What can I do to kick start my weight loss?

[Snufflebabe05]

I have previously done WW (pre kids and after both my kids) and it worked. The last time, I got stuck and nothing moved for months. So I moved to calorie counting. And nothing moved. And Covid hit, so I put on a stone.

I have a PT who I see twice a week, and go to the gym at least another two times. A mixture of strength and cardio. I’ve been going for about 6 months, and getting stronger as I lift heavier weights. Calorie counting. And still, the scales are budging. And I am not changing shape in any way. It’s like my body has got stuck. Two dog walks a day, not going mad at the weekends. Gym. PT. Nothing is making me lose weight.

I have 2 days at the weekend where I ease off. But it’s normal oats for breakfast, a light lunch and maybe a pizza for dinner with some prosecco. So nothing crazy.

Is there anything I’m missing here? How do I wake my body up into action?

When you are calorie counting are you adding your exercise calories back in?

I.e if you are trying to stick to e.g. 1400 a day but if you exercise you allow yourself 1600?

Cos if you are, don't.

and if you are trying to lose weight then yes, you will have to consider the ' a pizza and some Prosecco' bit.

To like, half a pizza and some salad and sparkling water with lemon/ vodka if you must.

Do you drink fizzy drinks through the week?

green tea is great for metabolism, fat burning and stopping hunger. So swap it in or out for your current tea / coffee.

Pizza and Prosecco are definitely not 'weight watching' foods/drinks.

Eat less

No alcohol or bread

Up fruit and veg and good quality protein (meat/tofu)

I have lost 1 1/2 stone doing this

No exercise

What's the pizza looking like?

You need to determine how many cals per day you need to eat in order to lose weight. It's usually around 1500 per day.

You are doing so much, I understand your frustration, especially as it sounds like you know the groundwork that goes into losing weight. Are you gaining weight or just not losing?

And if you are honest, are you logging absolutely everything when calorie counting?

Every single biscuit, every cup of coffee with milk and sugar, all the feta cheese on the salad?

But what about life? No pizza or prosecco? With all the exercise I am doing?

I am aware that I could cut out all of this type of food but I more than compensate for them through exercise!

I don’t drink tea or coffee, or fizzy drinks. 3L of water a day. Breakfast overnight oats (all weighed), lunch is a salad or soup, and then tea might be fish with veg and potatoes, or roast chicken in wrap with some veg or salad.

I come in well under/on target re calories.

But you are still associating exercise with being able to eat more. You can't do that. You need to completely separate the two thing in your mind.

Are you weighing portions or just guessing?

I come in well under/on target re calories with or without exercise calories added on?

You could try 5:2, so two days of 500 calories to compensate for the pizza and Prosecco at the weekend?

How hard are you working out? I was going a couple of times a week for years and then suddenly started working harder and upping my weights. I made rapid and noticeable progress and that really motivated me to keep working.

I’d concentrate less on the exercise and think more about the calories you are consuming. I’d put on weight if I ate pizza and prosecco.
If you aren’t losing weight then clearly you don’t have a calorie deficit.
This is drastic but occasionally I do a week of Jason Vale’s juicing. You eat nothing, just drink juices and smoothies and will lose half a stone. It’s great as a reset, I always finish craving a big prawn salad and really wouldn’t want to eat a pizza for a month or more.

Maybe it's a strange question, but why do you think you gained a stone during the pandemic?

I think you can probably examine some of your past trigger points for weight gain to understand some of the thought patterns that might be contributing to the current lack of success. Repeatedly dieting isn't a good thing, so you want to find the sustainable long term solution here.

It sounds like your energy needs are probably balanced right now, so you're intuitively eating in tune with your exercise. Our bodies really don't want to have an energy defecit, and it can be really hard to find the approach that makes it sustainable for you.

5:2 or IF could be good options if you want to hold on to some normalcy.

I'd suggest that you need to look at low carb/keto.

LCHF is seen as a faddy diet where as low calorie/low fat is seen as sensible.

I've seen people lose incredible amounts of weight with no calorie deficit at all; in some cases doing no exercise; inflammatory conditions improving; looking 10 years younger; just by eating clean/unprocessed food and restricting carbs and increasing healthy unprocessed fats.

A lot of the people who ended up there have a weight loss story very similar to yours- years of WW, calories counting, stalling...

Maybe it's time to try something different.

How many calories max. have you been aiming for, OP? Your meals (apart from pizza and prosecco) are well on the right lines - but how big are your portion sizes? How many potatoes? I would eat two small ones, but I had a friend at university who more or less had an entire potato farm with his dinner. Do you have butter or anything else fatty with them? Ditto salads. Do you use dressing, or are they plain? Those sorts of things make a difference.

How old are you, OP? I’m (nearly) 43 and it’s so much harder to shift weight now than it was ten years ago. I’m losing weight now, veeeery slooowly and with loads more effort than when I was younger.

I started Fast 800 on 1May. Lost 10lbs in the first two weeks which was a brilliant kick start. Did the whole 12 weeks and lost 2st5lbs pretty effortlessly.

Had a break from Aug to now and managed to maintain loss easily. Seem to have new eating habits.

Re-starting now to lose another stone or so by Christmas. Will stop when stone is reached and just maintain, so probably won't need too long.

The recipe book is brilliant. I've learned to cook simple but genuinely tasty food. No ridiculous ingredients and not too much to add to the shopping list.

The quick win at the beginning is definitely great to spur you on!

@Wishingonspacehardware what book was that? Were you very hungry at the beginning? Well done for the loss and especially for maintaining.

If you're seeing a PT twice a week and going to the gym but seeing no change apart from being able to lift heavier then something isn't right. Speak to your PT and get them to advise you on nutrition; calories and macros. My gut feeling is you need to up the amount of lean protein you are having and reduce some of the carbs. You can't out train a poor diet. I'm proof of that: did two gym programmes last year eating a high protein and moderate carb and fat diet and lost two stone overall. Fell off the healthy eating wagon in lockdown earlier this year and gained half a stone then did another gym programme where I gained muscle but lost very little weight because I was only sticking to the eating plan four days a week and having weekends off. I'm in better shape than I was 18 months ago, but don't feel as good as I did after the two stone weight loss. You need to follow a good eating plan at least 80% of the time.

Worth getting your thyroid Checked if you have any other symptoms?

Weight loss needs calorie deficit, however you choose to achieve that. My guess is that even allowing for the exercise you're doing, you're not in deficit over the course of week/month, etc. Most estimates of how many calories different types of exercise use over-estimate this and that's one sound reason not to eat back exercise calories.

I know for me now I’m older I need to keto/low carb to really shift weight. Suspect this partly works as it’s strict be easy to remember rules - and results in me going cold turkey on sugar etc, much more difficult to grab a snack. I had been trying to lose weight for quite a while with no luck, have now lost half a stone in 6 weeks doing keto ( admittedly some will be water).

It was the Fast 800 recipe book by Dr Clarke Bailey and Justine Pattinson. I was hungry but determined for the first 3 or 4 days. It was an absolute breeze after that and I wasn't hungry for the rest of the 12 weeks. I was pretty amazed, to be honest!