To expect to be just a little bit thin ?!

[shouldntbeonhereagain]

I have been doing the following each week since November:
5x 1hr yoga/Pilates sessions
2-3 runs of between 5-8k
Dog walk everyday plus 10k once a week
HIT sessions of 45mins x2

I am 41 and have 4 kids between 9 and 2.

so fed up !

It will depend on your diet, as PP have mentioned.

Also - how skinny do you want to be? Have you ever had a skewed version of how slim you should be? What dress size are you? It doesn’t sound as though your horrifically overweight 🤔

Omg dont compare yourself to your poor sick sisters then! :(
youre the right age for herion chic chaos- we KNOW how sick a lot of those girls were :(
maybe you speak to a councillor as you maybe don't recognise your own size ( and thats a lot of working out ) *
im the same weight as you and 3 inches shorter and im feeling amazing haha

*said with care

I wonder if you also have issues with body image OP?

I do less exercise than that, eat three meals a day and snack... I'm just over 9 stone and 5 4 and I'm 8 years older than you ... but I've never dieted like never ever... Think this makes the difference tbh. I have a good relationship with food, like eating mostly eat what I fancy which is largely in the unprocessed normal food category (too much wine and Percy pigs though) not huge portions..varied. I think looking at your attitude to food and what you eat might help?

I know it doesn’t help that my 3 sisters have eating disorders and are literally tiny. Rationally, I know that isn’t enviable.Sometimes I wish I could look like them though.

I would be concerned about your own eating / body image too.

I would imagine you are very slim, based on your measurements. I'm 9 stone at 5 ft 3 & am slim, very toned, strong.

I exercise intensively daily, and mix it with strength / core work & walk a lot. I know I can be obsessive about exercise but what you say you do is way more & with 4 DC as well, you must be shattered.

If you get the Guardian, there's a really good supplement with it today, on healthy eating. It's worth looking at.

You cannot focus just on calorie intake. It must be about the quality of what you eat & how you eat. Intermittent fasting can also be problematic if not aligned with your lifestyle. For example, I exercise at 6 am daily. I have to eat something small first, then I'm not hungry afterwards for about 1 hour. Trying to do IF would be really hard for me as I get up so early & need to eat at that point. What does help (in terms of bloating / digestion) is if I can finish eating completely by 6. Often not possible tho

Do you mind if I ask you what IF plan you follow?

Exactly 🙌

11st and 5'7 is a very healthy weight and size (probably smallish size 12?).

I spent six months losing 2st to get to a very similar position and am chuffed! I'm not stick thin but I am slim again now and have received nice compliments about it.

When you are already a good weight for your height, losing more gets harder which is a sign that you don't need to!

Maybe pay for a one off session with a dietician or a nutritionist?

Maybe you're food choices aren't compatible with your exercise regime.

I only lost weight when I changed my diet and didn’t do as much exercise- if any at all! It’s pretty much all about diet unfortunately

I do a body weight class 3 times a week, spin class twice a week, lift weights three times a week. I don't walk enough which I could improve but I just struggle for time.
I eat between 1400 and 1600 calories a day, high protein, low carb.
I weight almost 12 stone currently and I am losing but it's so slow. This past 3 weeks I've lost and regained the same 2lbs repeatedly. It's soul destroying.
I'm 42 and I find it so hard to lose weight. Last month I had friends staying so I ate and drank and didn't exercise for the long weekend and I gained 6lbs in 5 days.
About 5 years ago I lost almost 5 stone but I put 3 back on over the pandemic. And it's much harder to lose this time round. Last time I easily lost 2lbs a week but now I'm the wrong side of 40 it's just a battle.

Exercise alone won’t make you lose weight, it’s all about what you eat. And even then it’s harder when you’re over 40. Exercise has many benefits, but in my experience losing weight isn’t one of them.

I think we were all sold a lie when we were told we’re supposed to eat three meals a day. If ate three meals a day I’d be huge, even if they were healthy meals.

Exercise is for fitness. To lose weight, change what and how much you eat.

because you’re not in a calorie deficit

Pretty much this. I do CrossFit and then basically controlled my portions a lot and it really helped. When I did loads of exercise but ate what I liked, I even put on weight.

I have PCOS and I can diet until the hills come home and not lose weight. I can lose weight with exercise though.

That amount of exercise should make a difference. It is slower than dieting but easier to maintain. Don’t get disheartened!

My PT got me doing loads of the weights machines. It was the only time I ever have seen proper results from exercise. You need to really work your muscles hard.

A lot depends on your starting point. If you're already eating a good diet that suits you well, then "it" will be mostly about exercise! If you're eating a poor diet then you'll need to sort that out as soon as possible. But be very careful about "counting calories". A restricted diet can easily leave you short of essential nutrients and make you ill. Balance is key.
But what's your goal? Do you want to be more healthy? Or are you looking for an excuse for a new set of clothes? Be careful whose advice you take.

Yoga/Pilates is good exercise but probably not much in terms of calorie burn. A dog walk is at what speed and how many miles? A year ago I was running 80 miles a week and didn't lose weight. It's really mostly about what you eat. Calorie counting is pretty useless long term, it's best to eat healthier - mostly fibre so lots of plants, very little sugar, avoid food made from refined grains, eat good fats... that way you will feel fuller for longer. Intermittent fasting too. After 40 you really need to eat a lot less than you did before to keep a stable weight.

I couldn't exercise my weight off. But when I gave up alcohol and refined sugar the weight did shift.

After 40 you really need to eat a lot less than you did before to keep a stable weight.

There is so much incorrect information on this thread.

This may be true for some people. However it's not magically to do with 40 as an age. Generally, people in their 40s and later, expend less energy, tend to be less active overall, as child rearing responsibilities start to ease up. People often don't notice that change & don't adjust their diet.

However the word generally is key: many people are doing just as much or more in their 40s, and possibly exercising intensively. ** They don't need less food, but maybe different types of food or a different pattern of eating, often linked with hormonal changes at that time too.

The other point on so many threads including this one is that 'you won't lose weight with exercise'. Baldly, that's true: you might burn between 250 and 450 calories in a CV exercise session but if you are eating unhealthily, you'll easily offset that. A few glasses of wine, a doughnut or two, or a big plate of pasta and you will consume those calories used by exercising.

But the broader story is that people who exercise will tend to eat better, not consume the food that leads to weight gain, will develop muscle (which burns more calories), will lose fat rather than tissue, if engaging in high intensity exercise will enhance their metabolic rate so that they continue to burn calories after exercise, and will have a better body shape so look leaner & toned.

Like everything it's very individual. I absolutely believe the people who say they don't lose weight with exercise & have to modify their diet. For some people, eating restrictively works for them (their personality, lifestyle, their body). But there's far too little recognition that what works for one person won't for another. Tuning into how your own body works, and what allows you to feel sated, strong & able to be active should be at the core of how people decide to eat.

I exercise daily, for a long time & know a core group of people who are all slim & toned. But they also look differently & from chatting to them I know they eat differently to me & each other too. Eg I need to eat something small before I work out or would collapse. Others couldn't face anything. Someone else needs to eat straight after our class whereas I can't eat for a good hour and so on.

The other broad truth is that people who eat very restrictively eg cutting out food groups; being very rigorous with intermittent fasting and so on, statistically find it hard to stick to. Of course individuals might but overall it's hard to maintain & when people stop restricting their diet, they often go back to eating unhealthily - so many posts on MN talking about losing significant amounts of weight then putting it back on at a later point.

And thanks to the nightmare of the app at present, none of my paragraphs show up here so apologies for that wall of text.

Well done, that’s incredible and I’m seriously jealous of that motivation of yours!!the hardest thing is the exercise and sounds like you’ve nailed that! Things I think would make a difference to you losing a bit of weight would be:

1. drink only water and occasionally milk
2. Minimise any snacking between three meals
3. cook as much from scratch as possible