Why oh why am I not losing weight ?? I should be a size zero by now 🙄 😒 😭

[TheThreeCheesesOfTheApocalypse44]

Fair enough it's only been a month in which time I've lost around 4ib.

I work a very physical job, according to my fitbit I walked 20000 steps today and spent 6 hours in a higher heart rate zone burning around 5000 calories.......this was actually a shorter day. I usually do between 8 and 10 hours.

Typical food day is 2 weetabix for breakfast. Or bowl of porridge. Sometimes have eggs.

Lunch is either homemade soup, usually vegetable and some sort of lentil or bean. Or a ham/chicken salad filled pitta bread. And a banana

Dinner I've been upping the veg and just having lower fat meats, less cheese and pasta etc. Tonight we had jambalaya, last night was chicken, New potatoes and veg. Normal stuff. Tomorrow we're having fritata and veg.

Don't really eat loads of fruit, have a handful of berries in my porridge sometimes or an apple. And have a low calorie (( under 100 cals )) most nights. Usually snack a Jack's or something.

Have around 4 mugs of tea a day with a splash of milk and half a teaspoon of sugar. Don't drink sugary drinks, mainly boiling water other than tea.

I know it's a story as old as time and asked on here a million times a week but where the hell am I going wrong ??

And when I say a month its actually more like 6 weeks !. 6 weeks !!

Not giving it enough time.
proper weight loss is slow

if your diet is right the weight loss will happen in time.

come back in six months after continuing to eat well and being active

How much do you have to lose? 4lbs is actually a lot of weight and over 6 weeks sounds quite reasonable given that you are eating very ‘normally’ i.e you’re not on a ridiculous fad diet.

Around 6 stone.

I know it didn't go on overnight so won't come off overnight but I keep seeing 3500 calorie deficit to lose 1ib. I think I'm just impatient 😕

And I'm not expecting to lose 4ib a week or anything but bearing in mind I spend a good part of my day doing the equivalent of an aerobics class I'd expect to lose more than less than a pound a week !!

Unfortunately, some of us just lose it, much slower than others. I found if I have any, I have your meals at lunch and reduced carbs in the evening it helped speed things up but I was still slower than everybody else. Keep it up, OP

I have to really cut down on carbs & sugar to make a difference so no to the pitta, potatoes, sugar in tea etc.

I’m the same OP.

But you might find that at the moment you are strengthening and toning. I measured my arms and my back and I am losing inches. But it’s weight off that I want! So I’m with you

Can I suggest calorie counting to make sure that you're not overeating? The reason I say this is because I was overweight but didn't understand why the weight wasn't coming off with lifestyle changes , when counting it became apparent that my diet was rather high in fat and kcals! It's worth checking.

I was 3 stone overweight. I lost a stone since November by pretty much what you are doing. Im also going to the gym, but only seriously for the last 6 weeks and moving more. Im knackered but the weight is shifting, but slowly. I honestly believe that’s better. Also apparently drink more water,…

You must be eating too much. Do you weigh your portions? Are you having cheat days that undo your good work?
If you aren't losing weight then 90% of the time it's because you are eating too much.

@AhBiscuits she is losing weight, it is just slower than she would like.
patience is needed.

1lb a week is actually quite decent. Just keep going. At that rate don't forget by the summer you'll have lost a stone.

I thought that you were going to say that you had a stone to lose in which case 4lbs in six weeks would be fab. But with six stone to take off, it does seem like a sluggish weight loss tbh OP.

I lost three stone last year. I’ve just checked my notes and I can tell you that I lost 8lbs in the first six weeks. And I continued with bread and potatoes although no sugar because I dislike sweet food and drinks anyway. I did 16:8 fasting and tonnes of exercise (you already seem to be doing the latter). Have you tried fasting between 7pm and 11am? Nothing at all other than water and black tea/coffee.

I am not a medic nor a personal trainer by the way. So my advice is uninformed. I’m just stating what worked for me last year.

Ok I avoid diet threads but aside from all the sensible stuff already said look up why calorie counting doesn't work. Good evidence based stuff all over the web about it but basically metabolism is a lot more complex than energy in v energy out and your body has already worked out how to store energy so if you go into deficit it just holds on to stores of fat making it harder not easier to lose weight.

That's not necessarily a problem for you. Your diet is really healthy and if it is giving you the energy you need for your very active lifestyle and you can maintain it you will probably slowly lose weight and become leaner over time. Maybe fairly slowly.

IF you also feel good about your food and your activity levels you are much more likely to keep this up forever which is what you need, not a quick route to weight loss.

Why do we need to drink a lot of water when trying to lose weight?

Also should mention I have GERD so food my stomach can grab onto (( potatoes etc )) are important otherwise I get room clearing ketosis breath.

The pitta breads are 120 calories each, a few slices of ham and salad arent amounting to much.

When I have potatoes I used to have a huge pile of them, now I'll have 3 and the majority of my plate will be veg.

I've switched white rice for brown, again I'll measure the portion out instead of eyeballing it.....cakes etc I can take or leave. I'm not into fad diets but it is annoying when skinny two pie Pete saunters off to the break room with his bag of pies and Mars bars and I'm sat there with my lentil soup !! 🤣🤣🤣

Are you weighing your food and tracking calories properly? You might be really shocked by what's considered a 'normal' portion.

Almost everyone who is struggling to lose weight and doesn't understand why is consuming far more calories than they think.

Can you track calories through MyFitnessPal for 4 weeks? Be absolutely regimented, track every stray bite and nibble, and never guesstimate portion size. If at the end of that you're still losing very slowly, go to your GP and ask for a thyroid check.

Is the 5000cal inclusive of your base cals? What are they? You can look it up based on your weight and age, Google tdee calculator.
I'm asking because 5000 is a phenomenal amount. If 20000 steps is accurate (and it probably is roughly, as Fitbit is good at steps) then that is way out.

For me, 20000 steps is around 9 miles. I had to guess your weight, (you can obviously be more accurate) but you'll likely burn around 1000cals for 9 miles.

So if 5000cals is correct, that makes your tdee 4000cals a day? That is exceedingly high. You would have to weigh 43 stone to need that.

Posted too soon! I meant that that means you have a much smaller calorie deficit than you think you do, and that actually 4lb is a good amount. Keep plugging away, weight loss sucks and takes ages, but you can do it!

Two pies Pete prob has constipation, occasional heartburn, and is eating a tonne of salt and saturated fat which will be knackering his heart.

Obviously try not to be smug whilst you eat the lentil soup.

Plant based as much as you feel able to. I haven't eaten any animal products at all since October last year and am 8.5 stone and feel amazing/ loads of energy. Wish I'd done it sooner

I only lose weight eating under 1300 calories and I have to weigh everything which is fucking tedious. I don’t even drink alcohol regularly so I feel I should be a healthy weight on that basis… after a few days of following a plan I’m like “why am I not skinny already?!” 😂 logical me knows why but inpatient me is angry.

i think. When you have lots to lose you need to chunk it up and while you’ll have an overall target weight, you need goals within that. Usually half stone loss milestones.

get measuring, logging and re learning portion sizes. Good luck!

Not getting them all i order but these are typical days for me.

Sorry I wasn't clear. I'm not saying I don't believe you! I'm saying that Fitbit is hugely overestimating the calories you burn. It is really good at steps but terrible at calories. It's a well known problem with lots of fitness trackers.