to think i can lose weight on a balanced diet

[lemondropcake]

Over the last few years I piled on 2.5 stone due to stress. My circumstances then changed for the good and I have maintained my weight for the last year.
I'm 5'3 and weigh 13.7 stone and I'm a size 16 - not good!

Phisically I'm really fit, I walk seven miles a day, usually 17,000 steps on average. I'm a postie.

My diet is similar to this everyday

Breakfast: large bowl of cerial with semi skimmed milk and a diet energy drink
lunch: cuppa soup and a tub of pineapple
dinner: a very large dinner of something like homemade curry, minni naan. Rice and three popadums. Or something like two chicken fajita wraps with potato wedges and salad.
snacks tend to be fruit or an ice Lolly.

I hate the thought of going on a proper diet like slimming world, is it possible to lose weight on a balanced diet with exercise?

Hmmm.... I'm surprised you're overweight with that diet 😕

Unless you're adding 500ml of double cream to that curry it's pretty healthy. Certainly should be possible to eat that on 17,000 steps !

Is there some hidden fat/sugar ? 3 mars bars on the way round delivering ?

I'm stumped too. Sometimes at the weekend we eat out but I never have pudding, I have the odd fruity cider, twice a week. Not eating any crap through the week but my portions are big, my excuse being that I walk a lot. I guess that's why I've maintained. Perhaps I just need to have a smaller plates and let myself be hungry.

I should add that when I piled all the weight on I was having one or two takeaways a week, massive portions. I would eat a family sharing bag of sweets or crisps at least once a week. I don't do that now.

I'm. Surprised you aren't losing weight if that's all you eat and you exercise with all the walking. How old are you? Have you tried keeping a food diary to see if there are extras you aren't really thinking about?

Just eat less. You sound like you're eating healthily.

(Although, "diet energy drink" sounds shit.)

Also, "an ice lolly." A bit shit, especially if it's a Magnum!

If you put the weight on with take aways then now you've stopped you surely just have to wait til your body loses it?

I don't know about you but I put on weight easily and lose it slowly , like mind numbingly slowly

How about instead of making your portions smaller you add in loads of vegetables to your curry or fajitas?

I think you should do nothing apart from continue your healthy diet and then re weigh in a couple of months. I'd also be ruling out other explanations like thyroid?

Reduce your carbs and increase your protein and veg. Carbs make you hungry, if you eat less you will want less, although you may take a week or so to adjust.

Portion size is doing for you.

You say a "very large dinner". With the curry, rice AND naan AND poppadom that could easily top 1000cals. Large bowl of cereal plus milk plus energy drink could easily be another 600, plus lunch etc. 17,000 steps will only burn around 600cals plus your basal rate of about 1500, and you're easily over your calorie needs every day.

Get a pair of electronic kitchen scales for a tenner and weigh every single morsel that goes into your mouth, in combination with MyFitnessPal. It will likely blow your mind. It did mine when I used it properly. Portion size is EVERYTHING!

Are you having your 10 a day? Fruit and veg.

I wonder if your carb portion size is massive?

Also lollys are crap. Maybe swap for melon or kiwi

Try myfitness pal app, its a callirie counter, it gives you daily targets, but you can eay normal food and still have treats. Lost loads of weight for my wedding with it.

Walking isn't good for weight loss...steady state cardio maintains cardiovascular health but won't shift weight. Add in some HIIT 3 times a week, and substitute some of your carbs for protein, and I bet it drops off. Good luck!

hate the thought of going on a proper diet like slimming world, is it possible to lose weight on a balanced diet with exercise?

Yes. I've used myfitnesspal to help me rejig my portion sizes, and became more active. It's worked, and no weight watchers meetings were involved.

I lost 1.5 stones over a year which has put me back into both "healthy" BMI range and a smaller dress size, and have kept it off for a further year by changing my diet. I cut out sugary snacks and puddings, and cut right back on bread products and alcohol. We'd crept into the habit of having a glass of wine or a cider just about every evening after work and it's amazing how those empty calories add up. I also tend to use a smaller portion of a full fat item than the low-fat version which is full of sugar to compensate.

Could you swap your cereal (which could be full of hidden sugars) for something like scrambled egg, and have only one carb at teatime...so rice OR naan, wrap OR wedges rather than both?

Why don't you eat much earlier in the day, apart from the pineapple you're existing all day on a bit of processed rubbish. You must be starving by your evening meal which is why you overeat.

Slimming World can and should be a proper balanced diet with lots of veg and protein if you do it properly. Mug shots and muller lights are optional.

How much pineapple are you eating? It's one of the more sugary fruits.

I now weigh the same as I did pre dd 😃I lost 2 stone baby weight between 2nd of Jan and now, and I've cut nothing out just have small portions of some things.

Yesterday ( working day) I had
Breakfast. Full fat Greek yoghurt, pineapple, melon
Lunch salad chicken wrap & a small piece of flapjack from the sandwich man
Dinner was 1/2 a pizza with huge salad

Today ( no work)
Breakfast 2 eggs scrambled, 1 wholemeal toast
Lunch veg soup, apple & orange
Dinner lentil and sausage stew
Dessert as it's a weekend I will treat myself to Greek yoghurt & pineapple with grated da ark chocolate on top

Are your portions too big? You could try weighing and scanning your good in to my fitness pal

It's like your breakfast cereal, the calories on the box for a "portion" will be for around 30g you could be easily be eating much more than that

I also wonder if your dinners are just huge portions, maybe start weighing a pack portion size until you know from mind what a portion is

I tried lots of times to lose weight. The only way I managed was to track everything via my fitness pal app. I was shocked at how many calories were in some things!

It really does help. I still had treats, but a balanced diet overall. I lost 2.5 stone just with MFP and walking. Best of all I didn't reduce my intake drastically or stay away from treats, and now maintaining weight after the weight loss isn't difficult.

Lots of luck x

How large a bowl of cereal? And what type? Could be 500 calories of sugar just there. Swap to fruit and yoghurt or porridge or even bacon and eggs.

Eat more at lunch. Swap your cuppa soup for a big bowl of homemade soup.

Then you might not need a big portion at teatime. More protein, less carbs.

I think reduce your carbs a bit (not entirely) and substitute with veg or fruit. So if you had a curry take half your normal portion of rice away and put a bit of extra veg to make up the difference. Same with the large bowl of cereal, take a bit away ftom that and add a handful of strawberries etc. And then reduce your over all portion sizes a wee bit. I don't think your current diet sounds excessive at all (apart from large portions at a push - depends what you mean by large). If you are already able to stay off the pud then that's great. I am very impressed with your 7 miles walking a day, that would kill me!! Good luck

Frouby has a good point about the cereal - the amount of difference in sugar between a bowl of coco pops and a bowl of weetabix for example is huge.

Like others, MFP is the way to go.

A large bowl of cereal can be a lot of sugar/calories. Weight it. Don't have more than 50/60g gram serving, with a banana and try almond milk instead of semi-skimmed.

Cut out the poppadoms! Weight out the rice try to have no more than 100-150g. Add more chicken and veg to fill you up.

Cut out "diet" drinks. They're full of crap.

I've lost 2 stone in a year by eating a or less, mainly by reducing carbs, snacks and increasing protein. I still have a biscuit most days with tea and small bag of crisps or similar some days. It's definitely doable!! Good luck

Well, I can see a few problems.

Breakfast sounds fine but ideally porridge or eggs would fill you up more and be a bit healthier.

Lunch is tiny - why not a salad, or proper soup instead of a package of power?

Dinner - three lots of carbs at one meal is a lot. Rice, plus poppadoms and a naan isn't really necessary - why not just have curry + one carb instead of all three.

Try MyFitnessPal and weigh everything. You'd be surprised how much sugar/empty calories are in a bowl of cereal, for example, or fruit.