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?

I think you misread OP's diet

Your gran would have worked much harder to 'keep house' than we do now - the labour saving appliances we take for granted didn't exist, and even doing the food shopping was a task involving traipsing round different shops to get everything. People also ate smaller portions (so yes, eating less and doing more).

I may as well join in; why aren't you eating any vegetables?

I've lost a stone since March and I had to eat approx 1300 calories a day and do at least 15 mins HIIT a few times a week, with hand weights, to do it. I walk 10k steps a day but that makes no difference to my weight loss.
As soon as I start stuffing my face with a load of dairy it piles back on. Have a 100cal muesli bar or something as a snack and stop downing milk!

I am only here to find out why no veggies:)

Exercising for weight loss

• get your heart rate right up. A fit bit or similar will help you see how your heart rate climbs up with certain exercises.
• low reps/ heavy weights is a great way to loose weight too, and helps you continue to burn calories after the work out. When building muscle you burn off fat for energy. Don't worry it won't turn you into hulk- common misconception
• none of this will work of you eat too many calories, food is the most important aspect of loosing weight!

That's a very unusual diet, you have two chicken legs and a glass of milk for lunch?

Do you dislike veg?

I have a big salad (I know, I know) with spinach, courgette, tomatoes, feta, seeds, etc with a spoonful of yoghurt and lime.

Can you try eating less meat? It sounds like a lot to me but I'm not a dietician.

Use My Fitness Pal to track your diet and start lifting weights. If possible get yourself a decent personal trainer until you're confident to lift yourself
And get some veg and pulses in your diet!

Way too much fat

You appear to be attempting keto/very low carb. Unfortunately milk is relatively high carb so knock that habit on the head. You need half your plate to be leafy greens. Tomatoes are pretty high carb too, but packed with vitamins if they are in season, so it's balance.

Just go back to your crappy diet? If it's less calories then you'll lose

Hi ,
You should eat more vegetables and fruit really .

I Became stuck in a rut especially after being put on medication that was notorious for weight gain . It annoyed me but I couldn't get around it because every alternative was the same . Then my two sons , aged 23, 20 were telling me about this intermittent fasting that they do , I was intrigued so I looked it up . Basically it has several types of fasting methods but you are fasting the majority of the time whilst you sleep , plus you are never hungry.
I don't eat breakfast , never have and I can't eat after 6 because I have a hernia and it makes me sick , so I choose a plan to fit around that . Within the window that you can eat the foods you like , there are hardly any foods that are restricted, mainly before . It is in 8 hours you are not restricted of any foods at all bar some restrictions, look it up.
Look it up and see if it works for you . It's not a diet it's a lifestyle change .
My doctor agrees it is good for me to do . With my medication I put on 2 1/2 stone .
In the last four weeks I have lost 10 pounds with no exercise because I have bad rheumatoid arthritis.

Definitely this. You can't accurately work out how many calories you're consuming and what your macros are without my fitness pal or some other tracker.

This will give you your current baseline and tell you what you need to do.

Although I also agree with everyone who's said to eat more veg and less red meat.

Best of luck!

organic food is no less calorie dense than non-organic. If you want to find the rough number of calories you should be eating to lose or maintain your weight, you could use an app like MyFitnessPal. Swapping milk for other sources of calcium would be an easy win.

I would say you are eating more now than you did 3 years ago

Also portion sizes were a lot smaller years ago. You only have to look at the plate sizes from the 70s

Different things absolutely work for different people diet-wise. I eat a very healthy diet generally and love cooking for example but home-cooked food (alongside wine!) is definitely a weight gainer not loser for me. I am naughty with portion control and will cheerfully eat two people’s worth. I am lucky enough to be able to afford healthy premium ready meals (Cook, Potage etc), chiller cabinet soups, M+S salads etc and this works really well for the week and my weight maintains. I eat home cooked at the weekend for treats.

High protein low carb works week for me incidentally but I find you still have to myfitnesspal it and make sure it stays at 2,000 or less. The advantage of high protein is that less fills you up more, not that you can eat tons of it

I'm glad I'm not the only one wondering about the poo situation 🙈

If you like eggs and tomatoes for breakfast, why not try making shakshuka with onions, peppers, spinach etc.

You could have chicken salad rather than just chicken. Have a bit less meat and make up the remainder with vegetables. Add in some wholegrain toast or brown rice, etc.

As the saying goes, you can't exercise away a bad diet!

This thread is from last August @Kennykenkencat. Any reason you bumped it?

Exercise doesn't really help you lose weight. Read Burn by Herman Pontzer. (It's still good for you though).

I have personally been successful with a similar eating plan to yours (no calorie counting, no processed foods, no bread). It doesn't work for everyone though. If you want to continue with it you need more vegetables as pp have said. Also don't have anything cooked in vegetable or sunflower oil.

The book Why We Eat Too Much by Andrew Jenkinson is what I am following. He has an interesting theory about how the body controls its own weight which is not incompatible with recent scientific studies, although not proven. Some of what he says seems wrong (e.g. the paolithic diet part) but some of it is compelling (the idea that the body must have a mechanism for controlling its own weight). The plan works for me and others (we have a thread on here) but as i said, not for everyone.

A final thought if it is just the stomach; is your stomach flabby or do you feel bloated and almost a bit pregnant? Years ago I had an enormous ovarian cyst removed (1 litre of fluid). That was why my stomach had become horrible.

https://www.amazon.com/Burn-Research-Really-Calories-Healthy/dp/0593421043/ref=ascdff0593421043nodl?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=598295323420&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5926672862134694571&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9005925&hvtargid=pla-1636036801618&psc=1&dplnkId=86adc342-e101-43ab-99c9-0e0ea3396235

https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Eat-Too-Much/dp/0241400538/ref=mpssa111?crid=2TI6N9ICKUQGL&keywords=why+we+eat+too+much&qid=1672921277&sprefix=why+we+eat%2Caps%2C82&sr=8-1

You need to track your calories and measure everything out. Put your details into a tdee calculator to work out how many calories you need to be eating to lose weight

You’re 5 foot 6 and you weigh just over 10 stone. I don’t think that’s grossly overweight. You’re probably describing weight gain related to age. If you excessively cut back your body will resist weight loss.