Where is my diet going wrong and keeping me obese?

[BoobsGalore]

I am mid 50s. Weigh 94 kg.
Always been curvy, have lipedema (heavy diet -resistant legs) on HRT.
Spent years on low fat artificial sweetener type diets, now for the last 5 years eat less UPF, no low fat anything. Try to be reasonably low carb.

I am doing intermittent fasting (16/8) since early Aug and have lost 4.5 kg but it's painfully slow.
Tried mounjaro back in Spring but had to come off it after it triggered terrible panic attacks.

I am photographing my meals for my intermittent fasting app. Here is yesterday's food - spinach omelette for brunch and a bean and courgette stew for dinner. I had 2 slices of home made bread, a handful of mixed nuts, and an apple as well as what is pictured. Will add a couple of other days as well. Is it the carbs?

I have noticed I don't drink enough - about 1.5 litres a day of tea, coffee, diet coke (1 can a day, I think it's an addiction) and squash or water. Would that make a huge difference?

Friday's food. The wraps are crosta and mollica and that's a smear of home made mayo.

I think I had 2 chocolate malted milk biscuits and an apple and grapes as well

Wednesday's food

The meals look good, how thick are the slices of homemade bread and how bid is portion of nuts?
I think a 4.5kg loss since August is good.

The slices are about 1cm thick I guess but the loaves are small - like the half loaves from the supermarket - as that is the size my bread maker makes

4.5kg is great! Slow and steady is best.

I agree that 4.5kg is significant. Slow and steady wins the race - if you lose weight too quickly you will put it back on quickly.

I have yet to meet anyone that drinks diet coke every day and isn't overweight.
I think it does something to ones metabolism.

The meals look delicious!

4.5 kg since August is pretty decent I think. Nutritious food and steady weight loss sounds the right way.

I’m similar, mid 50s on HRT. My starting weight was a little lower than yours.
Started in 16:8 in august and I’ve lost 7lbs which I’m really pleased with. 4.5k over the same time seems really good.

Are you exercising?

On work days (3 days a week), less so - between 4 and 6k steps

On non work days I walk the dog so about 8-10k steps

I don't do much that raises the heart rate significantly for long periods, and probably should. Good point.

I'd trial cutting down on the carbs ... so reduce all by half so don't take them out entirely but try reducing. On fruit keep to berries (not grapes bananas) def reduce the Diet Coke and be mindful of the amount of milk you are drinking in your tea and coffee. I did a couple of weeks much lowered carb and it did help ...

I have yet to meet anyone that drinks diet coke every day and isn't overweight.
I think it does something to ones metabolism.

I ditched my daily can of low calorie Fanta last year and my sugar cravings stopped.

Can you track your calories? As in properly weigh and log absolutley everything. The couple of biscuits here and there add up. Once you know the real amount of calories you're taking in it might be easier to identify what could be slowing the weight loss.

Well done for far by the way, meals look delicious

I agree 4.5kg is a good loss.

How active are you? Exercise is good for regulating blood sugar levels.

I would cut out the diet coke, as it makes you crave sweet things, and squash as neither of them are giving you anything healthy

try drinking plain fizzy water instead if you cant just switch to tap water

Try to reduce the sugar/sugar substitutes further so cut out the Diet Coke and squash and substitute with water. Perhaps watch the Fed Up documentary as a reminder of the effects of sugar on our bodies

Your meals look delicious, but do you need the bread? I would advise more veg, and complex carbs like brown rice, and you have beans and nuts, which are great. Ditch the biscuits and the coke and squash. Eat a bit of good-quality dark chocolate and drink mostly water. But your meals do look amazing!

Whilst healthy, there's too much volume.

How many biscuits are you eating? Could you cut them completely?

Do you drink alcohol?

Could you walk more every day. ? Increase by 2k steps every few days.

Yeah diet coke is evil. I gained most of my weight addicted to diet coke. Could water with lemon or sparking mineral water replace the diet coke?

Do you have sugar in any drinks?

Could you add in porridge (not the instant kind) and reduced the bread? Your meals look yummy and 4.5 kilos is a decent amount to lose since August. If what you are doing is sustainable ongoing then maybe just keep on going and not worry about the rate you are going down on the scales?

A less "good" day
That's Jason's sourdough seeded , I large slice halved to make the sandwich

Nothing wrong with volume eating, it keeps you full
Stuff like loads of lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes etc

Your days look low on protein.
If it was a three egg omelette that’s 20g protein max, 12-15g if two eggs. There won’t be a lot in the beans, maybe 20g ish.
30g protein per meal three times a day is generally a good rule of thumb and will keep you fuller for longer. Try to use protein sources that are also lower carb.
Again on the second day it looks fairly low protein, and the snacks were high carb. A small bunch of grapes and a large apple could be around 30g of carbs that you could substitute with a lower carb fruit (blueberries/raspberries etc) or low fat babybel for example.
Do you track your carbs/protein/fats on an app? That might assist in making food choices.

Think you need to calorie count OR take fewer than 300 in the eve. Soup maybe

Well, if I ate that amount I would be overweight too. I would cut the portions by about a third.