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?

Daily plate update!
Lunch was a slice of Jason's with a 3 egg scramble as I was very hungry. Plus remains of salad from last night.
Dinner was lamb shank which was horrible and I ate half of, and veg which I finished. Then small bowl of strawberries and cream. Note: Lamb shank is on small plate.
In addition I had an apple, a bag of salt and vinegar discos and a chocolate biscuit (the penguin type) - yes I know I shouldn't - and about 10 small red grapes.

I was .9 kg up this morning when I weighed in, but I will just keep on going.

Oh, pictures didn't add.

Lamb shank isn't meant to be horrible, sack the chef 😉

You could take photos of your snacks as well, it may be helpful for you.

I am sure it would be helpful for accountability but I don't think realistically that I will manage it.

One of the most noticeable things about your food is its lack of colour and lack of raw foods. Beige food generally has fewer nutrients so it might be worth looking at this. Instead of rice, wraps, pasta and potatoes use things with more colour.
There is a book which I think is called Eat a Colourful Diet. It explains about the nutrients in colourful food as compared to those without colour . Beetroots , onions, Peppers, red onions, broccoli, citrus fruits and of course greens. I would try to use fruit sauces, like apple sauce. Mango sauce, great with curry and add raw fruit and vegetables wherever you can.

i think you are doing brilliantly to persevere and are very brave to open yourself up to feed back. I am sure you are short of time but batch cooking and preserving would really help I think

There is such a thing as spinach and beetroot wraps should a wrap be vital.

If I were you'd I'd count calories. Find out how many you need (I was shocked to find its only 1700 for me with 10k brisk steps a day just to not gain) and go into deficit. I genuinely don't find it makes a scrap of difference having 'eating windows' avoiding carbs, drinking water, or whatever else, other than if these things lead to reduced calorie consumption. Taking in fewer calories than I burn is the only thing that works to lose, and eating only the amount I need is the only thing that's worked to maintain.

?

I think theres something wrong with the colour settings on your computer!

I agree that there are some colours but the ratio to beige and white to colour should be adjusted.

A noticeable lack of colour? Really? There are literally 10 salads here out of 15 plates? Two of the other others are a bean and courgette stew and fried Brussels sprouts? No pasta, but one dish containing noodles, two with potatoes?

I have had rice more often this week than usual.

Sorry I did not mean to offend you.

Drink water

Hey everyone 👋

Nice updates, @BoobsGalore . When's the weigh-in from?

I don't know what's happened but after this thread I had a lapse and bought two packs of instant noodles, the kind of thing I never have any more and not just because of weight but because of them being UPFs.

I think it was all the analysis of food or something to do with that that acted as a trigger.

I am not offended at all! Just a bit bewildered.

I have been enjoying updating but I am also aware of the temptation to cheat. I do think it's been really helpful in terms of me identifying that my meals are less the problem than

• planning ahead
• snacks

These are my danger areas and my danger time is when I get home from work.

Yes, I need to do so more.

@BoobsGalore what's lipodema

Snacks? Easy. Don't buy any. If you are peckish, eat a boiled egg, a carrot or an apple/pear/satsuma.....

Planning ahead? Buy lots of vegetables. Aim for 2/3 vegetables plus 1/6 protein and 1/6 complex carbs. Half the vegetables should be of the filling type, such as cauliflower, broccoli, butternut squash, celeriac etc - the rest colour of the rainbow: peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, carrots, spinach, beetroots, pak-choi, cabbage, aubergine...... plus lettuce.

Use interesting flavourings to give your food oooooomph - herbs, ginger, garlic, miso, horseradish, mustard, lemon zest and juice...

At the end of the day you are doing well. You are losing weight, slowly but steadily. A small gain one day is neither here nor there - weight often fluctuates for no particular reason. KOKO!

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/lipoedema/

You have to count calories: there's no way round it. And you have to eat a lot of protein to keep hunger at bay. I'm 57 and come from a short stocky mining family. It is a struggle to stay at a size 12 for me.

Unfortunately I have teenaged kids who need packed lunches so we always have crisps and snacks in.

Once the packed lunch days are over this is exactly what I will do.

This thread is really interesting as it is a classic example of why many people on "diets" don't lose weight as quickly as they think they should.

First the OP presents what looks, on the face of it, to be two healthy meals a day and wonders why they aren't losing more.

But then it transpires over the course of the thread that she doesn't do any exercise aside from walking; also eats biscuits; drinks Diet Coke; will have three gin and tonics on a Friday night plus wine on a Saturday; has cream in coffee... etc etc.

With all that factored in I'm surprised you've lost as much weight as you have, OP.

As others have said, if you want to lose more weight you need to do some exercise, give up the diet coke and stop drinking alcohol. But you already know that. And if you're already losing weight by doing what you're doing, then you're very lucky, and just crack on!

Hello, I can't quite see your face up there on your high horse but I am sure it's lovely up there!

My point is that perfectly ordinary sized people also have the occasional glass of wine and G and T, and from the look of my colleagues who eat the biscuits at work all of whom are 5 stone less than me eat biscuits as well (I never eat the work biscuits, ever).

And I don't "have wine on Saturdays". I had one glass of wine on one Saturday. You make it sound like my activity of the day.

I am very deliberately not on "a diet" per se. I have done 600 cal a day and lost a stone then put it back on and more, so so many times. I am trying to find a way to eat that is sustainable and for me that means that I am going to have cream in my coffee a couple of times a week and the odd glass of G and T because I need to find something that works forever. And not everyone who is slim never drinks any alcohol or eats a single biscuit.

My point is that perfectly ordinary sized people also have the occasional glass of wine and G and T, and from the look of my colleagues who eat the biscuits at work all of whom are 5 stone less than me eat biscuits as well (I never eat the work biscuits, ever).

The difference is, because they are perfectly ordinary sized, they don't need to be in a calorie deficit. Fwiw your food looks awesome to me and you've had some really odd responses about portion size and colours!