To think I’ll be stuck at 16 stone forever

I don't know if anyone has said it yet OP as I've only looked at your comments - have you tried modifying your calories day to day and doing the sums over a week. Sometimes I need to do that to kick start stuff. I mean I expect you have but worth a mention. It works for me on days where I can skip a meal for whatever reason, so I only have say 900 on two days, then I can add those calories to another day in that week.

Well the carb heavy calories will affect the insulin loop/ blood sugar system. Yes all calories are equal in terms of energy but proteins/fats/ carbs have very different effect on the feed back systems in the body.

I also got stuck at 16st 4lbs for months after losing two stone (very slowly, averaging 3lbs a month). I was much less disciplined than you, and basically gave up for a while before an unfortunate bout of D&V got me into the 15s and kickstarted a new routine. I think my body just needed to rest and reset for a while before being ready for the next chunk of weight loss.

Your body is clever and once it reaches a certain point will battle to retain weight. I’d give yourself a month or two of relaxed maintenance then have another go. You’ve done brilliantly, be kind to yourself and your body.

My point initially, was that just because bread is whole grain, wholemeal, sourdough, artisan , hand kneaded, made from unicorn tears and hens teeth powder...IT IS STILL BREAD

There is the added pisser that when you restrict/change your eating as you have to do to lose weight, you also have to look very closely at the nutrition aspect. Sure you can eat bread if you take it into consideration but there is very little nutrition in it compared to a lot of other foods and part of why people feel so rough when they've been on a diet for five or six months (even with good results weight loss wise) is that they are lacking in vitamins and minerals that they used to get prior. Just being low on something like iodine can eff you up massively. We all used to get boron from our food but it's mostly depleted.

Losing weight and keeping healthy doing it, has to be thought through far more than we think.

It's the easiest thing in the world to eat lovely food but the effort you have to go to to get it removed from your stored fat is hell by comparison.

I would gain on 1550. To lose I cannot go above 900 cals. Which is really shit.

I have halved my body weight on 900cal using WLI to make it sustainable for me. I have now stopped losing on the 900 cal which is fine, I dont need to lose any more.

I have sat on 7 1/2 stone for a year now , still on 900 cal . Some people just seem to have a lower calorie requirement. When I ran marathons and half marathons ( I dont any more) I still had to keep my intake very low, not as low as 900 but around 1200/1300 tops.

5 day fast? Is that no food for 5 days? That sounds impossible to me.

5 k run at lunchtime, gym session followed by 50 half lengths in the pool accounts for the lion's share. Plus walking about my place of work etc. Add in base line and I need something like 3500kcal to maintain.

When I was 17 stone mine was 1800 and that was me not doing anything on the lowest level due to not exercising with a bad ankle

I don't know if this helps but I lost 14 kg in about 18 months and did it by only eating two meals. The other thing I would say is to go by your basal metabolic rate not your TDEE because exercise impacts different bodies variably. Take your BMR and take 30% off that. That's your daily calories so for you that would be about 1000 calories. Yea it will suck and you'll be hungry but you will lose weight.

And with that you cut calories. Whereas, I maintain my weight calorie tracking and eating all the carbs I want within my allowance.
We have two different methodologies to achieve the same goal of cutting calories. One is not more magical than the other, that's the point.

Try keto. I had always had the same problem with weight loss. Started keto (kicked off with a 5 day fast which was intense and hard for days 1-3, but by day 4 i felt incredible!) And then reintroduced food following keto. I dropped 23lbs without even noticing - never felt hungry or deprived except during the initial fast - in a matter of weeks.

Well I'm slim, BECAUSE I've cut the carbs.

I mainly eat wholewheat pasta and lots of lovely wholemeal sourdough

And you are wondering why you aren't losing weight?

I am slim. I eat 200g-300g of carbs daily. My breakfast this morning was two slices of rye toast with ham and cheese and a side dish of cinnamon roll (which, granted, isn't part of my diet every morning but I don't say no to a couple of cookies with my mid-morning tea on most days). Pasta for dinner yesterday. I also eat about a kilo of potatoes a week.
There are actual studies comparing low carb and high carb diets which show that, providing calories are equated, there is absolutely no difference in outcome. So this whole "slim people don't eat carbs" thing, is simply not true.

It sounds like you're doing really well and are losing weight at a sensible rate. You could lose faster if you do keto or some other highly restrictive diet, but I doubt it would be sustainable and it's unlikely to be good for your long term health.

Would taking measurements and some progress photos, be more helpful than focussing just on numbers on a scale? You're right that most women's weight fluctuates a lot throughout the month, so you're not going to see the number go down consistently if you're weighing yourself each day. You don't want to lose motivation and undo all your hard work, when you've come this far already.

OP I just wanted to say that it sounds like you're doing your very best and I'm in awe of you! I think it's a plateau and you'll eventually break through as long as you're consistent. It sounds like you are. I know I wouldn't be, I'd give up!! So keep doing what you're doing, enjoy the feel of your clothes fitting better and believe that the scales will show the loss someday soon. Best of luck and I hope you get to run that marathon

"Homemade sourdough " you sound as if you think it has some intrinsic, magical weight loss properties as well. Stop eating it , and you'll loose even more weight. It's really very simple.

A protein drink after exercise won't help build more muscle if the overall intake of protein and calories across the day/week is insufficient. Bodies don't work like that. Eating something high protein after exercise does help muscle to repair and also reduces hunger resulting from exercise but it's not as simple as body gets protein, body makes muscle.

Agreed!

Ok, thank you for the explanation.

So isn't that the whole point of having a protein drink immediately after exercise, so as to encourage muscle build? Your body doesn't know that you are "in deficit" over the day, it just takes the energy (calories) where it finds it.

And, yes that second point wasn't clear, I conflated two things. What I meant was if the scales stay the same but clothes feel looser that could be because the person has lost fat through dieting but in the same timeframe has gained muscle through exercise - and muscle weighs more than fat

Edit: thank you for your second post too, I will look at the links. I'm not going to reply directly to it as I don't want to hijack the thread 😀.

But it's perfectly possible to lose weight whilst eating bread every day. I have lost 3.5 stone on WLI eating homemade sourdough bread every single day for breakfast. I cut down bread and other carbs at other meals but toast for breakfast is non negotiable and has not hindered weight loss at all.

How? Unless you are a nutritional scientist measuring the exact caloric content of home cooked food is really hard.

Indeed.

1950kcal is enough energy to accelerate a 1500 kg car from 0 to 60 mph about 10 times.

A 30k run would do it (assuming no metabolic losses) so it's possible.

More likely the PP's watch is adding loses due to metabolic processes to the losses due to exercise and many of those calories would have been burned on the sofa.

I'm not criticising exercise, exercise is superb but if weight loss is the sole objective then it's easier not to eat calories than it is to burn them.

Yes, when someone says they eat lots of "wholemeal, sourdough bread" ... I'm really not surprised that they aren't losing weight , just because it is wholemeal and sourdough doesn't give it any magic properties. It is bread, and as I've said, slim people don't eat lots of it, or pasta or potatoes, slim people will be eating scrambled egg whites and steamed spinach.