How do I shift this stone?

[WittgensteinsBunny]

I’m 36, 2 dds and think I eat a healthy diet, I’ve started exercising more after a fairly sendatry winter with moving house. 2 years ago when dd2 was a year old I was at my happy weight of 9 stone. Since stopping breastfeeding last summer I just seem to have piled on the weight. I am unhappy. I hate my body.

At Xmas I was 10 stone 2. Since Xmas I’ve given up drinking completely, started exercising. Today I asked them to weigh me at the gym and I’m 10 stone 3. I’m absolutely devastated. I haven’t stopped crying since I left the gym. It’s not muscle. I lose weight when exercising - or at least used to.

I want this stone gone. Please let me know your best weight loss tips. I’m 5’ 5.

Come and join the blood sugar diet thread.

Have you tried downloading my fitness pal or hand writing out everything you eat in day? And I mean everything even if it’s just a piece fo your child’s lunch or similar. You may be eating more than you think, as something is clearly going wrong somewhere!

It could be portion size even?

It's about what you eat. Exercise will keep you strong and fit and lengthen your life but weight loss is mostly diet.

Dieting is pointless. Unless it's a diet for life because in 95% of cases, you'll go back to previous habits and put it all back on. You need a healthy, sustainable lifestyle with good food and plenty of exercise.

What's your diet like atm?

And please don't cry. It's a stone. You can do this. You're attending a gym and making an effort. You're fab. In 6 weeks, you could be a stone lighter. 6 weeks! This is utterly manageable. Getting healthy is something to tackle with joy. It is NOT a punishment. You dis nothing wrong.

The 3 day miltary diet on youtube is the only one that works for me. Three days on, 4 days off till you reach your goal. I lost 4 pounds in 3 days and took a 4 day break, back on it today.

Breakfast:
Slice of toast with butter and jam
Or porridge
Or mushrooms on toast
Coffee with oat milk

Mid morning cup of tea / coffee

Lunchtime
Pitta bread with humous and veg sticks or
Beans (half a tin) on 2 slices of toast or
Sandwich or
Soup and a roll
Glass of water

Afternoon
Cup of tea
Banana or a couple of oat cakes with a spoon of humous

Late afternoon
I probably pick at a couple of bits from the kids dinner - a couple of spoons of pasta or a spare fish finger or
Biscuit / crisps (handful) or fruit

Evening meal
Tofu curry with rice, chicken with 3 small new potatoes and veg, harissa aubergine with cous cous, bean burger with ciabatta roll, salad and sweet potato wedges

Evening
Maybe a biscuit, or 2 small squares of chocolate but not every night.

At the weekend we often have fish and chips or a pizza or brunch out. I don’t have a pudding and I drink water or sometimes something like lemonade.

While you're eating decent food, it's probably too much for you to lose weight. As unpleasant as it is, it's very difficult to lose weight without really really honing in on your food and calorie intake, and we all eat way more than we realise! That fish and chips at the weekend for example could be meaning the whole weekend is a bust in terms of continuing to lose weight.

I can't recommend MyFitnessPal enough. Choose what you want to set as your goal and how many calories you want to eat per day. I'm on 1200, which is the lower end of healthy, but I eat fine and can have three nice meals and a couple of snacks each day under that.

It means I do skip the odd square of chocolate or the extra piece of bread or the chippy because i simply wouldn't be able to eat for the rest of the day if I had chips!

It works, I've lost 6lbs on it over the past two/three weeks with only light exercise.

Losing weight is all about diet so although you're getting fitter, you won't be losing weight until you rein in your portions and food choices.

Your diet is quite high in carbs, I would drop those down and increase protein and healthy fats.

Yes your current diet is a sustaining weight.
My military breakfast is a slice of toast with peanut butter and half a grapefruit and black coffee.
Lunch is a boiled egg witjh toast.
Dinner is hamburger, green beans, half a banana and a cup of ice cream.

Thank you for all of your lovely responses. I probably am too slack with watching what I eat - I just didn’t think I was overeating. I’ve just ordered the Michael Moseley book and I’m going to download MyfitnessPal. I feel like I should know all this stuff but I come from a family where I am the “skinny” one and I know that I’m always middling to upper end of normal. Dh is very slim but gets to exercise more and eat healthier food. He also likes treats in the evening but somehow gets away with it.

Thank you. I am v carb heavy. I’ve also been trying to eat more towards a vegan diet, but that seems very carb heavy and not suited to me at all.

Take out bread and potatoes from your diet but increase other veg and add sunflower, pumpkin, flax seeds to your porridge.

You will see a huge difference quickly.

I had porridge this morning plus coffee and a pint of water mid morning. What would be a good lunch when DD is back from preschool? I’m starting this now.

you need to ditch breakfast and all the snacks.Also ditch the fish and chips and pizza. I think it's pretty obvious why you're not losing weight TBH but it's easily fixed .

I wanted to lose a stone. I dropped carbs completely and joined the gym. Took 10 weeks and it's gone. I really love the gym as well so that probs helped.

I can’t ditch breakfast but I can easily do away with weekend treats and some snacks.

can you carry on as normal but try one fast day a week?

You need to ditch all the snacks. especially if you're eating 3 meals a day

Unfortunately you need to cut the calories. Don’t believe the myth that women need 2000 calories a day, 99% probably need nowhere near that much. Whilst your food diary seems healthy it’s not particularly low calorie and seems to be carb heavy.

Agree ditch the snacks like biscuits and chocolate and picking on leftovers. You're probably eating far more this way than you realise. Speaking from experience

Lunch - i'd go with veg soup and maybe a boiled egg or slice of ham. I am currently trying to shift weight, doing 1200 a day (love MFP) and I try to keep lunch to around 150/200 calories to allow for sensible dinner, smallish breakfast and an evening mini-snack. And keep protein high - only way to not be hungry I found!

You don’t need to ditch breakfast! Things like porridge are absolutely fine. I’ve always eaten breakfast and it’s never stopped me losing weight after my dc.

Nothing wrong with a snack either, but stick to 1 a day (I.e 2 squares of dark chocolate after dinner) That’s what I do and it didn’t do my weight loss after my last dc any harm

Have bread only once a day, so if you have it at breakfast then no more that day. Again this is what I do

Lunch ideas:
Soup is always a good bet
Nothing wrong with beans on toast ( as long as no bread was had at breakfast)
Salad, you can eat as much leaves/cucumber as you like. But watch any dressing you use or have none. Add chicken/tuna/chickpea/cannelloni beans. ( A favourite of mine at the monent is watercress, rocket, spinach, cherry tomatoes, olives, cannelloni beans, few sun dried tomatoes, bit of lemon juice)
If you eat eggs? Omelette is a a good one with salad

NO picking at the dc dinner! Keep them hands to yourself

If you have a burger at dinner, No bun if you have already had bread that day.
Always have 1/2 your plate salad or veg at dinner.

The weekend take away are probably canncelling out all your hard work at the gym. Maybe have a take away once a month Instead?

And water - drink water! Amazing how much "hunger" is actually down to being thirsty!

Ooh don't ditch breakfast! It's really important. And you can have a nice one for a couple hundred calories!

Weigh yourself more often too! Once every week on a Monday, first thing, naked, at home with some decent scales (digital ones). My weight can fluctuate easily half a stone throughout the day depending on what I've eaten, if I'm constipated, how much water I've drank, so I like to weigh myself in the same conditions each week to get an accurate reading. Preferably after a poo if you go in the morning!

Buy a cheap little white board and write down each Monday date over the next two months and record it each week. I hang mine in the kitchen :)

Weekly weigh ins (to be honest I sometimes weigh daily too, not because I'm obsessed but just because I find that if I've gained I notice it straight away and can course correct straight away instead of a week going by and continuing to gain!).

Snacks are fine too. Just get low calorie ones. Previously a snack for me might have been half a tub of Ben and Jerrys now it's a tub of hartleys sugar free jelly which is about five calories! Or a salted oat cake dipped into a soya yoghurt which is about 100 total. Or an apple, banana, mandarin, whatever.

Just make sure whatever you eat goes on MyFitnessPal.