Why TF am I not losing weight?

[Ozgirl75]

I’ve managed to pile on about 4kg this year - solely due to moving to the U.K. and embracing Galaxy, nice white bread and other delicious comfort food, plus stopping my usual exercise routine, although I am still exercising.
Im not dramatically overweight but I have 6kg to lose. I feel like I’ve cut out all the nice stuff and it’s still not shifting!

A normal day looks like:
No breakfast (I never have breakfast, I have a cup of tea)
Lunch - two hard boiled eggs in a salad, cucumber, red pepper, pickled cucumber, beetroot, olives. Followed by one of those naked bars. Occasionally a roll with this if I’m v hungry.
Dinner - normal stuff, stir fry, roasts, fish. Plenty of veg. Not tiny but just normal dinners.
Followed by a frozen yogurt and sometimes a Galaxy Ripple.
Maybe some fruit in the evening later.
Occasionally 3-4 rice crackers mid afternoon.

Is it just because I’m 46 and am destined to be a size 14 for ever more now? I’m 70kg and 5ft 3 and a half.

An egg salad is not a “substantial lunch”

No alcohol at all and no dressing.

Yip i do exercise at least an hr a day. Have porridge and fruit for dinner, 600cal or less lunch. 1/2 protein bar, whatever going for tea and then malteasers at bedtime. I have about 6lb to loose but also like my food too much 🤣

@Frenchie333 in what world is that a lot of food?! What does your typical intake look like?

OP, I'd suspect it's a combination of the regular chocolate and your age. Also, you don't have much to lose, so it's harder. It's a lot easier to lose a stone if you're 5 stone overweight.

Personally, I'd cut out the regular chocolate, keep it as a weekly treat, then just embrace your life. You may find it comes of naturally over time anyway. You should absolutely eat a normal dinner and a salad for lunch, having had no breakfast is nothing, definitely don't give that up.

It's not about eating "nothing but..."
It's that the fro yo, naked bar and ripple are insignificant calories but still are calories.

So it's dull but "make every mouthful count" can help. That would make the only snack to survive would be the naked bar. If the roll is white bread then it doesn't count as useful and so on.

But ya, counting calories is an eye opener. And depressing.

You don't need to eat less, you need to eat more, but different. Eat more protein and huge quantities of veg, and have brown rice, new potatoes with the skin on or jacket spuds, and wholegrain seeded bread. Basmati rice is better for you than ordinary long grain, I forget why, but it is.

I can definitely do some swaps - I have quite a bit of protein, and if I ever have a roll it’s a seeded multigrain one anyway. Rice, the kids feckin hate anything but basmati and white rice, but we only have that a couple of times a week and I have about 2 desert spoons.
Never have pasta, occasionally have wedges in the air fryer. Basically no fast food, maybe a pizza once in a while.

Only a couple of weeks I would say give it a chance to show results. We are keen on saying "a cup of cold water weighs a pound and a quarter" so it might be that you have lost weight but your weight will fluctuate. You might persevere and suddenly find you have lost 4 lb.

Leave the skins on and roast them in a non-stick roasting tin with the absolute minimum of olive oil, not in lard or meat juices.

They’re actually done in the air fryer and just brushed with olive oil.

Oh don't talk nonsense. 400 calories on snacks is not "huge". It might be more than is advisable when trying to lose weight but don't make out like it's a ginormous amount of food. How the fuck does 400 calories warrant an exclamation mark?

Your salad is definitely a substantial lunch - ( two hard boiled eggs in a salad, cucumber, red pepper, pickled cucumber, beetroot, olives.) The eggs alone are 300cals.

How much do you think a body needs to function optimally nutrition wise? Or do you see the meaning of substantial as something like a dinner meal with potatoes or rice?

Are you having a blowout at weekends? Massive takeaways, coffee and cake?

You're 154 lbs in old money and 5'3.

I'm 5'5 and around 140 lbs. I eat around 1400 cals per day and will only lose on less than that.

It's so tough, I know

I wish! Nope, no coffee and cake (thank the lord I actually don’t love cake) and we never get takeaways. We go out for dinner a couple of times a month but even then I don’t go mad (although I do have a dessert)

As you say yourself....because she is trying to lose weight. So 3-4 snacks totalling 400cals is completely off the wagon and huge in that context.

And actually if we are talking simply healthy eating, in the normal framework of 3 meals a day, then 400cals of it on snacks is huge in that context too.

You need more protein, whole grains and fibre.

I like a sweet treat after meals but just limit it to one a day. I quite like the Fibre One bars, or a protein yogurt. I don't do well with carby meals, they make me crash and feel hangry after a couple of hours.

If you saw it, you would see what I mean. It’s a small bowl of salad.

I reckon your dinners are probably more calories than you think 🙂 Many a time I have massively underestimated my meals.

I have now lost 3 stone and I est a share bag of malteasers pretty much every day 🤣🤣 I calorie count

2 eggs isn't 300
It more like 150
( eggs is 300 per 100g but you don't get 100g in one egg)

Keep the bread roll ( while meal ) with 2 eggs and the salad - split into lunch and snack if you prefer

But cut the galaxy, naked bar and yogurt to save around 450 calories a day and the weight will drop off

And if the salad is small make it big for little extra calories and a lot more munch

Ok. I was imagining a lovely big colourful dinner plate of salad. And you have no dressing either so that helps.

But I think if you want the weight to go downwards, even just to target weight, then halving the snacks and reducing dinner volume would probably make a difference.

I don’t really like carbs meals either. Our dinners aren’t carby though. Last night it was beef with potatoes and veg, night before it was salmon, veg and rice. Tonight it’s chicken stir fry, tomorrow we’ll have air fried mackerel fillets with veg and noodles.

I've found adding watery foods to my meals helps keep me full if I'm cutting calories - clear soups with dinner, oranges, grapes etc as snacks because they're easy to carry

That’s a good idea. What kind of soup do you have? Miso?