44 and can't lose weight!

[Exileinengland1999]

I'm 44, 5ft8 and 11stone12 and a 12/14. My happy weight is about 11 stone. I have literally tried everything and the weight isn't shifting. I don't want to do slimming world/WW particularly as have always believed in healthy eating etc not crash dieting.
I have virtually given up booze, exercise 5 times a week (a mix of running and HIIT). I am a veggie, have cut right back on stodg carbs like bread, pasta etc and am eating smarter carbs like rye bread, lentils etc. I don't eat much sugar. My portion sizes aren't massive. I do a bit of 5:2 but found that, while it did work, it also made me bunged up (!)

So WTF am I doing wrong. I feel heavy at the moment and my clothes are a bit tight.

AIBU to ask for advice about Middle Aged fat- ness?!

Ah sorry missed the veggie part. Clearly eating meat and fish is not appropriate in your situation. Ignore that.

I am 48 and was similar to you, I needed to go down a dress size and lose a stone to get back to my 10 stone fighting weight. I tried 5:2 and my fitness pal. The thing that has worked for me is Hello Fresh. Made me realise that my portion sizes were way too big before, every meal is balanced. I never snack (well maybe a couple of times a week) and I literally do no excercise and I've stayed at a 10/12

Thanks for all your comments - very helpful! I think I am going to try 5:2 again but be better on the non fast days- I have always seen 5:2 as a lifestyle not a diet (as per the evidence for the benefits of fasting) but I definitely overate on the normal days. I suspect since going lower carb that maybe I am having too much fat - not sure really! Will track everything.
I just want to find a lifestyle that works too as fairly sure I am Peru- menopausal even tho tests say all normal. Thyroid normal.
While I am sure SW works for some, I hated it and all the idea of Syns etc and eat as many low fat muller yoghurts as you can. It's not for me and my friends who have done it still have to go week in week out to maintain. It feels too restrictive for me.

I would try cutting out as much sugar as possible, that really helped me to shift a bit of weight ( which sadly has come back on due to replacing the calories with nuts and cheese ). I'd also try upping your protein intake - which I know will be a little tricky as a vegetarian, but if you eat eggs should be ok.

So for example your breakfast - the fact it's in a tub suggests it's going to be some form of cereal which are usually pretty sugar laden.

Also cutting out alcohol altogether for a few weeks helps as well. Makes the sugar part seem easy.

Constant battle though .

I am perimenopausal and despite changing nothing in my diet/exercise I have put on over 2 stone which will not shift with the old methods I used when I put on weight when I gave up smoking (3 times...)

I have concluded that to diet I need to consume 1200 calories a day AND do exercise on top.(used to eat back exercise calories and lose weight)

To maintain I probably need to eat 1800.

I just can't do it. I want to eat more food than that. I love cooking. I love food.

I am trying to make peace with my size. It's bloody hard.

1200 calories a day??? I would die! Second the weight training idea though - the more muscle I have, the easier I find it to maintain weight.

Weigh self. Put everything in MyfitnessPal for an entire week. Look at all the reporting that results from it. Then - if you didnt lose weight reduce you calorie allowance in MFP by 3000 over the next 7 days. Again be stringent and enter everything. If you hit that 3000 cal reduction you should have lost 1lb.

You could also manipulate macros as well as cals. But keeping this short.

If you are exercising buy a reliable device to track genuine output - I'd look at a 'polar' watch rather than a fitbit etc.

@chemicalcat, that link you gave about slim veggies was about 7th Day Adventists. They are a really specialist unusual group. they aren't average vegetarians for anyone to study.

fwiw, when I was veggie, living in a house of 10 people, 7 of us were veggie, and the 3 meat eaters all ate a lot more veg than the vegetarians; the vegetarians all filled up a lot on bread. I can't comment on who was fatter, I just noticed the dietary differences. The 3 meat eaters were passionate about needing to eat vegetables every day.

@ OP: I think only way to know what you could different is to be totally honest with yourself & write down everything that passes your lips, and all your activity that is above a 10 minute walk, just for a few weeks, to get a grip on what you could do different.

I don't think that telling a vegetarian that eating dead animals would be better for their health is ever going to work.
Why do people say vegetarians eat crap? Is it because they want to feel better about eating dead stuff themselves?
Humans are much more suited to eating a vegetarian diet.

Are you on any medication? For anything? It's very relevant as I have just worked out that I think me medication caused me to put on two stone (assumed it was giving up smoking) and was stopping me losing weight effectively. After six massively frustrating months of desperate weight loss attempts a simple week of no medication and weight has fallen off! Will see what next week brings! Dr involved obviously as I haven't just decided to take myself off the medication....wish I had known all this six months ago as I have literally cried with frustration some weeks

There's a lot of solid research around fasting diets emerging, and how the little and often approach to food may be misguided. I do 16:8, eat two 600 cal low carb meals a day - one at lunch, one at 6pm - drink loads and loads of water and don't snack. I exercise for an hour five times a week - either HIIT or swimming. I've lost 3 stone since January 9th.

Things I've learned along the way - not yo weigh myself every day, as it can vary by up to half a stone depending on how much water I've drunk and the time of the month.

Water is vital.

You need to really record your calories - I don't do much now as I'm in a groove, I have my recipes that I know work. But you can have a 600 cal meal that is so big you can't finish it, or 600 dead calories that don't fill you up.

Ummmmgogo It's nothing to do with being vegetarian. Most vegetarians are very aware of nutrition and don't eat lots of carbs or stogy food. They also tend to eat huge amounts of vegetables including salads. Or at least the ones I know do.

Fair enough middlingmum. All the ones I know live off shite and are struggling with their weight.

No Ride, I am a healthy bmi and happy with eating dead stuff/corpses/meat, i was just pointing out something I had noticed in an attempt to help the op who sounded distressed about her weight. Have you got any evidence that "humans are more suited to a vegetarian diet"? I thought that that was still being disputed by scientists. www.google.co.uk/amp/www.independent.co.uk/news/science/vegetarians-are-less-healthy-and-have-a-lower-quality-of-life-than-meat-eaters-scientists-say-9236340.html%3Famp

The article you posted states that it is a 'controversial' article. There are many more suggesting the contrary.
Anyway here is an interesting picture that I found to show why I believe humans are more suited to vegetarian diet.

I also found I piled on the weight in my late forties.

I recently had my metabolism checked. I am the same weight as you OP, and my metabolism is 1300 calories a day input just to maintain (with no exercise/sedentary lifestyle) So to lose I have to cut down to 1100 (can't exercise much due to disability)

It's bloody harsh but that's ageing for you