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?

You do not have to cut carbs to lose weight. Upping lean protein and actually counting calories and macros will help you to lose weight.

I'm agog that people think those portions are massive.

I've never dieted and never been overweight. I eat three meals a day and bigger portions than you, Op.

I'd cut out the Diet Coke every day and fruit juice. Maybe limit yourself to cake or biscuit on a Saturday. I find the less juice, fizzy, cake, biscuits I eat the less I want them. You can train yourself off them.

Slow and steady wins the race. It sounds like are doing really well.

Also, up the walking and maybe do some simple workouts. Lucy Wyndham Reed does short easy workouts on YouTube.

I have two friends who are overweight. I'm not sure if they realise that, while they are preparing food, they keep popping food into their mouths and then they have a 'normal' plate of food as well.

I think this is just the amount you'll lose at your age and presuming you don't do loads of exercise.

Work out your BMR using an online calculator and then how many calories you're eating per day. For example, if you're eating 1300 calories a day and your BMR is 1800, you should lose a pound a week which is about what you are losing. Theres is nothing wrong, that's just a realistic amount to lose unless you're prepared to do a lot of exercise or eat less.

I wouldn't eat less, you'll be lacking in nutrition, it doesn't look like you're eating much anyway. Increase your exercise if you want to increase your BMR and keep going.

I’m shocked by all the people saying those are large portions. They look like normal diet meals to me. I suggest you use something like My Fitness Pal to log your calories. Little snacks of biscuits and nuts and Madeleines can all add up, and perhaps just reducing those would help.

I also agree about cutting the Diet Coke. Awful stuff that messes up your microbiome and your insulin sensitivity IMO.

And definitely ignore the teeny tinies on here saying your meals are big. Lots of disordered eating in mumsnet!

Contrary to what others are saying, I would suggest making the meals bigger rather than smaller - but would alter the content.

You're eating quite a lot of bread. I would cut that down to no more than two slices (or two wraps) per week of high quality product. Similarly, potatoes - limit them to two small potatoes in no more than two meals each week.

Don't eat cakes or biscuits or anything hyper sweet and sugary (that includes stuff with artificial sweeteners in, so no diet coke or orange squash), as they have no nutritional value and can lead to cravings and bingeing.

I would add more variety of vegetables to your meals and larger portions of veg. So, for example, a salad could include several of these: a mixture of leaves; some tomatoes; cucumber; a couple of radishes; a couple of spears of baby corn; some olives; a handful of mixed seeds or nuts; avocado; homemade coleslaw; butter beans (or any other beans or chick peas); olive oil; artichokes; asparagus; roasted veg, cooled (eg aubergine, courgette; peppers; onions; cauliflower; broccoli). Basically add more veg!

Adding tofu or tempeh to some meals woud increase the protein content. Include canned sardines in one or two meals each week.

Eat fish at least twice a week. Eat lean white meat (chicken breast) once or twice a week.

Those are my thoughts. Good luck.

Are you still eating carbs at every meal? If so try just having carbs once a day. As others have said also - cut out the coke etc

I’d add a bit of red meat myself. I actually believe our bodies need animal fats and without it we crave something we’re missing and end up overeating. You don’t need to eat loads, just a couple of portions a week

The thing about all dieting threads is that everyone is looking at what they're doing/not doing.

Hey ho...

What should op do then and why is it a proble,.

OP has been fucking about with her body for years.

I'm honestly not sure how to help

Eat good food, cook. Enjoy all the things.

If you are going to the trouble of photographing your meals you may as well log what you are eating. Keep an eye on your macros and ensure you are in a calorie deficit.

That’s a decent weight loss and your meals look great. But honestly Diet Coke/soda is an absolute killer for weight loss. Artificial sweeteners completely fk up your metabolism and interfere hugely with the signals from your brain regulating appetite. You need to ditch the soda and squash - plain water only. Takes a bit of getting used to but stick at it and it becomes habit.

Agreed.. generally accepted that 1lb of weight loss a week is 3500 calories or 500 a day reduction in intake

Bread and nuts can be high in calories. Weigh and calculate your portions you will be surprized where the calories are in every thing you eat!!

honestly Diet Coke/soda is an absolute killer for weight loss. Artificial sweeteners completely fk up your metabolism and interfere hugely with the signals from your brain regulating appetite. You need to ditch the soda and squash - plain water only

Again, I will point to my 18kg weight loss whilst drinking diet coke and sweeteners. I don't like plain water and this is how I keep up my liquid intake.

It might be an issue for some people but it doesn't appear to be a hard rule for everyone.

Meanwhile back to the OP, I agree it would be prudent to look at portion sizes of calorie dense food. Milk in tea & coffee adds up. Cakes, obviously (likely 300 to 500 calories). Nuts.

Definitely ditch the coke and anything highly processed. Also go for walks. I've ditched all processed food and have lost half a stone this month. I always weigh and note calories of nuts and seeds as they are highly calorific.
I find walking for half an hour a day gets the whole metabolism going, it makes the bowels work faster. I'm doing my daily walk with a rollator as I'm waiting for a hip replacement.

Well done from another lipoedema sufferer. Ignore the eating disorder folk, you are obviously doing well with a sustainable way of eating. Bulk is very important for middle aged women eating in calorie deficit.

If you wanted to level up I have two things that really worked for me. First I logged my food on MyFitnessPal. This let me really know what I was eating. I could swap carbs for fat if I wanted to and make sure I had enough protein. This allowed me freedom, I knew if I was in calorie deficit or not - and I took one day a week for maintenance level calories. The second is building muscle. I got a PT and took up resistance training. That was the point my health changed. My lipoedema didn't stop but my metabolism improved.

Good luck! Keep your eyes on your own path and know you are doing really well.

definitely ignore the teeny tinies

You could have made your point without being viscious towards and making derogatory remarks towards slim people.

I'm just a formerly obese person telling it like it is, OP. No agenda. Out of all of the people posting here, I'm willing to bet I'm the one who has lost the most weight and kept it off.

When you've lost the weight you then have to deal with people like this who will be very bitter and nasty about it; life is weird and losing weight solves some problems and brings about others. Whether you're slim or fat, there's someone out there who will be nasty about it.

I'd keep the food the same, chuck in some cardio. Something fun like dancing or bounce. It's great for mental health and confidence rather than weight loss. It does make your body feel stronger and fit which is good. I'd also ditch the Diet Coke. I read somewhere that your body knows it's been tricked with diet products so it craves the real stuff meaning you end up eating more in total.

Hi OP, I'm a very similar weight and have been intermittent fasting since July. I've lost just over a stone in that time.

What has really worked for me is sticking to two meals a day and cutting out the snacks completely. Your food looks lovely and what you're doing clearly is working for you but as a first step, cutting out the fizzy drinks would definitely help.

I get it, I was a Pepsi Max addict and had a can a day but it is absolutely awful for you. It fucks with your metabolism and can cause bigger health concerns....listen to what Chris Van Tullken has said on diet drinks if you're interested in cutting UPF. Diet Coke etc erodes your tooth enamel and can reduce your bone density. It's absolutely dreadful for health.

Also, are you completely clean fasting? As in, not having the fizzy drinks during your fasting window, not having any milk in drinks or herbal tea etc? You may already be doing it but clean fasts sticking to water or black coffee only genuinely made intermittent fasting much easier.

I drink 2 or 3 cans of Diet Coke a day, I’m 164cm and weigh 58.5kg 🤷🏼‍♀️I think these generalisations are really unhelpful!

I think 4.5kg since August is great. Losing the weight sustainably will be the main thing that helps you keep it off afterwards too. It’s really hard to make lifestyle changes and it sounds like you’ve done so well!

Losing weight is a basic calories in vs calories out. If you continue eating the same but do a bit more exercise, you will lose weight more quickly. Aim for 10k steps a day in a way that you can include in your daily life - can you walk part of the way to work? Can you go for. 30 min walk at lunch time? Weight training is really important for women and also helps a lot with weight loss. Could you buy some dumbbells to do small workouts at home? There are lots of free videos on YouTube you could use to guide you like Joe Wicks. He also has some great interval/cardio videos you can follow at home. You don’t need to do loads, obut say you aim for 10k steps every day, 2 short weights workouts and 1 30 min intervals workout a week.

You can also use Apps like My fitness pal to track what you’re eating. It might be worth doing this really carefully for a week or 2 to be sure that you’re not missing anything.

But you should be really proud of yourself for losing weight sustainably and healthily 👏

4.5kg in 2 months is a good amount of weight loss. It's consistent and sustainable

If you cut down your portions more you will just flag and get hungry and probably snack more. If anything I would say a bit more protein and varie your veg a bit more, because I would get bored of all the salad.

You are quite sedentary, upping your daily activity would help. My only other comment is describe it as a smear of mayo, but I would say that's a normal portion so I would just check your nut portions are reasonable and your bread/mayo/butter portions are by weighing

Also remember it's a long journey, a weekend away and a gain isn't a big deal, especially as its likely water weight as I doubt you ate the extra 14k calories needed to put on 2kg.