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?

The meals look delish but a bit on the big side. Keep an eye on the nuts too, they are quite high calories.

Also ditch the diet Coke. Sweeteners can trick your body.

Keep going and well done eating healthily to lose weight.

If you read the thread you'll see they're not big portions

@BoobsGalore if you gain nothing else from this thread, your resilience will be so much improved.

I still have plate envy.

Omg. One chicken thigh and some veg isn't a big portion ffs

Have uou tried the mfp app @BoobsGalore to put meals in to see what calories eating a day roughly

I am tracking with an intermittent fasting app but it doesn't do calories per se.

150g chicken thigh 266 cal
30g cauliflower 8 cal
40g red pepper 12 cal
25g courgette 4 cal
30g tomato 5 cal
20g shallot 12 cal
30g spinach 7 cal
1 tbsp olive oil 120 cal

Total 434 calories

Looking really healthy today with all the veg. I like shakshuka, tried it in Israel the first time, really interesting.

Seems low if only 2 meals

Well apparently I am eating portions 2 to 3 times larger than normal slim people would so who knows? 😹

I reckon the shakshuka plus bread must have been 5-600 cal plus the snacks, I think it's ok overall. I am certainly dropping weight more slowly than the 600 cal crash diets I have done in the past.

Mumsnet is full of them. Literally every thread that is started about weight, food, portion size they are here exclaiming that they couldn't possibly eat that much and survive on 800 calories a day.

Weirdly it's diet not coke zero that I have seen this in.

Thank you OP for sharing your meals with us. It is really interesting to see what someone else who's on a diet is eating! Have read the thread from beginning to end and have got so many ideas for what I will be eating going forward, as my diet is not very varied at all 🤭

Sorry people are being weird about plate sizes!

Another daily plate update! I enjoyed myself today and am feeling very pleased with myself.

Lunch was Amalfi salad (basically mixed beans, cucumber, fennel, spring onion and orange) with home made low carb bread and butter, plus a tablespoon of Skyr for a protein boost.

Dinner was prawn and konjac noodles stir fry with fish sauce. I was a bit low on stir fry veg so it is mostly peppers and peas. The sauce is a desert spoon of Thai green curry, a slug of creamed coconut and a fish stock. It really was a big portion this time and I did not finish it (picture 3).

As well as this I had olives and a 25g packet of crisps, plus a small protein stick (like a mini pepperami).

Btw if anyone new to the thread comes on, welcome, lovely to have you. Gently, we have done to death my portion sizes and the size of my plates lol. Yes I could do with taking more exercise.

WTF, where did that pasta plate come from. How big is your crockery cupboard?

I do like the shallow bowl with the spiral design and appreciate it is ginormous..

The stripy one? It's this one, Nerd.
Christmas list?

https://www.johnlewis.com/royal-doulton-pacific-lines-porcelain-pasta-bowl-23-1cm-blue/p3297852

Not sure where the other pasta bowl came from, had it eons.

Are the konjac noodles the ones with like no calories?

Yes that's right, ladyGabriella

Oo think I tried konjac ones before but didn’t really like them. Food looks lovely otherwise. How do you make low carb bread?

It's a mix from Body and Fit. https://www.bodyandfit.com/en-gb/Products/Food-%26-Bars/Home-baking/Baking-Pre-mixes/Protein-Bread-Mix/p/p_11295

I make it in my bread maker. It's lovely, moist and nutty.

Where do you buy the konjac noodles? I have seen some on Amazon but never really get food from there!

Hi @BoobsGalore Thanks for posting your pics. I am the same height as you and have a BMI at the upper end healthy I eat similar size portions and I would say there is quite a crossover in the types of food as well. I am late to the thread so have skim read it as now very long. The one thing I have always done is walk a lot at least an hour a day. Even when I was working FT I left the madness of my desk and walked round the campus I worked on for 45 minutes. Some frowned upon this but I could not have given less of a shit. On one memorable walk I was mugged by a squirrel who ran off with my flapjack.

Just wanted to say well done on the weight loss.

I try konjac noodles every now and then. Then wonder why I thought they were going to be any better this time.

Eesshk! It's a shame if they are that bad as they are so low in kcal! 😑😑