I'm gaining weight on a diet?

[Tigerbus]

Despite eating a better diet and moving more than I did 3-5 years ago I'm gaining weight?!

I'm about 5'6 and weighed nearly 9 stone 3 -5 years ago. Rarely did any exercise except for walking to and from the car to work in an office.

Food was cereal for breakfast, snack of cake or biscuit followed by lunch of a sandwich and fruit before having something along the lines of spag bowl for dinner.

I drank at the weekend once or twice a month. Would happily tuck into fast food twice a month, I might go swimming twice in a year, but other than that - very little movement. I would drink fruit juice and coffee throughout the week.

Compare to now, I'm over 10 stone! Ive now changed to eggs in the morning with real butter and tomatoes. Rarely have time for a snack but if so it's kifur yoghurt and organic fruit. I might have a boiled egg, some cheese slices or chicken or beef slice for lunch which is all organic, free range and grass fed. Dinner is usually steak or lamb but always organic and grass-fed with a glass of milk or two throughout the day. I don't eat any pasta, rice etc, have bread on the rare occasion and potatoes even more rarely.

I power walk most days to town and am always on the go around my home and garden. I have an exercise bike which I'll use for about 10 minutes most days.

I have a huge belly on me, no longer fit into my size 12s without looking like I'm 5 months pregnant. My portion sizes are small too. I am always on the move yet here I am, with a fat-soluable vitamin diet, reduced processed food and grossly overweight.

Abi to think, I'm doing the better than 3-5 years go but getting terrible results?

Why no veg OP? In particular, leafy green veg?

My first thought is try upping your fibre. My digestive system would get very sluggish eating that much meat/eggs/cheese/milk unless I had quite a bit of fruit/veg to go with it.

You aren't magically going to lose weight by just scoffing 'healthy food.' Food is food. Track your calories and weight of food and portion size, to ensure you've not just swapped 500 cals of crap for 500 cals of buttersoaked grass fed beef.

If I had one egg and half a tin of tomatoes for breakfast I'd be chewing my own fingers off by 10.30am. Are you not constantly hungry?
As PPs have said - what's wrong with veg? Can see the argument for cutting out fruit as it's full of sugar but veg will get things moving through your system and is also full of nutrients.

Also add in some real exercise rather than 'pottering about at home'.

I mean you can literally look up online for free how the 'eat less move more' thing works.

Wow that is a lot of meat a day and a lot of red meat a week. I wouldn't eat two chicken legs in a sitting and definitely not for lunch (do you mean drumsticks??).

I would have yoghurt and sugar free muslei for breakfast then you can have egg for lunch and then you can have chicken for dinner. You're not really eating healthier if you haven't increased your vegetable in take hugely though and aren't eating hardly any fibre - I doubt all wholemeal carbs will make you feel bad, try wholemeal rice. Wholemeal carbs really aren't the enemy, they are great for fibre, just have a sensible amount. You seem to be eating a lot of red meat and seem to think that because you're eating organic/grass fed food that your diet is really healthy now. I'm not surprised at all that you're putting on weight though if all you eat is meat/cheese/butter.

It's quite a weird diet, glasses of milk and no veg 😕

I'm surprised you're not hugely constipated!

That's a lot of meat and dairy, and pretty much no fruit and veg.

Yeah was going to say, your "belly" is probably because you aren't going to the loo enough with that diet! Where's the fibre?! How did you come to the conclusion that eggs and meat is a good diet?

10 stone is a perfectly sensible weight for a 5'6'' woman who is no longer in the first flush of youth. You're fine. There's no shame in being a size 14. We all spread out a little.

If you really want to drive off the extra pounds, stop drinking milk, water is fine, and stay on the exercise bike for at least 30 minutes rather than 10 - you can hardly burn off a spoonful of low fat yoghurt in 10 minutes.

No veg? 😱

As others have said you’re eating too many calories and (bad) fat foods. Lamb and beef especially are fattier meats. I’m not sure why you’ve put so much emphasis on the meat being organic and grass fed. I could eat a massive bar of organic chocolate and I’d put on weight, it’s no different. I think you need to read up on nutrition…

The grass fed meat is to do with omega 3 and 6 balance.

It's thought to be better to have a higher proportion of omega 3 rich foods than is the norm now.

Grass fed meat, fewer grains and nuts, support that.

Why aren't you eating any veg and fruit?

It takes a lot on a bike to burn calories
This was 30 mins of 4 min interval work, I was dripping
Less than 300 cals

Hi OP,
I read one of those "Secrets of slim people" type articles.
It looked at people with a lifelong lower (but healthy) BMI who had never had an eating disorder.

This study used science/tech to track calories consumed and activity/exercise rather than usual methods of asking people and keeping diaries.

While people might have self reported that they ate "whatever they wanted" or exercised 5 times a week the study found that the slim people ate less calories than the general population (no surprise but you often hear "can eat anything and doesn't put on weight" but that only seems to be the case because they choose to eat less overall.

Perhaps surprisingly the slim people were more sedentary than the general population. Despite this their health markers were better than general population due to healthy BMI.

My take away from this was that if you calorie count and are under your calorie requirements then activity wise do what you enjoy and live your life. I'm not suggesting that it's healthy to spend extended time on the sofa but if you like ice skating with the kids, swimming or trailing round car boot sales then do that. I would say get your heart rate pumping a few times a week for heart health though. People that do exercise "sessions" generally compensate with sedentary behaviour later and it balances out.

It's hard to do tons of hard exercise in calorie deficit too. If you diet so hard you waste your muscles you will then gain weight easily due to lack of muscle. Take it steady.

I had a similar diet once, and it wasn't until I started doing Noom that I realised how many calories were in just a small piece of meat. I could have one big steak, and it would take up a huge amount of my daily calorie intake. I was pretty much eating over my daily allowance every day thinking I was being quite healthy.
I would start start weighing and measuring your food (and milk) for a week so you can understand it better.
That being said, I think your weight is perfectly fine for your height.

@TheSoapyFrog exercise makes me ravenous, so I'm guessing it's easier for those slim people to 'choose' to eat less as they aren't actually that hungry.

The thing that stands out to me is that you are drinking a lot of calories with all that milk. Basically it also does not sound like a healthy diet at all.

Bloody hell OP eat some veg! What are you thinking?!

Having read your second post I am also very confused about how you are not losing weight eating like that - it’s not much (unless your milk is gold top!)

I am 5’6 and 10 stone as I’ve just had a baby and I agree with you it’s not a pleasant feeling. I am usually 8.5 and I was a year ago - you do not need to listen to the posters on here who think that because you (and I) are early 30s we need to just give up on being slim. You can definitely get there but I would get your thyroid checked. Do you have a smartwatch or a Fitbit? Very helpful for monitoring 10,000 steps a day etc/active and resting energy and how many calories to eat

That's not a very good diet.
Are you sure you aren't pregnant?

This is a good point

Perhaps surprisingly the slim people were more sedentary than the general population. Despite this their health markers were better than general population due to healthy BMI.

This makes a lot of sense. I have a huge appetite if I've done a lot of exercise. I eat a lot less on days where I've just stayed home and watched TV.

Your poor bowels. No salad, no veg, no grains or pulses.

No wonder you're bloated! I bet you hardly poo. And being on the go and doing ten minutes on a stationary bike, whilst better than being totally inactive, isn't going to build muscle or contribute to weight loss.