Dieting for 6 weeks and guess how much I’ve lost?

[CollagenQueen]

I’ve been dieting for 6 weeks. I’ve been eating like a bird during the day, with a normal evening meal.

I’ve cut out crisps and chocolate (which I used to eat daily).

I’ve dropped my wine consumption massively, now having several tee total days a week (I used to drink every day!)

I’ve also upped my exercise enormously, I now usually walk about 15-20k steps a day, rather than my usual 7k.

After six weeks of this, I’ve just weighed myself and guess what I’ve lost?

Absolutely nothing.

What the hell? Can anyone explain this? I really don’t want to give up, but this just seems insane!

This, all of this!

I'm struggling too so am going to try 16:8, keto style and swapping wine for the very occasional gin and slimline tonic at the weekend.
Good luck moving forward. I'm sure all your efforts will pay off in time.

Fucking hell. This thread is nuts. Muscle
does not weigh more than fat. A pound is a pound in weight. A stone is a stone in weight.

I was literally about to ask your age. I'm 48 and slowly losing but it's taking twice as long as usual and it feels like I'm fighting against my body, not for it. It's so frustrating.

Sounds like you are doing great OP! Small sustainable changes are much better then fads and quick fixes which will fizzle out.

I would take some measurements and check them after four weeks. You might not have lost much weight but have lost inches. Go off how you are feeling and how your clothes fit. Not just what a number on a scale says.

Do you feel different and have you noticed any difference in how your clothes fit? X

@CollagenQueen I would strongly suggest you to add resistance training to build muscles and therefore improve your metabolism. Walking, I'm afraid, is not quite enough. As far as diet is concerned, make sure you have adequate amount of protein (animal and vegetal - chickpeas, lentils etc are an excellent source), lots of veggies and lots of fibre.
I was the same as you struggling to lose fat (especially after 40 it's hard), but protein and resistance training were my best assets.

Try using the NHS diet app it’s excellent for keeping track of calories, even a few calories over and you won’t lose weight. If you need a drink to accompany your meal try alcohol free wine it’s very low calorie for a small glass.
It may be that you’re not eating enough and your body is going into calorie saving mode especially doing all those steps, cut them down a bit.
I would start again, weigh daily and see those tiny drops in weight that will encourage you to keep going, maybe ask your doctors if they have a dietician.
Good Luck.

Muscle weighs more than fat in like for like volume; e.g an inch of muscle weighs much more than an inch of fat; yes its true a pound of feathers weighs as much as a pound of rocks but the volume of feathers will be MUCH greater.

Drop the wine altogether? It has never helped me since I rarely drink anyway but everyone I've ever known who has given up all alcohol, all seem to drop like 10 lbs in the first month. lucky sods--

There's a lot of sugar in wine and alcohol just makes you retain water. Try that.

Then I am surprised they haven't aigned you up to some studies on non existent metabolism. Don't mean to sound snarky but active person not losing weight on 800cal a day is a groundbreaking study and doctors would fight to be the ones to write a paper on it.

You're probably not running at a calorie deficit yet, so while you've stopped putting any more weight on, you're not losing it yet.

The wine will be the killer, although massively well done on dropping it as much as you have. As someone who used to drink nightly and has now kicked that habit (more or less), I know how hard it can be!

Far far too much walking. You will put a strain on your joints. You aren't really counting your calories and probably are eating a lot more than you think, you need to write down everything you eat. It's so easy to underestimate

Also, try not to think of the last few weeks as a waste. You've started training yourself into better habits, and if nothing else you've saved money on the wine!

It’s so hard, isn’t it. I tried to lose weight for years and have only this year managed to shift 3.5 stone (still losing as I was very overweight to begin with - verging on morbidly obese). My mindset changed as I have young DC and realised I was hurtling towards very serious health problems if I didn’t do something about my size.

We are all different but, for me, I can only have a maximum of 1000 calories per day if I want to lose weight. I’ve also found that avoiding snacking completely makes a huge difference. My day looks a bit like this:

Breakfast:

Small (weighed) portion of low calorie cereal with semi skimmed milk

Mid morning:

Small coffee with skimmed milk and sugar free syrup (I guess this is my ‘snack’ but I refuse to give up coffee!)

Lunch:

Small salad but can include anything as long as it’s under 320 calories. I’m a big fan of the boxed salads in M&S as they have some great choices including salmon, pasta with feta/tomato, couscous etc. I just check the calorie total for the box (not portion) to make sure it doesn’t exceed 320

Dinner:

’Normal’ in that it can contain anything but under 380 calories for my main, followed by a piece of fruit

I don’t eat any sugar at all and avoid alcohol (was never a drinker anyway).

I realise this could sound a bit miserable if you are used to eating a lot more but you get used to it very quickly. I also don’t feel deprived because as long as I stick to my calorie limits I can eat pretty much everything. Dinner can be pasta, chicken with potatoes and veg, lasagne, curry. The biggest hurdle for me was cutting out sugar.

It's a very common misconception. As PPs have said, what they mean is that it's denser than fat, so a pound of muscle takes up less room than a pound of fat and a muscular person might weigh the same as a fatter one.

We will all know if we really are throwing the scales off because we have so much muscle!

Are you having milk and sugar with your cereal?
In your hot drinks?
Any sauces with your dinner?

As someone else said up thread, calorie counting is literally the only weight loss plan that works. I did that a few years ago and lost 1.5 stone.

It’s not too much walking. I’m older than you & walk at least 10 miles a day. Human beings are designed to walk lots.

What might be useful is to think of your calorie allowance over a week rather than daily. So within reason you can ‘save ’ calories during the week to have at the weekend. In exactly the same way if you stick to your spending to a budget daily but then splurge at thd weekend you’ll still overspend.

So say 1600 x 7 = 11,200 calories
’Save’ 200 x 5 = 1000 to have over the weekend.

@CollagenQueen

Cutting out the alcohol is a brilliant move - however, if you're still drinking the 2 bottles of wine on the remaining 3 nights, this won't be helping you. Alcohol is the easiest source of fuel for the body, so all the time you're drinking, this is what your body is burning, instead of fat.

I agree with you that after 6 weeks of dieting you should expect to see a loss. Therefore the only conclusion we can draw is that what you've been doing isn't working.

We've just started the latest Low Carb Bootcamp, which I think will really help you. The focus isn't on calorie counting (or counting of anything - just 10 simple rules to follow), but reduction of carbs and emphasis on fresh, natural foods. There's a huge amount of support on the threads too. Why not come and join us?

Week 1 chat thread is here

I would gain weight based on your sample of a days food
Cereal with milk is worse than you think - I have 0 fat yoghurt and fruit most days
I would have to leave out the coleslaw
For the evening meal I wouldn’t have any chips and the fish would depend on whether it was in batter or breadcrumbs or fried all of which would be a no for me

Im 52 and currently eating 1000 calories a day, im maintaining

Coleslaw is 50g = 58 calories, that's a low fat one, so watch that

I don’t think her lunch looks that good @VanityFlares. It lacks veg. I think op said a tiny amount of coleslaw, which I presume is the high calorie shop bought stuff. I make my own from time to time and eat a decent portion, which is far better. Ironically had op eaten a mixture of salad leaves and maybe a bit of cucumber etc even with this small amount of the coleslaw plus plenty of water, she would have felt fuller and probably have lost more weight.

BTW although I don't advocate counting calories, FYI a bottle of wine (on average) has 600-625 calories.

Cauliflower mash is your friend- as are the packets of cauli rice - I eat M&S 'balanced' ready meals twice a week (429 Cals on average) - last night was coconut chicken curry and I bang a good portion of cauli mash and some carrots with it. Extremely ample meal and very filling for around 500 Cals!! On top of that I had 2 scrambled egg and one slice toast plus some mushrooms for breakfast and ate a whole pack of prawns (decadent I know) plus some tomatoes and cucumber at lunch- plus 10 raspberries and a dollop of Greek yoghurt. I've lost just over 2 stone eating like this but has taken 10 months so far - but I can sustain this as I feel I've eaten very well. I'm 14 stone now and 5ft 4 and 61. It's not a cheap diet to eat like this but doesn't feel like a diet. I do still drink 2 glasses of wine on Friday and Saturdays only and when I do I have no more than 1200 calories of food that day. I appreciate some will say not to use ready meals but I have found the high end under 500 Cals ones useful - some of the M&S Indian ones are around 400, so I just stick some cauli rice with them. just put extra veg with them. I also drink only 1 treat coffee every few days and a lot of green tea and water.