To think “healthy eating” isn’t the best way for lose weight?!

[dontchasewaterfalls]

I did Slimming World for a number of years and I managed to lose 3 stone and keep it off.

Since having my baby at the start of the year, I’ve gained 2 stone.
Since Slimming World classes were shut, and I wanted to try something different, I decided to just try and eat healthily rather than actually following the Slimming World plan.

I’ve been doing this a few months now and I’ve only lost 5lb, which I could easily lose in a week following Slimming World!!

So what exactly am I doing wrong??

Here’s what I’ve eaten today -

Breakfast
Two weetabix, topped with a handful of raspberries and a small banana. (Semi skimmed milk)
Cup of tea.

Lunch
Tuna (1tin made with light mayo) 80g Wholemeal pasta(dried weight) lettuce, tomato, pickled beetroot. Light Mayo.

Dinner
Fajitas.
Chicken breast, peppers, onions, mushrooms (dry fried) 2 x small wholemeal wraps.
Handful grated cheese.

Snacks
Pomegranate seeds
Large orange
Chocolate fudge Alpen light cereal bar

That’s a typical day for me. I do occasionally have some chocolate or a pack of crisps.

Once a week, usually on a Saturday night, we will have a takeaway. Hubby and I will share a pizza and chips, or I will get chicken tikka pieces in a pitta with salad.

I don’t drink any alcohol. I have at most 3 cups of tea a day and the rest of the time I drink water.

I don’t do any organised exercise, but I do go for a walk every day which is usually 45-60 minutes.

I’m not counting any calories, just trying to eat sensibly. But it’s not working well.

What do you think I’m doing wrong?
Should I just go back to Slimming World?

There's nothing wrong with having chocolate or the odd takeaway - in moderation.

If you're running a calorie deficit 6 days a week but enjoy a takeaway on Saturday which pushes you over, you'll still overall lose weight, albeit a little more slowly.

Similarly you can have chocolate every day if you so wish as long as it's within the limits of your calorie intake for the day.

100 calories of chocolate is the same as 100 calories of salad. The salad is overall healthier, but you'll get the same energy from it.

No need to be living off bread and water and lettuce leaves. But if you want to lose weight (faster than you are) then you'll need to look at where you can cut calories from your day. Snacks and treats will be the first things to go since they're usually quite calorific and generally most people like to eat three meals a day, so it's difficult to cut those.

Perhaps try swapping out your current breakfast for eggs. They're filling and full of protein, whilst being low calorie, and there is evidence to show that incorporating eggs into your diet aids with weight loss as they keep you full.

@dontchasewaterfalls yeah I do get hungry, I'm 5ft 10 too which doesn't help!
What does help is saying on a Saturday I can have whatever I want, providing it's one thing. So if all week I've wanted pizza, then on Saturday I can have a pizza. Quite often it gets to Saturday and I then don't want it
I'm a stone down but it's slow going as I have hashimotos and also can't exercise great combo

You also need to know your own metabolic rate (I.e. how many calories your body uses a day). Forget what the “average woman” uses. I’ve been on a diet since June, as a woman who plays football weekly with enough (but not a massive amount) to lose. I stopped losing much despite eating what I thought would put me in a deficit. I had a proper body scan with a trainer and was shocked at how low my metabolic rate was. We’ve worked hardest on increasing that and now still eating the same (enough to keep me satisfied but what I thought then was a deficit) the weight loss is happening. So my advice, don’t make assumptions about your basic metabolic rate (and water and just a 5 min body moving session when you get up can make a huge difference to it.)

100 calories of chocolate is the same as 100 calories of salad. The salad is overall healthier, but you'll get the same energy from it

That's not true. This is where cals in v cals out fails.

It takes far more energy to convert fat into a useable form for the body than to convert sugar. So they have different outputs in the form of potential energy or fat gain.

It's the numbers. I use an app called "LoseIt!". Told it my starting weight, how much I wanted to lose per week and what my goal was. It calculates the calories I needed to get there. If I eat less than my allowance for breakfast, it bumps up the allowance for lunch, dinner and snacks. Everything I eat goes into it, and my FitBit synchs with it to give me bonus calories for exercise. I lost 35 lbs and went past my goal! I go up a couple of pounds, and take it back off pretty easily now, but keep the app. I upgraded up to the premium plan and plan to keep it up for along time. I am a cardiac patient and watch my sodium and sugar, and with this app, I can tell at a glance. I know there are other apps out there and hope you find one that does the trick for you.

My resting metabolism is lower than 2000 kcals a day - maybe 1800? I’ll be older than you I expect but reading your meal list, I’d say that is about at, or even over (on pizza days) the calories you need.

Try to fill up with protein or legumes; make a bean chilli and eat a small amount with salad and a little cheese for lunch.

Breakfast I stew plums or figs in orange juice and cinnamon (I do a batch) and eat a potion (two halves + some juice) with 15g nuts and 100g Fage yoghurt. Or a portion of porridge with 1/2 milk, 1/2 water, cinnamon, blueberries and a tsp peanut butter.

Aim for about 300 kcals per meal/1000 per day.

Weight is a weird thing. I’ve gone from a good size 14 to between a 10-12. My shape has changed too. The things I’m doing differently are walking (a lot, and sometimes up hills); drinking a lot of water; drinking very little alcohol, and only eating apples or a fruit and nut mix in between my normal meals.

But... I’ve only lost 3lb.

I would stick with what you are doing if you are still breast feeding.

You are slowly losing weight and not putting it on so that is fine.

I lost a lot of weight while breast feeding last time (not dieting) and it was not good - I was unhappy and knackered and went off food. Miserable time.

@Lockdownhairdontcare

This all does sound very nice, and healthy.

So where does a takeaway or chocolate (or treat of your liking) fit into your diet? Or doesn’t it?

@dontchasewaterfalls I aim to have one treat a week such as coffee and cake or brunch and then once a month out for a treat meal and drinks or take away.

I am losing weight and make weekend meals more exciting but not necessarily more calorific. Last three Saturdays have been
Fillet steak, sweet potato wedges and salad.
Scallops, 15g chorizo, cherry tomatoes, lemon juice, rocket and whole meal linguine.
Chicken and chickpea curry with brown rice.
All within normal calories so enjoyed coffee and cake on Sunday afternoon.

I joined Weight Watchers for 3 months recently (using the online app) and have lost a stone and a half in that time. I was on the purple plan ( WW is points based) and was given a few extra points as I am still breastfeeding and we need the extra calories.
I was struggling to shift the weight prior to this because I always felt hungry and would snack on silly things.

I wouldn't recommend a big calorie deficit as it can be bad for your milk supply as another poster said. I've lost the weight sensibly and I'm losing 1lb a week which I am happy with.

I made a few small changes like switching from semi skimmed milk to skimmed, having wholemeal pasta/rice and bread instead of white, more veg, cooking with low cal oil, no biscuits or crisps, cut down on meat too.
I'm not on WW now as don't feel I need it anymore and my eating habits are pretty easy to sustain but it definitely kick started it for me.

I don’t think your diet is that healthy. It could certainly be cleaner.

The best way to lose weight outside of diet is exercise of course

If you want to lose weight you are literally consuming to many calories.

You mention every week you are having takeaway pizza, crisps, chocolate, cereal bars, mayo.... and it sounds like your portion sizes are way to big.

I dont want to repeat what others have said but have you thought about using 'shakes'? They are very good at replacing meals, fill you up and are very easy to control calories.

If you have to have pizza, do not have takeaway, make it yourself.

@ZombieFan

If you want to lose weight you are literally consuming to many calories.

You mention every week you are having takeaway pizza, crisps, chocolate, cereal bars, mayo.... and it sounds like your portion sizes are way to big.

I dont want to repeat what others have said but have you thought about using 'shakes'? They are very good at replacing meals, fill you up and are very easy to control calories.

If you have to have pizza, do not have takeaway, make it yourself.

@ZombieFan

I haven’t considered shakes, I think I enjoy food too much to be able to stick at a shakes diet.
I also want to do something a bit more long term, more of a lifestyle change.

I know a lot of people who have had success with shakes, I just don’t think I would be one of them.

@Lockheart I am with you on that.

I would try swapping that lunch for a salad with protein - whatever veg you want, 2 boiled eggs and some chickpeas. Much lower carb and very filling.

I'm going to disagree with other posters and say it is to do with carbs. Technically, it's calories in vs out, but it's much harder to overeat when having chicken salad rather than something carby.

I'm currently eating 1300 - 1500 cals per day and aim for at least 90g of protein within that (trying to lose a couple of pounds) and a typical day when I'm at work looks like this -
Two coffees with almond milk first thing, and a home made green smoothie made with berries, spinach, ginger, cucumber and a smaller banana.

Porridge with half a scoop of protein powder stirred in - sometimes with a square of dark chocolate melted in and peanut butter if I have enough calories left.

For lunch I batch cook things like curry or chilli, 600g of chicken with an onion and half a jar of curry sauce, or 400g of beef mince wuth a tin of kidney beans and some chopped tomatoes and spices makes 4 decent meals, and I have a 3rd of a pack of brown basmati rice with each.

Dinner would be omelette or scrambled egg with ham and cheese, or home made soup with meatballs, sometimes steak and sweet potato wedges with lots of green veg.

I don't snack but DO have the odd takeaway , and when I do I get whatever I like as once every few weeks doesn't make much difference!

I generally try to have protein with every meal and cook from scratch where possible.

I also aim for 10000 steps a day and weight train 2 or 3 times a week.

My maintenance calories are 1600-1700 because I'm short but when I've got rid of the last couple of pounds I'm still planning to aim for just under that so I can continue to have the odd guilt free whole stuffed crust pizza to myself

Cut back the carbs, massively.

Don't think of bread as being healthy, it isn't. Remove bread entirely from your diet. Also remove sugar and alcohol from your diet. Fruit, no more than once every two days (as it's high sugar).

Also, milk is high sugar. Unsweetened almond milk or oat milk is better. You're having a lot of milk in your diet, e.g. with the cups of tea and weetbix.

Make at least half your plate up with vegetables, and have a protein serve with every meal. Veges and protein, every meal. So breakfast becomes egg, feta and capsicum. Or porridge with peanut butter. Lunch becomes a huge salad with zucchini and a tin of tuna. Afternoon tea, 10 nuts. Dinner, meat and salad or vegetables. For lunches you can add brown rice or quinoa.

Just get those carbs out.

The weight will fall off.

I know a lot of people who have had success with shakes, I just don’t think I would be one of them.
Fair enough. But I didn't think I would either. Just replacing one meal a day with a shake made a big difference. They fill you up, taste good and are low calories.

Just saying maybe give them a try.

Op, it looks like you're losing just under half a pound a week. You are wondering why this is so.

It's all about the numbers.

I'm going to give some numbers to show you why/how you're losing less than half a pound a week. This isn't tailored for you as i don't know your circumstances, but is an example of how to look at your calorie intake. Note I am not a doctor, dietician or PT and you should contact one or more of these if you are concerned.

• So you may need to eat/drink about 2400 calories per day to maintain your current weight, assuming you are about 150 pounds, are not muscular and don't have an active job/lifestyle (this assumes you do 45 minutes of walking per day at 'dog walking pace' which burns 200 calories, plus allows an extra 200 cals per day for non-exclusive breastfeeding of about 400ml milk per day, which my brief research says is normal for 9 month olds).

• That is, if you were going to stay the same weight as you are now, you would eat about 2400 calories per day on average.

• But you have said you don't want to stay the same weight (or 'maintain'). Rather, you want to lose weight.

• Science says that to lose a pound a week, you need to eat about 3500 calories per week less than your 'maintenance' amount.

• So to lose half a pound a week, you would eat about 1750 per week less than your 'maintenance' amount. That works put to eating an average of 250 calories per day less than your 'maintenance' calories.

• Assuming your 'maintenance' calories are 2400 per day, then 2400 - 250 = 2150

• So, if you eat 2150 calories on average per day across the week you should lose about half a pound that week.

How does that match with what you're eating?

I've just put your given day's food intake into MyFitnessPal and it's about 2100 cals. Obviously I've had to make some assumptions about weight and type of food. But let's assume that figure is broadly accurate.

So let's asse you eat 2100 cals per day on average for 6 days per week.

Then one day a week you eat 2700 cals as you have takeaway (half a pizza express chicken supreme and 150g of chips added to the breakfast, lunch and snacks you gave would be about 2700 calories for that day).

So your average calorie intake per day is 2185 (ie 6 days at 2100 plus one day at 2700 ie 15300/7 = 2185 average per day).

As I said above, you'd expect to lose about half a pound a week if you ate 2150 cals on average per day.

You're losing just under that - which about right as you're eating slightly more cals.

Like I said, it's all about the numbers .

To answer your question though, healthy eating isn't the best way. Exercise is. I'd go mad waiting for the weight to come off without exercise. Do some deadlifts.

So, is eating healthily important? Yes, because you want to get enough vitamins, minerals, and good quality fat, protein and carbs.

It is the 'best way to lose weight? No, a calorie deficitvis the best (and only) way to lose weight.

How to create a calorie deficit?

One or more of:

• increase your 'base' calorie burn ie the calories you use outside of exercise - maybe by more incidental movement like walking up elevators and/or building more muscle through doing weights or weight bearing exercises ( ironically, losing weight reduces 'base' calorie burn primarily because moving around uses less calories and there's less body area your body needs to heat to keep warm as you get smaller );

• eat fewer calories

• exercise more

Another option is intermittent fasting. I do something similar (well not lately because I'm being a fat cow!).

I'd get up for work late morning and have a banana and coffee or protein shake. I'd then only have a tiny snack until after work, at which point I'd scoff almost all my daily calories within a few hours.

I found it much easier to resist temptation knowing I had a massive pig out that evening and I'd often fill up quickly if I'd not eaten much in the day. I find it much harder having three unsatisfying meals and going to bed hungry as opposed to 'waiting for the porkout'.

It's likely that over thousands of years of evolution we didn't adhere to set mealtimes and would've eaten once we'd caught/foraged food.

Well, the thing about places like Slimming World or WW is that people who lose on them typically gain back in time often gaining back more. Whereas a real change to a healthy but satisfying diet, even if it's only losing 5 lbs a week, is much more likely to be permanent.

Also - breastfeeding, despite what many people tell you, can cause you to lose more slowly. Your body needs to hold onto fat to produce milk. If you are losing, albeit slowly, eating a healthy diet, and producing milk, without being hungry, I think you are doing very well. It's not a great idea to try and do a fast slimming diet while you are breastfeeding unless it's very urgent for health reasons.