Why am I putting ON weight?

I must be an anomaly then. I've lost 10lbs since January just by walking 10-15k steps per day. Admittedly I go at a fairly brisk pace, but not to the point of breathlessness. I've not reduced my calories as weight loss wasn't my main aim, I just wanted to move more. I'm 55 so my age is against me for weight loss, but when I walk it falls off. I'll have to start eating more soon.

I can't see that you could have gained 4lb in fat in 3 weeks while eating only 1700 calories. You'd have had to have eaten about 700 calories over your requirements every single day to do that. Which if you thought you'd cut down, would be quite some miscalculation. The most likely answer is you are retaining fluid, or you under weighed to start with (different clothes, scales, different time of day, even different floor surface?) Try again next week same time of day, clothes, scales as the first time, and cut down on salt and see what is looks like then.

Well I certainly never said that. I said it was ‘useless’ in so far as the added benefits of moderate walking are negligible for weight loss.

The research on this is neither new nor considered controversial. Walking is often prescribed to people who’ll otherwise do nothing at all.

I agree your calories may be too high but you also don’t have much by way of protein. I would try upping that and your veg and switching banana for more fruit such as berries. Melon can also be good calorie wise.

maybe having bran flakes with fat free Greek yogurt and frozen berries for breakfast.

Homemade veg soup with wholemeal bread from a smaller 400g loaf. (Get from a bakers if supermarket bread a bit ick)

Same sort dinners as your eating but load up with veg like green beans, broccoli, spinach as they are lower calorie and more filling. And maybe follow some slimming world recipes to keep them lower calorie versions of things your whole family will eat.

this should all fit within 1400ish calories and maybe with room for some small snacks like Greek yogurt, a small chocolate bar (think freddo size)

I find Instagram a good place for tips. And sorry for the ramble.

P.S keep the exercise just make sure you are challenging yourself, remember a weight that is challenging for me may be too light or too heavy for you. YouTube is good for workouts.

I’m taller than you and my tdee worked out at 1200 for weight loss. I lost weight steadily on that amount of calories. If you’re not losing weight, you’re eating too many calories.

What I will say is that everything that worked to lose weight before perimenopause with regards to diet and exercise stops working in peri. A good book to explain why is Next Level by Dr Stacy Sims.

Previously if I needed to lose a bit of weight I’d eat a bit less and exercise a bit more. This would work. It doesn’t now. But drastically cutting calories is not the answer either.

google the exercise paradox, it’s the hazda people, the ones out all day hunting burned a similar amount to those sat on their bum all day.

exercise is so beneficial , for your muscle tone skin mental well being but don’t think you can out train a bad diet and don’t eat your exercise calories. Being out of breath is so good but also impact exercises so I jump on one leg whilst waiting for say the kettle to boil, we need stuff that kind of shocks our body it seems. Doing squats etc also means we can get off the loo in old age, learning that really resonated with me! No good being a thin person in a nursing home confined to a chair.

Am going to go against the flow and say I'm surprised you aren't losing weight in the longer term if you were maintaining before.

You may be retaining fluid - it can take weeks before this changes. Plenty of vegetable fibre and some extra water can help. If you use a maintenance calorie calculator that takes your height, sex, age and exercise level into account, then take 600 calories off your maintenance calorie count, you should be losing in the longer term. You're fine to be expecting to lose some weight on 1700 calories if you're counting calories right and if you're generally active and exercising 4 days a week to raise your heart rate as well as doing muscle resistance. I wouldn't reduce those calories by more than 100.

The science of calorie deficit is right, whatever trends emerge. Additional things that can be useful are: combining any carbohydrates with fats and proteins will help prevent blood sugar spikes which make you hungry. Protein will satiate hunger better than anything else. Developing and using your muscles uses calories somewhat faster.

People report they can't lose on normal calorie deficit but under controlled conditions this is almost always down to miscalculation of food intake and over- estimation of activity levels, and / or people aren't in defecit long enough. Almost no-one has a health condition which will actually prevent them losing weight on calorie deficit in the long term.

Ah wait I may have read your original message incorrectly. Are you saying it won't help at all or it doesn't matter what exercise you do it's about diet? I've read it as walking is pointless exercise and actually works against you in losing weight, alongside good diet?

Can you link that? I can't find anything on this, I'd be interested to read on it. I can't currently run but I am walking on treadmill, on high incline, at a fast pace and I'm definitely losing weight and my fitness really improving again. If it's not the best way I'd be interested to read so I could find a better way. But there are people jogging beside me but actually way slower pace, would they be having more impact?

That’s what I found, I noticed if i exercise a lot on that day I’d also do more sitting around ‘resting’ than normal. I also can’t be trusted with the oh I’ll have a bigger chunk of bread etc as I’ve walked so much today.
So I took additional exercise out of my personal weight loss equation and 💯% tackled it in the kitchen.

It doesn’t , unless you are doing hours of it. Your body just slows down its calorie burn for the rest of the day, it’s an incredibly clever machine. I can’t remember the name of the tribe they studied. It’s like Tour de France cyclists, what six hours a day in the saddle and they still have extremely restricted diets.

Completely agree. On holiday last week we walked ten miles a day and I was careful with what I ate , no puddings, decent breakfast negligible lunch sensible dinner so you’d have assumed I’d be in a calorie deficit. Whilst I did not put weight on i certainly didn’t lose any. Oh and I went to the gym most days doing weights so squats and lunges with c20 kilo weights (which I know is very light!).

If you’ve increased your exercise, you are probably retaining water. Drink loads of water every day for the next week (3 litres per day), lower your carbs slightly, and you should lose the water weight.

I'm currently in the middle of weight loss and it's going well. Things that work for me:

Eating a high volume of low calorie foods so I never feel hungry (veggie soups, apples, carrots, black coffee, herbal tea)

Very few carbs - I find they spike my sugar/chocolate cravings.

Smaller eating window - I tend to skip breakfast and then have an early lunch and early dinner, eating 12pm to 6pm or so.

I'm 5'7 and my maintenance calories are 1850 or so. I aim to lose a kg a week, so try and have a calorie deficit of 3500 calories across the week. Things do slip, but I still lose.

Weigh daily on HappyScale to monitor things over time.

If I'm away on holiday/out for a meal with friends etc - I will eat what I want. Perhaps a smaller portion, but I won't restrain myself. Makes it easier to continue long term.

I’m 5ft11 and my weight loss calories are 1783 and I go to the gym loads. I think you’ve possibly miscalculated your cals

BMR calculators don't really work well if you're below average height or have any other medical conditions or have unusually low muscle (or abnormally high fat) composition.

What you should have done is count how much you're eating (honestly) for 2 weeks before you started and cut 100 cals a day to give you a deficit of 700 cals a week. That should always be where you start any weight loss programme. Then if you can afford to do so buy a body composition scan / bloodwork that measures your actual metabolism & muscle mass.

get your thyroid checked! I was you and only sorting my thyroid/ vitamin imbalances and exercising to build muscle helped. Im currently losing weight on the following 1800cals (165cm, 72kgs goal of 65kg by November, started at 82kgs last summer) before I was eating 1500 and gaining weight!

typical days food
2 crumpet thins with butter and jam/honey
milky coffee with collagen added for protein boost
about 400cals

big salad, one slice of naice toast with cheese/avo/pate/eggs/ham on it/chicken noodle soup/5 itsu gyoza
about 500cals

snack mid afternoon, yoghurt/fruit/nuts/chocolate
about 200cals

150g beef meatballs plus sauce and about 80g(dry) pasta and 100g brocolli/seafood curry with veg and brown rice/ etc
about 5-600cals

sometimes drinks or icecream or cake

I do 3x90 minutes of exercise a week and walk about 5k a day

Thats it. We get into a cycle of failure and then we beat ourselves up mentally for failing.

What can help is: don't cut out all nice things. Just Try to have one or two squares of chocolate instead of the whole bar. If you try and cut out everything unhealthy, you will snap and crave it and give in to the craving

Also don't try and think of all the weight you have to lose as you will start to panic.

Think of two pounds at a time. Think "I have to lose two pounds" and focus on those two pounds st a time

What I've started doing aswell is weight loss hypnosis meditations on YouTube . I think they can help to get your mind a bit more positive about it

Could you be in perimenopause OP?

I haven’t read the replies, but I’m also 5ft 3, and I’d gain weight if I ate 1,700 calories a day.

I haven’t counted calories for years, but estimate that I generally eat 1,500 or so most days

No I meant much less.

1700 is too many calories for somebody of 5ft 3. I am 5ft 5 and became very over weight on that amount never mind losing. Lots of these calculators over estimate how much you can eat. People generally are much less active than they think they are and burn fewer calories than they think even if they go to the gym. Also, a 14stone of mainly fat body has a lower energy requirement than a 14stone body with a bit of muscle. The calculators are generic and depend on algorithms but people take them as gospel.
Realistically you will need to be at 1200 to 1400 per day.

I have halved my body weight and maintained the loss but on 1000 per day. More than that I gain weight. Unfortunately some people just have a low calorie tolerance before they slip into weight gain. You could be one of them but you wont know until you eat less. 1700 really isnt a lose weight level of calories in a 5ft3 woman.

If only it was that simple.

I find when someone including myself is overweight, you get into a vicious cycle.

You tey to cut out lots of unhealthy things, then you snap and you eat eat something unhealthy.

Then you berate and criticise yourselffor being useless.. And the cycle starts again. And you Try to start again the next day.

Losing weight is a mental thing as much as a physical thing.

I tried to lose weight for years.