To think I can eat this and lose weight?

[bendywendygivemeablast]

Struggling to lose half a stone🙄

I do a spin class every day for 30 mins, this is what I ate today and kind of typical for me:

Breakfast
1 slice low carb bread with peanut butter
2 black coffees

Snacks:
1 Maryland cookie
2segments of chocolate Orange

Dinner:
Salmon fillet
Jacket potato with cheese
Roasted broccoli and cauliflower with grated parmesan

AIBU to think even with the two naughty slip ups I should still be able to lose weight given that I exercise every single day?!

Lunch?
5 a day?

Another one adding that you aren't eating enough.

I have followed restrictive diets for many years, they do work in the short term I have never managed to keep the weight off as it isn't sustainable.

18 months ago I took up weight/strength training alongside cardio based HIIT workouts. I followed a meal plan that I thought would be impossible to lose weight on as the portions were much more than I was used to. Here I am now 2 stone lighter and actually maintaining a weight loss for the first time in my life.

Important things are to eat reduced carb meals (note reduced not never at all) unless it is the meal after you have exercised, this meal is important to include carbs as your muscles need them to repair. Also, protein is super important as it keeps you full between meals and stops you going to the snack cupboard.

It does take a long time to get out of the mindset of restrictive eating if you are so used to it but hoenestly, I hope I never have to count another calorie again.

@Skeumorph

Cut the major carbs and/or try intermittent fasting.

That would be my first step.

Both would easily see you eat MORE than you have on that list.

That's what I was thinking - low carb bread is not worth it!

OP could have the jacket potato with e.g. cottage cheese (a small one) and maybe baked beans for lunch if she so desired or have a huge one for dinner with salad. There is also no need for grated parmesan on veggies. And try Cathedral City lighter for low cal cheese.

Cut out the cookie and have one if any segment of chocolate orange!

I also think her main meal would be hard to digest so if she puts lunch in then the main meal will be easier to digest.

Add some fruit in too, e.g. banana or plums.

@LaChanticleer

I can't exercise much so walking only. I do at least 10,000 steps most days

10,000 steps is the minimum anyone should do for general health. It's a minimum, not a goal! A goal might be 20 to 25,000 steps.

Cheers for that, I said I couldn't exercise much so maybe think about that before you come back with shitty responses.

Find an app called MacroFactor. Put in the details it asks for. Then log your food for a few weeks and find out how over/under recommended intake you are for losing the amount you wish to lose. It takes the guesswork out. It does it slowly. It's not a PITA to log, not anywhere near as much as I thought it was. I despise noom, ww etc - this is not some miracle thing, it's just a way to actually work out roughly what you're eating and what tips you over into not losing. It could be something really seemingly insubstantial. I've been doing it over 2 months now alongside weight training and general life craziness and it's very helpful.

Just to add, I try and eat veg etc but it doesn't tell you what to eat - just calories, protein, carbs and fat. You can tailor the quantities of each to the kind of food you want to include, to a certain extent, but I've found I'm always over on fat and a bit under on protein and overall it hasn't mattered - I've steadily lost, aside from Christmas weeks when I didn't restrict (but still logged for accuracy) and also had covid, which made me want to eat extra, so I did. I probably regained maybe a kilo and I didn't stress over it. It's a v well designed app.

@VelvetChairGirl "you eat more then me a day and I'm a size 12, just saying, I dont do any classes, I just walk to the school and back 3 miles each way without the child he demands to take the tube there and back, I lift wieghts twice a week and do 100 sit ups a day, as well as just generally dance round the kitchen and doing the shopping and house work."

Really not a healthy or helpful reply!

I'm a size 10 and eat about 3 times as much as OP and haven't exercised for bloody ages!

@ikeabag that's really good advice. I did the same with my FitBit - I lost around 15 kilos (not a huge amount, I was stout, but not obese) by being accountable to myself.

It was a bit of a faff to start out, because I was careful and weighed every bloody thing I ate, and as I generally cook from scratch, at first it was a bit fussy for me (how do you log home-made cheese sauce? Well, you log the butter, flour, milk and cheese separately ...)

But once I'd got a routine - like you, it took about 2 weeks - I could log regular meals as a single entry, so it got easier.

The macros are interesting. Like you, I found that I had to really up my protein, and my predilection for cheese (to give flavour to steamed broccoli, for example) upped my fat. But it made me really have to be accountable for junk food, and empty calories. I was also starting to train hard at the gym - a mix of v heavy weights and metcon work, as well as Pump classes and Pilates for relaxation - and I now have a much leaner body, with visible muscles everywhere, and am very strong.

But I got a bit slack over December - winter, a tough year, lockdowns, and so on - so I'm about to go strict again, and work out a daily deficit to hit. Not much - usually around 250-500 calories a day. Slow & steady. Bring on the 0% Fage Greek yoghurt and broccoli & fish (actually I love all the lean protein, so it's no hardship!)

You don’t eat enough food so your body is in starvation mode clinging onto fat for survival. One slice of toast is not enough breakfast and you don’t have lunch. This isn’t healthy.

You need to calorie count for a week to see how many calories you are actually ingesting. Its very easy to get it horribly wrong.

I am doing 12 12 intermittent fasting. I can sneak in a weekly packet of crisps and the odd day of a chocolate eclair toffee as a treat. I am losing a pound a week. Like you I wish to lose just a little.

I have reduced but not eliminated carbs.

@Hemingwayzcatz
Starvation mode is a myth, no such thing

At a guess, (depending on size of jacket potato, how much cheese etc), I reckon that's about 1200 - 1300 calories a day. A 30 min spin class probably burns max 200 calories (my 45 min class burns about 250 calories going by my FitBit). Basically, the biscuit and chocolate is cancelling out your spin class. I'd try to substitute those, even a Slimfast shake for lunch would be better and more filling.

People who do low/er carbs.. what on earth do you eat mid afternoon, when you’re craving something sweet?? I’d normally reach for cake or biscuits or chocolate.. but what are the alternatives?

@ColdTattyWaitingForSummer

People who do low/er carbs.. what on earth do you eat mid afternoon, when you’re craving something sweet?? I’d normally reach for cake or biscuits or chocolate.. but what are the alternatives?

Initially if you really just want something sweet then pick a fruit with a lower GI like melon or blueberries. If you’re actually hungry (different for most people), then pick snacks chicken, a hard boiled egg, small handful of nuts, peppers and carrots with hummus.

Once you cut out refined sugar, you stop craving it after a while, so it doesn’t feel like a treat you’re missing out on.

@bendywendygivemeablast

Struggling to lose half a stone🙄

I do a spin class every day for 30 mins, this is what I ate today and kind of typical for me:

Breakfast
1 slice low carb bread with peanut butter
2 black coffees

Snacks:
1 Maryland cookie
2segments of chocolate Orange

Dinner:
Salmon fillet
Jacket potato with cheese
Roasted broccoli and cauliflower with grated parmesan

AIBU to think even with the two naughty slip ups I should still be able to lose weight given that I exercise every single day?!

Can you please tell me how you make low Carb bread, and how many grams of carbs are in it? Thanks

There are loads of recipes online for low carb bread - just Google and try one you like the sound of. Or buy it:
lowcarbfood.co/shop-category/baked-goods/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAuP-OBhDqARIsAD4XHpcZjAV56Mqh0dUnYGW0mTXoZYULi1fmyfBG5_7miwIc7wlbBGudumgaAjSREALw_wcB

@ComtesseDeSpair I thought that might be the case it’s definitely a case of a sweet tooth / sugar cravings for me..

That doesn’t seem like hardly any food at all to me, but I’m struggling to lose weight and I exercise so maybe I am over eating if this is your usual daily food!