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 food looks beautiful and the steady weight loss is fantastic, well done. But in terms of calories you need to log them to see how many are in things, you’d be surprised. Mixed nuts have an incredible amount of calories, I have to weigh mine because I was having a handful and the calories were mental. Avocado also, it’s good but you have to watch the portions, same with potatoes annd mayo, mayo has a lot of oil which has many calories. Also biscuits are great, but the calories add up and we don’t realise, I’ve been there myself.

None, until this week, that's the truth. I have been trying really hard. I did have 2 slices of cheesecake on my daughter's birthday and the day after earlier this month.
I am much more of a cake person and I do sometimes have Bonne Maman Madelines, maybe 3 a week?
I have been trying really hard but had a gain of 2kg last week after a weekend away and it has knocked me off course a bit. I am fully aware that white toast and jam, for example, leaves me starving hungry the rest of the day.

Portions are a bit on the big side , I'd maybe drop some carbs too. I was doing intermittent fasting 14:8 and lost 8 kg in 3 months

I think the meals are good, it’s all the other little bits. I wouldn’t make the meals smaller I think you’d be starving.
Could you work out 200 calories of snacks for each day and only eat those?

What's your height, @BoobsGalore ?
If you input your height and weight, plus activity levels, you can calculate your TDEE online. Then count calories and you will soon see whether there is an issue.

In addition, I recommend low carb and intermittent fasting to give things a boost. It worked for me so I'm talking from experience.

My partner made the huge salad, I actually didn't finish it.

I really think if I cut two eggs down to one, or half a tin of butter beans and half a courgette down further, I would just snack more on shit.

The meals look healthy and carbs aren't inherently bad for you. I would count calories on mfp and ensure you are in a calories deficit. Aim for 90-100g protein a day and have 2-3l of water. Any bonus exercise can only help.

I can't lose a single lb unless I completely cut out sugar & sweeteners (including natural sugars too, so no fruit). Since hitting my desired size, I'm back on sugars, but fast 3 days a week to maintain (successfully maintained for 6+ years now). There'll be something that messes your attempts up too, most common are sugars or carbs. Try elimination & see if it makes a difference. Don't worry about the 5 a day stuff, just make sure you take a good quality supplement every day. After the initial couple of weeks withdrawal, you don't miss sugar/sweeteners/fruit at all.

Don’t cut the eggs, if anything add another one, or add a chicken breast and ditch the biscuits.

5ft 4
My BMI was 38 when I started iirc

Your food looks delicious and healthy! I log what I eat on My Fitness Pal so I can see my macro and calories, might be worth a go so you can check your not inadvertently having too much of one thing. I love keto for weight loss and whilst now I eat 80-100g carbs a day, occasional I like a really low day around 20g or less. I also agree with others, stick with low gi fruits - so much hidden sugar otherwise. Strawberries are my fruit of choice. Finally what’s been helping me is 2 litres of day, shockingly essential to everything!.

That's a good idea ☺️
Will give it a try.

Nonsense

If you carry on like this you’ll have lost a lot of weight in six months time, look at the bigger picture.

Following my recent Weight-loss, what really helped was working out my TDEE minus 500 calories for weight loss. Do you know yours?

Just keep going

your weight loss has been at a really healthy and sustainable rate

Dont start cutting portions or losing the small amount of carbs. We need those for energy. Just keep going!

Cutitng out the DC would be good to reset your tastebuds a bit. And adding some strength training to build muscle would benefit your bones and increase your TDE

But if you get sucked into aiming for too rapid weight loss you will get hungry and it will become unsustainable and you will start gaining.

You should be so proud and delighted with those 4.5 kg that’s loads!

It's not nonsense, some of those meals are absolutely massive (although later on it's been explained that not all was eaten, my comment was before that). I'm sorry if directness is frowned upon here.

I'm taller and very much more more active than the OP and I don't eat this much volume. Unless there is another health or medication issue, the OP can either take in fewer calories or increase her energy expenditure.

I've lost 18kg since March on IF, no UPF, no carbs. Except Sourdough bread. Currently my IF regime is 19/5
Greek yoghurt, berries and seeds as first meal.
Similar meals to you on the second meal.
One cappuccino per day. No sugar.
Water the rest of the time. No alcohol.

Don’t cut eggs or courgettes, cut the bread.

They look like completely normal meals to me, not "absolutely massive". I eat more than that and my BMI is around 20. Everyone is different and op is losing weight slowly so clearly she is in a deficit.

That's what I was thinking.

We're all different with different levels of hunger and different stomach capacity, but that's too much food for me.

Sweetners in Diet Coke affect your gut biome. You would really benefit from ditching that. Your body also thinks it's going to see some sugar (as it's sweet) so releases insulin which then isn't used. This also messes things up blood sugar wise as your body continues to crave the sugar.

I really struggle to lose weight when I'm eating just normal amounts of carbs. I think I must be sensitive to them. The minute I am low carb or keto the weight goes and I stop feeling hungry as my blood sugar isn't yo yoing.

Carbs are converted to sugar by your body and are totally unnecessary for humans.

There is a tiny bit of the brain that can only run on glucose from carbs- but your body will produce that for it (your liver does it I think) so no need to put any in our mouths!

Well if you are losing slowly, @BoobsGalore , that is ideal and just keep doing what you're doing and don't give up. And don't let Christmas ruin everything. Christmas Day, Christmas Eve and Boxing Day "off" and then back on the wagon.

Yummy 😋

Watch things like butter & mayo they have lots of calories. Can you weigh everything? You can see exactly how many calories you are eating. It does look a bit carb heavy