AIBU to ask you to help me lose weight?

Don't just weigh yourself, also measure your hip to waist ratio and track you blood pressure and heart rate. Sometimes you'll hit plateus on your weight loss, so it's helpful to have other measurements that show the progress you have made.

I think that the best way to lose weight is to cut out the things in our diet that we just don't need. Things that are high in refined carbs and trans fats, like biscuits. People bang on about upfs for good reason, they are addictive and terrible for your health (not just weight).

Eat loads of whole grain; porridge made with rolled oats is the bestbreakfast you can eat. Add lentils, chick peas, or other legumes to everything. Make batches of soups and salads for lunch. Eat low fat, sugar-free yoghurt for pudding. Nuts and whole seeds are excellent for adding healthy fats to your diet and keeping cholesterol low. Bake your own protein bars (loads of healthy recipies online). Keep healthy snacks like dried apricots and dates for treats.

Walk, cycle or swim everyday. These are the best exercises to do regularly because they are low impact. Do weights and core exercises 3 times per week at home. You only need to do 20-30 minutes. This will build your core strength, make other exersises easier, and make it less likely you'll get an injury. I do 3x 50reps of dead bugs on a mat whilst watching Eastenders.

Start with little changes re diet so it's not overwhelming. Regarding exercise add some weight lifting I found it fantastic for weight loss when I used to work out (can't be arsed now so I'm not longer skinny)

Three things (aside from eggs) that I find very useful for protein as a veggie: tempeh, greek yoghurt, cottage cheese.

Going cold turkey on sugar can help - I did the Blood Sugar diet. Not 800 calories and I had berries but now I don’t have any cravings for biscuits or chocolate. I upped protein and ate more fat. If you don’t drink alcohol you won’t crave the sugar from it. I have a stone to lose so I’ll join you.

I lose 24lbs in Covid. Calorie controlled diet and upped steps, did couch to 5k and lots of online exercise videos on youtube. It was easier as I didn’t have friends inviting me out for meals. Need to lose a stone now (gained it all back over 2yrs but not overweight officially)

We’re the same height and I’m also vegetarian. Protein - Greek yogurt with berries, a small amount of unsalted nuts, any kind of beans, lentil soups, nut butters, cottage cheese. Had you been trying to restrict before you ate the sweet things? Do you drink alcohol?

You say you don’t want to calorie count but tracking what you eat can show you what you could easily cut out. For example, I realised I was wasting a silly amount of calories on sugar in tea and coffee so I cut down the amount I drank and opted for water instead. MyFitnessPal is great

@whereloveislove - please don’t think you’re greedy. You are not. You have disordered eating. And as others have said, you need to fix that emotional side before all else.

Have a look at someone called Rebelfit on Facebook…he explains the link between emotion/trauma and eating.

Well as counting calories and being accurate about your intake (which involves weighing and measuring) are the two most important aspects to losing weight what are you expecting? There is no other formula that is guaranteed to work. I know someone training for a marathon but still didn’t shift his beer belly til he took control of his diet. And wasn’t there an Olympic cyclist who said the same? It doesn’t really matter what you eat, but how much. Sure nutrient dense whole foods are the best as volume will help you feel full, and as a veggie you need to be sure you get enough protein but otherwise as long as you are in a deficit you will lose. That’s it.

Going against the grain, I calorie count and base most of my meals on carbs simply because it's too expensive to base them on meat and I'm not a fan of meat substitutes. I'll have a jacket potato (with protein filling) two or three times a week, pasta with sauce once or twice a week and then one or two meat based meals (steak, chicken, fish with a small portion of boiled new potatoes and green veg).

For lunch, if I'm at work I have any sandwich below 450 cals. If I'm at home I'll have something like Longley Farm cottage cheese with whole-wheat crackers or home-made soup if I have leftovers to make the soup.

I generally have one ready meal (e.g. curry with rice or a packaged lasagne) on average per week. I've lost 3 stone, I'm at a healthy weight now (BMI 23) but would like to lose a further 10lb to be at my personal goal.

Forgot to say, try changing how you experience food by mindfully eating sour and bitter foods to change your taste away from sweet. It may be difficult at first but persevere. Vinegar is great. Pickled beetroot and gherkins.

@whereloveis

Check out the Low Carb Vegetarian recipe thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/low-carb-recipes/3146576-Vegetarian-Low-Carb-Recipes?reply=143894981

You don’t necessarily need to be a low carber if you don’t want to, but these might help get you away from so much sugar - which is what pasta and pizza really are!

Do you like Indian food? There are masses of options for vegetarians with Indian food.
Eggs are good, 2 a day will be fine. You could have more as you don't eat meat.
You are correct to ditch sugar. Beware hidden sugars. You say you like pasta but do you use jars of sauce? Hidden sugar in there. Switch to wholewheat pasta instead of white.
Pasta goes well with veg. You need to do searches for recipes.
Greek yogurt is good.
Sauerkraut and kimchi are great for your digestion and are both vegetarian. I make a kind of mix between the two of them and have it as part of my breakfast daily.
Chinese stir fries are good vegetarian meals. Again avoid premade sauces.
Cauliflower cheese is great. Caulflower steaks with spices are great fried.
Eat nuts, high in protein. Almonds are my favourite.
As Michael Pollan said "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants" and you can't go wrong.
Avoid UPFs and snacking. You need to be eating a calorie deficit.
A 16 hour fast is good. When I was losing weight I would welcome being hungry as I knew I was losing weight. When hungry drink water instead of snacking. If 16 hour fasting eat only 2 meals and drink plenty of water.
Read Jessie Inchaupe, Dr Michael Mosely, Dr Chris Van Tulekan, Dr Andrew Jenkinson.

Some general tips -

If you drink alcohol regularly (once a week or more) cut it out. Not only is it empty calories, it also makes you lethargic and hungover the next day so you are less likely to get exercise and more likely to eat rubbish.

Find an item of clothing you're too fat for - if you haven't kept outgrown clothes, buy something a size or two smaller in a charity shop - try it on once a week. It's very motivational to see it get closer and closer to fitting and really comes into its own if your result on the scales isn't what you'd hoped for in a particular week.

Per above, weigh yourself once a week. More often than that and yo'll get frustrated by the daily small fluctuations in weight due to hydration and so on. Less often and you lose accountability. Weigh yourself at the same time of day and in the same clothes (or without clothes).

From your comments I would suggest cutting out processed food and sugars. I am like you and can demolish lots of the bad stuff in one go but when I cut out processed foods and sugars I can manage my cravings and once I pop I can't stop behaviours. Processed food is designed to make you eat more. I can eat a whole cake made to serve 8 (yeah right, more like serve 3) in a sitting but if I have homemade cake it is much easier to walk away after 1 or 2 slices.

I would suggest looking up veggie low carb recipes and then starting with making a change to your first meal of the day (if you can fast and miss breakfast even better) as the macros you take in for your first meal can really impact what you eat the rest of the day. If you have a high protein and fat breakfast you will be fuller for longer and your blood sugar won't crash and temptation to eat rubbish should drop.

Good luck, it is really annoying but I can really see the benefits physically and mentally of these changes now and it is great.

Carbs are not the devil but it’s very easy to overeat on them and they’re often paired with higher calorie things.

I lost weight by basing my meals around protein and veg.

Protein is used to muscle repair and it’s only if you overeat on it will it be stored as fat.
Veg is low calorie, filling and has micronutrients.

I love carbs and so would have them but try not to have too much.
For most meals I would have things like stir fry (no noodles), omelettes, chicken & veg, stuffed peppers etc.

I also increased my walking and sleeping - both help you burn fat but also you can’t eat if you’re doing them. Plus they make you feel less hungry.
I would go to bed as early as possible and read.
I find that I eat out of boredom/habit and so just keeping busy helped with snacking.

For me it's cutting out snacks and not eating as much. I also don't eat until late lunchtime, so almost IF. I've lost a stone in two months. I've another stone and a half to go, but finding it hard at the moment.

Op can I ask why you don’t want weight loss injections? Your bmi is 29, but I’d guess after a day of eating as you do and some water it would be 30 in the evening.

the reason I ask is that’s a shocking amount of bingeing sugar you’re doing, and you may struggle to do it without help if you can easily out that away, your blood sugar must be going haywire. It will hugely spike, then drop meaning you want more.

Reduce your portions by about 1/3 you soon get used to it. Don’t snack unless fruit/veg.

complete the couch to 5k and then continue to run 3 times a week. Strength training along side at least once a week. I dropped 3 stone at a similar age over the course of probably around 14 months by doing this. I’m now very into running and see it as my main hobby and so at 40 I usually run around 30 miles a week and can pretty much eat what I want within reason. Though if I have to take time out due to illness or injury I will adjust my calorie intake accordingly.

If you’d of put this info in your OP then we could very easily tell you where you’re going wrong. We don’t need to though you know that is a hideous amount of food. Cut all that out to start with and you’ll begin to loose some weight

Sorry to hear you have so much going on. Have you thought about low carb high fat? There are some really helpful threads on this in the Low Carb bootcamp section. It can be challenging as a veggie to start with but I've found it very helpful to get a handle on sugar cravings and emotional eating and no need for calorie counting or deprivation.