To ask for your help to sort my diet out

[Worthygirl]

Aibu to ask for your help to lose weight.

I exercise a lot but am not losing any weight and I am fairly sure the ‘80% diet, 20% exercise rule applies to me’. I am virtually vegan apart from eating eggs so I think my diet is too carb heavy (and also too crap heavy!)
This is what I have eaten today:

• 30g oats with raisins, cashews, a chopped up apple, oat milk & soya yoghurt
• lentil & tomato soup with half a baguette
• fruit flapjack
• veg chilli with vegan cheese & a slice of bread
• 2 rich tea biscuits

Is this way too carb heavy? I am 45 so finding it harder to lose weight anyway & at the moment 5:2 (which worked before) just makes me feel unwell so trying to eat a balanced diet.

Am I getting it really wrong?

Don't ask people on here OP - they all seem to live off a tiny number of calories a day and think everyone else should too.

If you really want to count calories, I would work out what the maintenance calories are for the weight you think you should be at and just eat that amount - weight loss may be slower, but it will be a lot more sustainable than eating 800-1000 calories per day (seriously, wtf?).

Personally I would take a look at Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole, or Just Eat It by Laura Thomas (a swearier version of the same thing).

Your diet sounds similar to mine and I maintain a healthy weight - you don't need to starve.

Apologies to those who have given sensible advice - I took ages to write my post and quite a few people posted in the meantime.

Worth mentioning maybe that running 5k twice a week probably burns around 600 calories, so not that much.

Agree with all the pp saying your calorie count cannot be at all accurate and you're underestimating how much you eat in a day. Are you definitely weighing and measuring everything accurately and keeping a daily food journal?

Anything with refined sugar (flapjack, rich tea biscuits), and 'empty' (little nutritional value), calories in the form of refined carbs (baguette, slice of bread), will scupper your best efforts as well.

I am similarly trying to stick to a healthier diet. As a quick example, I make a nutty porridge for breakfast every morning that sounds similar to yours and is exactly 250kcal:-

• 20g porridge oats
• 5g ground flaxseeds
• 5g ground hazelnuts
• 10g flaked almonds
• 10g sultanas
• 200ml unsweetened roasted almond milk

With the extra 10g oats, apple etc you're adding, I think your version would come in at well over 300kcals.

Ugh, 800-1000 kcal per day is RIDICULOUS! Agree with @littlepeas that lifestyle change and habitual diet change at a 'maintenance' level of kcal is a lot more manageable and likely to work long-term.

Swap the flapjack/biscuits for a piece of fruit if you want a sweet taste; chew and savour meals for longer; drink lots of water and factor in a treat every now and again.

Tbh Worthy I could not lead my sedentary life on 1000 calories. If you run or do HIIT every day, I don't think that's enough.
I am sedentary ( aged 51)- I don't even work- I do one training session of swimming per week- hardcore burning about 500 calories- but I absolutely have to eat at least those extra 500 calories to fuel my training. Otherwise there's no energy for my muscles and I bonk (like a cyclist!).
1370 calories is my basal metabolic rate but
1880 is my maintenance calories and that's the figure to calculate from.
. So, if I'm managing to consume fewer than 1200 net per day, that's approx 5000 calorie deficit per week but it is giving me good weight loss.
How long have you been at it for??? Maybe it takes a few weeks to kick in on the scales???

Ditch the raisins, flapjacks and rich tea then eat some vegetables.

Exercise sounds good but each session is quite short. Could you fit in some longer (45-60 min) sessions and/or some longer runs?

But any diet is shit unless there some of the fun stuff in there anyway.

If your hitting your protein and nutrition goals and under on you carbs and calories its all good

So you’ve got lots of sensible advice OP.

• @wingbing is correct, your exercise isn’t going to burn off much

• 1000 calories isn’t enough to sustain you

Eat a sensible amount for a sustained period and you’ll lose weight. Add exercise and you’ll feel better.

I don't really know why people would feel it's useful to say that 1000 cals per day is pointless, too low etc etc.

The OP asked how to lose weight - it's simple math that to lose weight you need a calorie déficit. And if deficit is below 1000 cals then so be it.

People always try and put a moral spin on weight loss and it's really not about that!

@halfwitpicker yes if you can sustain less than 1000 calories a day you’ll lose weight but that’s really hard and probably not healthy.
The replies are not to do with morals it’s to do with science.

Isn’t the point of doing hiit that you don’t need to do such long sessions? I sometimes do an hour of Zumba too but don’t have a lot of time to do loads of long workouts tbh

That's what I just said, windy one!

I think you are really underestimating your calories and you should Try a different app, you will probably be surprised at how much over you are consuming.
260 for cheese but then chilli & bread seems like more than the 400 cals, half a baguette and flapjack are calorific, breakfast seems more like over 300 cals-assuming only 8 cashews & tiny amount of raisins & yogurt. Are you using manual or digital scales?

@halfwitpicker sorry, I was just saying 1000 calories is not healthy. A calorie deficit is of course how one looses weight, you are correct.

@worthygirl if you want to lose weight then concentrate on your calorie intake. Its really hard to do enough to exercise to work off many calories

@bringback I use an electronic scales. I use the nutracheck app which is fine and accurate as far as I can tell. Am going to measure everything really accurately tomorrow and see what it comes out at

Op your way way off on your calorie counter, your porridge alone is approx. 120 calories assuming no fat added, then 95 for your apple. Add in raisins, cashews, milk and yoghurt, you're at least at 400, if not more.

Then your lunch, it's 144 just for the baguette, then say 200-300 for the soup depending on the portion size, then add in all your snacks, your biscuits and flapjack, probably another 300

That's befor your dinner with cheese and bread, I reckon you're a min of 2000 a day, and hence why you're not loosing weight.

I don’t mean to pile on, but I’m just saying this because of all the unhealthy suggestions of 800-1000 calories- I also think you are counting wrong. My bowl of oats, skim milk and a few sultanas counts for more than 300, never mind the rest of the stuff. I would then have the fruit and nuts as a mid morning snack counting as another 200. I’m small (5’1, 52 kg) but if I track carefully I can lose weight on 1550 cal a day.

@amicissima you are telling OP not to rely on other people’s assessment of a reasonable calorie intake and then go on to tell the OP what you think a reasonable calorie intake should be.
If the OP isn’t losing weight she needs to cut her calorie intake - that is clear. So accurately record calories in - no weight loss - reduce calories in. Ta dah!

@bluntless @zinn So I just weighed everything out and it came to 295 calories - I only have very small amounts of raisins and cashews and a dessert spoon of soya yoghurt. The apple was 51 calories for a 114g apple. I dont think I am wildly overcounting and it certainly wasn’t a 400 calorie breakfast. Unless the nutracheck app is wrong but I use it to bar code scan products in shops and its always spot on.

50cals at every meal will kill your deficit

Honestly ignore all this and go look up Richie Howie, of course if you don't eat you will be skinny but what you really want at your age is bone and muscle density and a decent diet. You don't want to be crumbling away in old age.

Also living on 1000 calories is bloody miserable. I know people who do it and they're bloody miserable too. It's ok short term but not sustainable long term and if you reset your body to that as an intake you will just pile weight back on if you go back to trying to eat normally.

Your 5k run will each burn about 300 calories. Can you do some more weight based exercise preferable heavy weights but even more hiit with squats etc - it will build muscle and burns calories afterwards. Plus the more you run the more efficient you get at it and the longer you need to run for weight loss.

Running is still great for you though so not knocking it.

@amicissimma

Exactly spot on
Every thread like this goes the same way.. Apparently I am spouting ridiculous dangerous opinion... No.. I know my own body.. I am an example of how a light bulb moment 10odd yrs ago made me stop yo yo dieting, stopped my awful relationship with food and made me realise to lose weight you need to eat less calories.. Actually quite a lot less.
I lost five stone, kept it off, enjoy food now and feel fit healthy and happy.
And yes I eat roughly 1000cal a day.