said it's calories in V calories out. More exercise and less food.

If you're not already, eat cleaner. A lot of 'low fat' labelled food is not truly low fat.

Oh well, just another 10kgs to lose for me...

I followed the whole if i bulk out with muscle I will have higher calorific needs and will therefore lose fat, but i just got muscular and fat!

I have recently worked out that we are primed to overeat socially. We need far fewer calories than we think as we age. I used to keep weight off pretty easily and it's a struggle at 43. I use nutracheck for calorie counting and weigh carbs and protein when I am able. Eating more simply helps with this.

Are you counting drinks? Some are pretty sugary and calorific.

Exercise makes me hungry, but I do it for fitness and strength rather than weight loss. Changing the eating is what works. Disclaimer: I only managed to do this with Mounjaro though and realised how massive my portions were. This helped me get a picture of what constituted a reasonable portion and calories. It is hard though. I am hungry a lot.

As a general rule, I try to have as much salad and veg as possible as it is means of filling up for fewer calories and is nutrient dense.

You have a really healthy attitude to food which is refreshing to see on these threads.

OP - don’t restrict calories too much. You will slow your metabolism and it affects hormone function.

For what it’s worth I don’t count calories at all - it’s no way to live. I eat healthily and exercise - mainly now with heavy weights and I’ve cut my cardio down quite a bit (I used to run a lot)

Whatever you do needs to be sustainable and healthy long term and surviving on a tiny amount of calories and counting every calorie that passes your lips is not sustainable.

I am a healthy weight. It takes more work these days in terms of not eating any crap and lifting heavy weights. I can’t get away with what I used to.

I don’t have a flat stomach and I’d love to weigh what I did in my 20s but I’d probably have to starve myself to get there and I’d be very unhealthy with it.

Yeah it's too many calories. Weight loss in your 40s is a whole new depressing ball game (well it was for me) you need to consume fewer calories and even then it's really slow progress. It can be done though. Intermittent fasting also helps me.

Of course. Breakfast will include protein powder, a snack usually involves a high protein yoghurt, lunch might be chicken or a pulse pasta, dinner beef mince or steak or salmon. That usually gets it done!

I must stress I eat carbs with all my meals too, even when on a diet. Please don’t ever think carbs are the enemy!

Your diet is quite carb heavy. Eat one portion of carbs per day and up your protein/fat intake, they will fill you up.

im on 1800 cals a day and that’s with heavy exercise-When I put moderate exercise it gave me 1600. O think your cals are too high but I think you’re not eating that much given your meal plan?

Can i ask what you eat to hit that?

@Bellaire85 Is that a lot of protein? Sounds it. Why do you do that?

Oh, and it goes without saying, PROTEIN! Every meal - I eat around 130g per day - it feels like a lot, but once you get the hang of it it’s easy enough!

I eat this much protein year round!

Don’t do a dramatic drop to 1,400 calories - drop to 1,600 initially and see how you go for a few weeks - your body will eventually adjust to 1,600 so you can drop further if need be down the track.

Increase steps to 12,000, and again in a few more weeks, you may need to up this a bit further, or even consider adding in some cardio.

Are you weighing yourself daily and recording a weekly average? You might be surprised that you are in fact continuing to lose weight.

Weight loss takes time. It sounds like you may need to diet for 12 - 16 weeks to achieve your goal, so you need to leave some tools in the toolbox (further reduction of calories and increase in expenditure).

Keep the weights up! Are you following a programme and increasing the weight weekly?

I do a ‘diet’ each year, with the help of a nutritionist, and I smash it every time using the above methods!

Hope this helps!

Different things work for different bodies.For me Joe Wicks intermediate hits with weights every other day and walking FAST daily burns the weight off.I also follow his eating plan for lunch and dinner, eat a few dates for sugar cravings .Breakfast is an almond milk smoothie with frozen berries and protein powder. I add protein to every meal -beans or chicken.Im 52, perimeno and have never managed calorie counting so this suits me and I enjoy it.I'm 5ft 4 and now under 9 stone and counting.I add tonnes of veg to main meals.If I was putting on weight I'd be seriously questioning my approach.

Yes! I used to slosh extra virgin olive oil over everything I ate because of the health benefits. Now I use it sparingly.

And someone I watch on YouTube said "if I'm trying to lose weight, why the hell would I waste good calories on a green juice, when I could be eating nutrient-dense food instead". So that made me knock my daily juice on the head and instead use the calories to eat a hard boiled egg, for instance!

Right! It’s those hidden calories that are pretty shocking 😲

100 calories per bread slice. Don’t even get me started on shrimp (which is a common additive to a Bloody Mary in my parts. Speaking of Bloody Mary’s one drink 500+ calories, when you add the fixings. Whisky ~200 calories, anything rum +++ calories. (As you can see I like a drink 😜)

If it helps @Daffodilpup i now find myself in a position where I need to maximize calories. My time losing and tracking is helping me get the most bang for my buck. So calorie counting does have some benefits as it it helps you make appropriate choices for your goals.

No, absolutely. That's where I started too. But it may be helpful for you to know that you won't be gaining muscle at those weights. I had to ask around to figure out if I was too. Then I dialled in my calorie intake and protein intake and lost a couple of pounds in a week.

I had underestimated how many calories were in:

• oil that I used to cook my food
• cashew nuts that I ate every day as a 'healthy' snack (they are healthy, but calorific)
• avocado. I was often eating 2 a day, which can account for 500 calories of my daily intake!

I have about 1200 cals a day. I’m 5’2. I’ve lost 2stone. I weight train with a PT 3 times a week. Only manage 10k steps about 3 times a week. I divide my evening meal into 2 portions and save one for lunch. I don’t eat breakfast more than 3 times a week.

Agree with some of the others… my observations in no particular order which may or may not apply.

• MFP wasn’t great in my opinion for calculating exercise calories. For instance I would drop the steps from your calculation if you’re using them.
• 1700 cal is a lot for your height. I’m similar to you and my calorie goal was 1400 for a 1 lb /week loss with 30 min per day of rowing. (1200 without rowing). So 30 min of high impact rowing earned me 200 cal.
• ‘Look for hidden calories. Sugar in coffee or tea, butter being used to cook, cough drops, etc.
• I kind of half assed my calorie counting but I always estimated high. Example… if I had a McDonald’s cheeseburger I would search the database and there would always be a bunch of entries at different calories. I’d pick the highest. Anytime I was not able to weigh my food I would pick something similar but would pick the highest calorie entry.
• You’re not weighing everything or not weighing correctly. Again those hidden calories and hard to weigh things like jam.
• Water fluctuation is a thing… you’re looking for trends over time . I weighed myself once a week. It sucked the weeks I knew I was bloated… but usually self correcting the next week and over months the trajectory was downward.
• I agree with a previous poster. Exercise for health and eat for weight loss. You are not ‘causing’ anything to happen by lifting weights. Except if it becomes relevant for call (you start running 5 miles a day every day for example) you should disassociate the two things.

Between the daily rowing which I did first and then the added calorie counting I lost 40 lbs. I’ve more or less maintained that now for 5 years. I was diligent with my tracking but as I said I half assed it a lot too 😁

There are some very good posts and information in the MFP forums that would probably be able to help.

Good Luck!

Strength/weights same class

@Cheeks4970 strength Mon, swimming Tues, hiit weds, swimming thurs and weights fri.

@Daffodilpup losing, in a very very slow but sustainable way. About half a stone a year.

@Hubblebubble are you doing cardio during your sessions or do they include weight sessions? If it’s all cardio then I think you’re doing way too much.

Yep I’d go up to 5 or 6 kg for those that you can do 12 reps with. Try 5kg first - if you can still do more than 7 up the weight more.

Don’t skip breakfast. If you exercise fasted it spikes cortisol and that can lead to more weight gain. You don’t need to eat much. Even a banana just to signal to your body that’s there’s fuel. Then make sure you have protein after exercise.

Even if you’re not exercising I would not recommend skipping breakfast unless that’s what you are used to and it works for you. (I’m still not a fan).

I think it's your calorie intake (I'm a bit shorter than you) my maintenance is 1350 calories so at 1700 I'd put on weight. When I was trying to loose I'd keep it to as near to 1000 as possible. The easiest way I found to reduce my calories was intermittent fasting (once I start eating I want to continue).
Also exercise will help but it's not necessary for weightloss, I'm disabled and can't exercise but managed to loose 5 1/2 stone through diet alone.