What the hell do I have to do to lose weight? Huh? HUH???

[LunaNorth]

I’ve stopped drinking - 38 days AF so far, with no plans to restart.

I’ve completed C25K, three weeks ago, and have kept up running, three times a week since.

I go open water swimming once or twice a week.

I do an hour-long yoga class every week.

I have three dogs that get walked every day.

I have a Fitbit, and always make sure I do my 10,000 steps and always do more active minutes than the target.

I’m also coeliac, which curtails my options when it comes to eating out and takeaways. Lockdown put a stop to meals out, too.

All this effort, and I haven’t lost an ounce! I don’t have scales, granted, but my waist has INCREASED by an inch and my clothes feel exactly the same tight.

Wtf? I’m so fed up. Yes, I do eat a lot, always have, but it’s mostly good stuff, and with the not drinking, no gluten, tons of exercise, I had hoped I’d be allowed the odd treat. Clearly not.

Is this it, then? Does middle age mean living on lettuce and a dream if I don’t want to resemble a pit pony?

And please don’t take away my carbs. I thrive on them. I’ve tried low-carb and it gives me a headache.

I want to avoid all diets if possible. I’ve done SW and WW in the past, as well as 16:8. I just can’t sustain it.

Is anyone else in a similar position? What do I have to do?!

Just log what you eat and drink @LunaNorth and see what works. Simply put, too much sugar and carbs can leave you hungry shortly afterwards. Fat is calorific but fills you up. So find the right balance for you. Ensure you have a decent (500 to 100) calorie deficit. Exercise really helps with this as well as with health, fitness and muscle tone.

That should be a 500 to 1000 cal deficit!

I'm so late to this thread, but I need to say:
Forget cardio. Lift Heavy Things.
In middle age our hormones tank and our muscle mass withers away. Eat a lot of protein and lift weights. Use up the carbs you love to eat feeding hungry muscle.

It took me too long to learn this and I wasted my late 30s and early 40s being flabby and starving.

@LunaNorth you sound like you've got your head screwed on right! I was always so disappointed when I realised how hard and how long you had to exercise for to burn off a significant number of calories! I'm 51 now and generally burn 30-35 calories per mile of cycling (I cycle fast!), 100 calories per mile of running (although I can't run anymore as my knees hurt but used to do 5 miles cross country in an hour on a Saturday morning ), walking burns around 60-70 per mile depending on the terrain and speed - I averaged a 15 minute mile on the flat walking the dogs. That's just me and its what I've worked out from wearing a heart rate monitor (a chest one) over the years.

I have never successfully lost weight as I would have to get far too focussed on my food intake and it would make me miserable so by exercising lots I am going for damage limitation until I'm through menopause . I cycled an average of 150 mile a week between 1 Apr and 1 Sep and now aim for 100 miles a week. Plus gym 3-4 times a week.

bluezone you are absolutely right, there is a lot of conflicting advice. However different people suit different diets (meaning a way of eating) so it makes sense to have many approaches to choose from.

Some are hungry in the morning, others are not. Some prefer the accountability of keeping track of calories, others hate it. Some love sweets, others like sour foods. The only way is to find, out of the huge variety of approaches, the one that works for you.

What I meant by us knowing what's good and bad is that many foods are very clearly not healthy and not good. Deep fried chips, crisps, sugary sweets, cake, fizzy drinks, greasy take-aways, alcohol, to name a few. You don't have to be a nutrition expert to know that these are better avoided (or consumed as a treat only occasionally), whatever approach you choose. It's not that hard or confusing to eat healthily.

Sorry didn't mean to sound patronising by saying that it is not hard to eat healthily. Incorporating healthy options in your meals is pretty straightforward. It is obviously hard though to resist some lovely foods and temptations are a killer!

I've recently read Why We Eat Too Much and found it really informative and interesting. I've made some changes to my food choices and have lost a couple of kilos over the last two to three weeks and my shape is changing back. www.amazon.co.uk/Why-We-Eat-Too-Much/dp/024140052X/ref=asc_df_024140052X/?hvlocphy=9045141&hvlocphy=9045141&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&hvptwo&psc=1&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvnetw=g&hvadid=410329483563&hvadid=410329483563&hvpone&hvpone&hvlocint&hvlocint&ref&th=1&hvpos&hvpos&hvdev=c&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&hvqmt&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=pla-856617741735&hvtargid=pla-856617741735&hvrand=10736861753937865212&hvrand=10736861753937865212&adgrpid=90935677800