Why am I not losing weight?

[ClandestineAdulation]

Really frustrated and looking for advice.

In December, a typical day of eating would look like this:

Meal deal sandwich or wrap (usually between 400 and 500 calories)
Sugar free fizzy drink
Grab bag size packet of crisps

100g of Dairy Milk (apparently 500 calories…)
Sausage roll

Dinner consisting of chips or roast potatoes, steak and peppercorn sauce or chicken alternative and peas

More chocolate or cake before bed

For the whole of January, my diet has looked like this:

Plain porridge with a superfood topper (seeds, dried fruit etc)

or

Homemade salad with chicken

Dried apricots, yoghurt coated bananas and cashews as a snack (weighed to the correct serving sizes)

Dinner of chicken and veg (occasionally with some rice but not often as I don’t fancy it!)

I’m not hungry, don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything and have started an exercise class once a week too, which I didn’t do before.

Should I be losing weight?! If you’ve been in a similar position, when did you start to lose weight?

I personally wouldn't be cutting calories any further. Possibly increase them actually and look at getting enough protein.

Just looking back at my progress charts on MFP from last February when I started.. I was losing 2kg per week consistently for about 4 months. My calorie deficit at the time was 2,000. I had a very high start weight.

I have always eaten right up to the limit of my calories. Obviously that limit has come down now as I'm 6st lighter but I'm still losing 1kg a week eating my full calorie allocation.

With MFP you do need to check the accuracy as products gets changed and some of the entries are from users who haven't entered the info accurately.

Don't cut your calories any further, it's not sustainable. I too think it takes about 6 weeks of eating like you are to start to show any real difference - which is disheartening but just the way bodies work. And more exercise - walking, swimming, aquafit - something every day that gets you a bit out of breath for at least half an hour. And build up from that. It was a slow process to get to the weight you are at - and it'll be slow coming down - but in 12 months time you'll be a new woman.

Honestly. Don't change a thing. You say that you are not hungry and so that clearly shows it's manageable. And if your tracker is showing 1400 calories that's fine.

Lots of issues re carbs vs protein from other posters but the bottom line is 1400 is such a calories deficit that it can't be a macro issue. I probably wouldn't eat the snack as its not good on your bloody sugar but if it stops you reaching for processed food then good on you!
Hormones play a part and it could be just that it's taking a bit to get going. It's frustrating but the more you change things the more you'll just end up throwing it all out. Concentrate on how you feel, get as good a sleep as you can, and then after a month of eating this way then change one more thing, then after a month another.

You will lose weight but your way is being sustainable which is ideal.

OP, you’ve got two options here.

1. You can carry on as you are and see if anything changes over time. This seems to have worked for other people, but it hasn’t in my experience.

2. You can try eating less food. If you lose weight, you’ll know either your requirements are less than you thought, or you were over estimating how much energy you were taking in. The good news is that it doesn’t matter. Just keep going at the new lower rate and continue to lose weight.

More protein, healthy fats, and as many vegetables as possible would probably help you hit your goals regardless.

Nothing to add but that's amazing @SlashBeef

It wasn't water weight. You lost 8lbs in a month. Did you expect to keep losing 4lbs every week? You need to look at the longer term picture.

Thank you so much. A few weeks ago I finally got under the weight limit to go on a high ropes course thing with my son and it hit me that I'm actually doing it. All these little goals and dreams I had are happening 🙂

I think what I’m finding difficult is that this is the first time in a long time that I’ve felt that I’m in the right mindset to be able to do something and stick to it.

I have done Slimfast which obviously provides quick results but isn’t sustainable. I think not seeing any kind of result when I know how much I used to eat mindlessly, compared to what I’ve been eating recently… it’s just something I need to get used to.

Of course not! 1lb a week would have been nice for the amount of calories I’ve given up though lol

It does! I was once eating and logging an item I thought was only 80 calories, it was actually nearly 250 calories!

@ClandestineAdulation are you logging exercise on MFP and eating back the calories it gives you? Don’t. I’ve heard of loads of people not losing, and even gaining, by doing that.

You need to exercise. Start by walking more.

How much do you weigh and what's your height and how active are you?

Weight-for-weight, dried fruit is ridiculously high in sugar. You would be better off cutting out the dried fruit and having fresh. Eating fresh fruit is going to make you feel much more full than a handful of dried fruit. Better for roughage and your digestion too.

An apple is 52 calories
A banana is 89 calories
50g of blueberries on your porridge is only 28 calories

Swap the dried fruit for fresh berries, veg sticks eg carrot, celery, pepper and tiny bit of humous for snacks. Use a smaller plate and gradually reduce all your portions. Drink loads of water. Cashews are my downfall and found out they are most calorific nuts so need to hide away! Well done for making a change OP.

You will see results and you're absolutely going about it the right way. The scales aren't going up they just aren't going down. With your previous diet they would have been going up and up!
It will just take time. Make small changes and keep going. Focus on how you feel.

@ARoughRide God no, but I can see how some people would assume it meant that they had extra calories to eat!!

I do use MFP correctly. Scan the barcodes, weigh everything, input the correct amount and stick to it.

Needs more bacon.

Right, but you lost 8lbs in 4 weeks which is an average of 2lbs a week!

Op I would expect to lose on that, have you lost anything at all?

I would sign up to Nutracheck. It's not expensive and is way more accurate than MFP and really really good.

@Hollyhead I lost 3kgs in the first 10 days and haven’t lost anything since

Sometimes what happens when you have a big initial loss is you seem to get some water retention for a few weeks after as your body tries to rebalance water. It’s called post induction stall by low carb folk but I’ve had it on a non low carb diet. I started exercising as well recently, I gained weight for the first week few weeks before I started losing again - water retention.

If you are logging accurately etc then carry on. I would drop the dried fruit etc it’s just sugar. You can probably get more volume of food with fresh fruit. Give it another few weeks and just keep your logging tight. Well done though, it’s not easy turning around your habits.

OP, you have done fantastically well to adjust your diet.

Don’t give up.

Go steady on the nuts and seeds on your porridge, nuts are sheer calorie bombs! As are oily seeds.

I have a couple of spoonfuls of frozen blueberries with my porridge.

I assume your salad is not coleslaw/ potato salad and drenched in mayo or olive oil?

Are you still eating a lot of salt? Salty food makes me heavier the next morning because if water retention.

It is quite daunting looking at the calorie deficit needed for a Kg a week. I would plan on 1lb a week.

@EyesOnThePies bloody hell I wish my salads were like that! Unfortunately not, spinach heavy with lots of other salad veg (tomatoes, peppers, cucumber) and usually chicken or ham with a touch of balsamic as a dressing.

I don’t think I’m eating a lot of salt! Lunches are broadly the same as above and dinner is veg and protein…