My weight is getting out of control and I don't know why

[Greenpestopasta]

I have put on almost 3 stone since having my toddler, and I can't seem to shift it. The last stone has been due to lockdown. I am now almost 13 stone at a height of 5'5.

On Friday and Saturday nights I would usually have a bag of m&ms, a bowl of crisps, and a few glasses of wine with DH. I have drastically cut this down in recent weeks. We cook from scratch but portion sizes are too large, again over the past month I have addressed this. I have cut down on carbs. I am on my feet all day because my toddler is extremely energetic. We go for at least one walk, often two, and the rest of the time we are in the park or garden. Weekends are usually long walks at forest parks.

Yesterday was a typical day- I had coffee for breakfast (can't eat breakfast any more due to hyperemesis in pregnancy) an egg salad sandwich for lunch on 50 50 bread, chopped apple and kiwi as a snack, a small slice of homemade sponge cake as a friend came round (fitted in a bun case) then for dinner a small bowl of warm potato salad (maybe 6 baby potatoes) a pile of spinach and three bbq ribs. The night before I had a bowl of tuna pasta in a sauce I made myself, crackers cheese and fruit for lunch, and a fun sized crunchie that DH brought home from work. Today I will have a bowl of homemade tomato soup for lunch, and a bowl of seafood chowder for dinner - everyone else will have bread but I won't. I may have a few crackers with olive spread.

I weighed myself again this morning and I have put on two pounds.

I am still breastfeeding my toddler before bed and sometimes before naps, and I have endometriosis - is it possible this is a hormonal issue? I do understand that my portion sizes and evening chocolate habit were an issue, but as I say I've addressed that, and as someone who is in their late 20s and fairly active, I'm not sure why I'm gaining weight so quickly

I did 1300 calories a day and didn't wear a fitness tracker. I weighed stuff like rice, pasta, but not things like soup or meat. I used to be veggie and am very prone to anaemia, so I don't eat a lot of meat anyway, and I probably don't eat enough protein.

It absolutely isn't secret eating though likely hidden calories. I don't have sugar in tea, apart from the weekend wine and crisps (now cancelled) I never have eaten junk, we don't eat out or get takeaways - a chippy a few times a year is the sum total. I cook 90% of our food from scratch - we have a veg patch and like being outside doing things. I suppose I've just not kept a strict enough eye on what I'm actually eating in terms of calories.

I suppose I assumed that as a reasonably fit, healthy young woman, I'd have a little more leeway in terms of the odd heavy meal or extra piece of cake, but obviously not. It's crept up so quickly and I feel so huge and gross

@greenpestopasta my weight has crept up as well and now I'm pregnant again so shouldn't dieting really. I do need to try harder to limit my eating. I love carbs so much! As for exercise forget going to the gym. Do some 15-20 min work outs on you tube, Joe wicks PE ones are good but there are loads. Stick your toddler on an iPad for 20 mins, it won't do him/her any harm

It's all about calories in vs calories out. Unless there's something medically going on you are eating more than you're burning. If you want to lose weight you have to be strict with tracking your calories and weighing everything. I know it's a pain in the bum

Find TeamRH on Facebook. They're doing it right. You're set calories based on your weight and activity. Steps is a big thing with it and from reading your posts it seems you do a lot of steps. You're not set super low calories either. Im currently 189 lbs and Ive been set 2100 calories per day. I have a 15k step limit and do 3 workouts a week. You don't need to do the workouts though, you can just do steps. I'm 18lbs down already!

Good luck xx

Breastfeeding and lack of sleep both affect your hormones in ways that can make it hard to lose weight. (Hormonal contraception can also cause a bit of weight gain, if that's relevant.) I think you said something about endo too?

Calories in/out is one part of it, but if your hormones are desperately trying to get your body to hold onto weight, it is a big battle. Can you worry about it a bit less until you stop breastfeeding? Great that you're cutting out the junk, but that might be a reasonable goal in itself for now.

Completely up to you, of course, and how you feel - best of luck!

OP, you are not ‘gross and huge’. You may feel it but you won’t be. By becoming slightly more active and eating slightly less calories you will FEEL better. My weight fluctuates around 4lbs depending on my cycle. Those 5lbs don’t change the way I look but will change the way I feel. Positive mindset OP, you can do it!

*5lbs

I would go and have a chat with your GP OP. You shouldn't be eating so little and not losing weight and you can gain 8lbs through water retention around your period? Bloody hell, that is a LOT! For reference, I gain 1-2lbs at most and I'm in my mid-40s (but I've always been like that).

I know from chatting to other people that some women find it very hard to lose weight while they're BF-ing and that may be part of it, but you sound active and your diet is fine - if anything I'd say it's a bit on the skimpy side. I would track what you eat for two weeks as suggested above before you go and see your doctor, but I really would go and talk to someone about this. I'd want to get my thyroid checked, I'd want to talk to a gynae about the endo and see if that is an issue, and if you're on hormonal contraception you might want to consider other methods, as that could be messing you up too. It sounds to me like something is out of balance though and if it were me I'd want to know what so it could be fixed!

That is an awful lot of carbs. Look up the carb count of the pasta, fruit, bread, potatoes, crackers, cake, chocolate.
If you want to lose weight you need to cut those right down and add vegetables and salad instead.

The only was is less calories .

You need to track EVERYTHING.

Meat can be calorific. Also soups depending on what is in it.

I lost 2 stone in 5months calorie counting.

Was in denial for ages and thought I ate healthy.

I had my thyroid checked recently enough and it seemd fine

What does "recently enough" mean? Because pregnancy can trigger or worsen hypothyroidism and the "standard" tests done by most GPS are generally insufficient.

I feel really strongly about this as have seen it happen a lot in my family.

Endo can also cause hormonal issues beyond sex hormones - there's a known link between endo sufferers and thyroid disease and there is starting to be research done in links with endo to other metabolic disorders.

I have endo too and when having periods (thankfully not at the moment thanks to meds) can easily gain and lose a full stone over a 3-4 day part of my period - they generally last at least 10 days.

I'm old & just a little taller than you OP & I get thru 2500 kcal/day on 1-2 hours of exercise typically. Says the fitbit and my calorie counting. If I have a very busy day (like fence painting or voluntary work & shopping) I can need 3000+/day. Hidden calories is probably your downfall.

Crisps....mmmmm.... This thread is making me hungry.

Yeah, but that's just you @lljkk. I'm 5'4" and I only need 1600 a day to maintain my weight (less if I need to lose). If I ate 2500 a day I'd be huge!

Graphista that's really interesting. Pretty much all the women in my maternal line I over the past 50 years have had endo, some diagnosed, some obvious in hindsight, and many of them went on to develop thyroid issues in middle age. I got mine checked just before lockdown, it was the basic check I think, and the levels were fine, but slightly on the lower end of normal.

Lljk if I ate 2500 calories a day I'd be rolling down the street! When I had hyperemesis I barely ate a thing for five months, and was on the brink of being hospitalised for dehydration, and I still didn't drop below 10 stone (my usual weight for most of my 20s)

I put two stone on, looked full term pregnant. Bloated, tummy pains, loose bowels, felt shit. Got tested for intolerances, stopped eating all the stuff I was intolerant too and lost two stone. I can't have wheat, leeks, onions, salmon, plaice, prawns, cabbage, rice or dairy. It is hard at times but worth it to feel and look better. I now run 5K every other day plus use the exercise bike most every other days and walk the dog at least once a day for at least an hour a time and usually more.

I think the problem, with your list of what you’ve eaten, is I couldn’t actually track calories based on that. You could make an egg salad that has 125 calories or an egg salad that has 600 calories. I mean, every tablespoon of mayonnaise has 90 calories. You say you had a pile of spinach at dinner, so did you just eat it plain (or was it cooked completely plain)? Or did you put some kind of dressing on it? Because that can add up, sometimes at 100+ kcal a tablespoon for some salad dressings. Three BBQ ribs could be 250 calories or 350 calories, depending on the sauce and how much of it there was. What was IN the potato salad besides potatoes? Again, could be 200 calories or 400 (six baby potatoes by themselves are 140 calories). You mention having coffee for breakfast, but not if it was black. If you put anything in it, those calories count, too. It’s things like that which all add up. And homemade sponge cake, even a small slice, could be anywhere from 100 calories a slice to 250 calories; that’s the problem. You also don’t mention drinking anything all day, so I assume you just had black tea/coffee or water, and drank nothing that had calories (no wine, squash, juice, soda, tea or coffee with milk, mixed drinks, etc). I know; it’s an absolute pain in the bum. But yes, for me, I have to not just track everything but measure it all because as humans, we can sometimes be absolutely crap at estimating how much of things we’re using (until you get used to it).