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!

Yes but it's clear when people say that they mean you only need to gain a little muscle volume to offset a loss of a greater volume of fat. I know it's something that triggers the QI pedants but everyone else knows what it means

You need to weigh everything. Also, if you are still drinking two bottles of wine in the three nights you are drinking that's 3600 calories right there! Even one bottle on top of what you are currently eating would send you in to an overage.
What you are doing now isn't working so you need to shake it up. The walking is great, but add sone resistance in to build muscle.

Are you menopausal? If so then you need to look at weight loss differently. Make sure you get enough sleep. Look at your eating window.
It seems as though you've thrown yourself in and feel you're depriving yourself. You're not 'eating like a bird' - but you're framing it in your head as though you're depriving yourself - that's not a good or sustainable mindset.
You're having three meals and some healthy snacks and still having wine three days per week.
Cut out the wine or if you want to keep it then realise it will impact your weight loss. A glass of wine is over 200 calories which is equivalent to approx 4000 steps so three or four glasses of wine balances out your 12k - 16k steps. Focus on getting decent sleep. Weigh your food and log it so you can see how many calories you're eating. Log your exercise too so you can determine if you are in a deficit.

I am overwhelmed at the number of responses - thank you! I am back from walking the dogs, and reading them all, but I'm only up to page 8 so far. I'm going to read them all again with a pad and pen and make notes.

I did lose 30lb in 2014, and I did that by eating 1200 kcals a day and walking 5 miles daily. It worked, but I was 9 years younger then! I got myself down to 8 stone 13lb, but gradually all the weight has crept back on.

Yes, when drinking, I have 2 bottles! I know it's an enormous amount. But it never feels like it, as it's 6 large glasses. I was raised in an alcoholic home, and excessive drinking has been very normalised my whole life.

I actually didn't drink very much myself, until I was about 35 years old, when my first marriage fell apart. I was drinking to numb out the pain. And to make the night time arguments easier to bear. Since then I have battled with it, on and off for the past 18 years.

It has been enormous for me to cut down to only drinking 2-3 nights a week. But I know that I can do it now, so I will try to do even better. My real fear was not being able to sleep, and if I'm honest, my sleep has been utterly horrendous. I go to bed at 11pm, and fall to sleep fairly quickly, but then I wake at around 12.30am, and then every 20 minutes thereafter, until it's time to get up at 6.30am. I'm hoping and praying that this will get better. I still feel brighter the next day, than I would have done, had I drank, so I'm taking it as a win.

So, it seems I need to increase my veg! Does salad count? I do love tomatoes, cucumber, radish, rocket leaves etc.

I think I've been having too many carbs with dinner - new potatoes with butter, for eg. I will cut that back.

I do have fruit - forgot that! Tend to have a peach and a satsuma after lunch.

Having had bran flakes at 7am, I am now sat here starving! Gah!

There's some bonkers advice on this thread. But also some very good sustainable advice. I think it just takes longer as you get older.

Agree that your prior diet probably had you gaining weight and your current calorie intake has you maintaining. If you are post menopausal and short with little muscle mass your BMR will require fewer calories. Your diet doesn't look very nutritious, the only vegetable you ate all day was peas which are mostly carbs. You need to be eating much more than than that. I recommend

Breakfast: 2 egg omelette with mushrooms and spinach

Lunch: Salad with greens, tomato, cucumber, carrot, capsicum, spring onions, chicken and home made balsamic dressing

Dinner: Grilled fish, broccoli, asparagus, green beans, small portion of sweet potato

Snack: miso soup, fruit, crudités with small portion of hummus

2L of water per day, no alcohol. Looks like a lot of food on the plate but lower calories and nutrient dense.

While walking is great for your heart, it doesn't burn much in terms of calories or building muscle. You need to lift weights to increase your muscle mass and therefore burn more fat. The more muscle you maintain, the more food you can eat.

@CollagenQueen congratulations on cutting out the alcohol.

With the sleeping - HRT really helped me, I only wake up a couple of times a night now and go back to sleep reasonably quickly. Falling oestrogen causes insomnia.

If you've massively upped your exercise, I suspect you have lost fat but gained some muscle. This is a good thing. A small volume of muscle weighs the same as a large volume of fat, and reducing your body fat percentage is more important than losing 'weight'. A lot of people who lose a dramatic amount of weight at the start of a diet are actually losing muscle, not fat. You can lose quite a lot of weight but find that your body fat percentage has actually increased, which isn't healthy.

You’re doing nearly everything right and can I just say massive kudos to you on sorting out your drinking. I hope your sleep improves.

In your position id heavy heartedly cut the carbs and skip breakfast at least a few days a week - the weight should fall off. Black coffee/tea until 10/11 and then brunch (poached eggs with spinach; mushroom omelette; Greek yog with homemade granola; smoked salmon and scrambled eggs; ‘keto’ 1-min mug cake type recipe if you fancy something sweet). No snacks after dinner. Call it TRE (time restricted eating) if it makes you feel better!

Obviously this isn’t for everyone but you won’t be any hungrier for skipping breakfast as long as you drink lots of water. I find it’s the only highly effective option (along with exercise) now I’m older.

All the best!

Sorry if someone has already mentioned this, but@CollagenQueen have you tried using Noom? You can do a free trial to see if it works for you.

I noticed my weight was steadily creeping up after the birth of my first child, and basically it was because I was eating more than I realised (a lot of it very absentmindedly while looking after my child etc) whilst also not having as much time as used to for exercise. I used Noom for a few months, religiously logged all my food (which meant I was aware of how many calories I was actually consuming) and found it to be such a helpful reset of my approach to food. I lost the 10 pounds I wanted to lose, kept it off, and I’m much more mindful about eating now and try to make sure that I stop and enjoy food rather than munching in front of the TV, in front of a computer screen etc. I’ve relaxed it since, but something I’ve kept doing from Noom is weighing myself every morning so I keep an overall eye on my weight (obviously fluctuations are normal) and don’t get into another upward trend. (Though am currently prego so obvs scales only going one way atm…)

like others have said, you should consider adding some weights / resistance training to your regime. Building muscle is fantastic for your health full stop, and helps support your skeleton, ligaments etc. Muscle also helps boost your metabolism by burning fat. And it adds shape and definition to your body, firming everything up, which means you look and feel better even if you haven’t reached your target weight on scales! Speaking personally, a weights-based HIIT workout also gives an amazing endorphin rush! Just make sure that, if you are new to weights, you have a session with a teacher who can show you how to safely start. Also, you don’t need to lift anything crazy - lots of reps with 4-8kg weights will do plenty!

also, while it can be demoralising if the scales aren’t going down, keep 2 things in mind: (1) the scales haven’t gone up either! And (2) improving your health isn’t just about weight. How do you feel? Are you more energetic, more clear-headed, less breathless? Do you find that aches and pains are less, and your clothes fit better? These things also matter when trying to rehaul your lifestyle because this is why you are doing it - not for a number on a scale. That’s just data.

OP, I think it is the 4 to 6 bottles of wine a week you are still drinking which are the culprits for you not losing weight!

Basically like Michael Mosley’s Fast 800 but with more calories! If you want some science on it then read his book.

Maybe before trying to seriously diet, you concentrate on the drinking problem and sleep.
It's really hard tondo 1 hard thing, let alone 2 or more at once! Don't set yourself up to fail, take it in steps.

You have already cut out so much alcohol which shows real commitment and self-control. That is very impressive.

I have other behaviours that I struggle to keep on top of, as I bet so do lots of other people here, so I understand it's hard.

You are hungry because the bran flakes aren't healthy. Next time have scrambled eggs and salmon, for example, or something else that's not processed and is high protein.

Oh, I see @CClaire has put some good brunch suggestions, those are the kind of things I was thinking of.

This. You’ve probably gone from eating/drinking an amount that slowly puts on weight, to an amount that just maintains weight. So that’s something !

Why such a small amount of chicken then 2 portions of chips that makes no sense to me.

Eat more protein, a full chicken breast or even 2 with lunch, greek yoghurt with breakfast. You will find you're less hungry at dinner time which is when most people who "eat like birds" end up accidentally taking in the bulk of their calories.

Also, your weight loss will be slow as long as you are still having wine on any nights. If you're desperate and have a target of the wedding, cut it out all together.

It makes sense because what you were doing before your weight was slowly creeping up, now what you're on you'll maintain the weight you are, if you want to lose you need to cut out the source of empty calories.

Sleep is one of the biggest factors in weight loss, so perhaps your sleep pattern is affecting your weight loss.

When I stopped smoking I would go to bed really early and read. I’d usually have a bath before and a warm drink and made that my habit.
At first it took me a long time to sleep because I was craving my nighttime fag but I didn’t go on my phone and the reading made me sleepy.
It worked really well for me (and stopped me snacking).

I don’t know what wine you drink but I had rose and lemonade and it was really nice.
Perhaps having your wine with zero calorie lemonade will help you cut the calories and alcohol without cutting the amount, so you can trick your brain into thinking it’s having the same amount.

I’m the same height as you and am overweight at 10st. I was 13 stone about 3 years ago and have only lost weight through calorie counting and meal replacements. Fitbit has helped me to keep track and I try to only eat 1200 calories a day. I also don’t drink alcohol. I only eat between 7pm and 7am.

Many birds eat twice their body weight in food each day.

@CollagenQueen well done for cutting down the alcohol so much! That is a huge achievement and shows your amazing willpower! It may take a little while longer for your body to reset with sleeping etc, but you’ve done an amazing thing for your health and you will feel so much better in the long term.

In terms of reducing from 2 bottles a night when you do drink, could you try interspersing glasses of wine with water, hot peppermint tea (very hard to drink that fast), fizzy water etc? You can serve yourself sparkling water or lemon and cucumber infused drinks in a nice glass to help create a sense of occasion around it.

keep in mind as well that your body has built up a tolerance to a very high level of alcohol consumption, and so it will take time to wean yourself back from that. You are also getting a huge amount of sugar from the alcohol so you may find you crave more carbs and sweets as you cut back. That’s normal, and I think better to replace a bottle of wine (3500 calories) with a bowl of delicious pasta.

The steps will mean nothing (apart from being great mentally- and that’s an amazing thing to do for yourself) the alcohol needs to be zero as all of the rest falls into place. Did you feel you had a problem? Maybe pm if so

Yeah you need protein! Protein is what keeps you full and satiated. Carbs are not the issue - butter is depending how much you use.

on the 2-3 nights you still drink how much? There’s about 230 calories in one large glass of white wine. If you haven’t seen a change in measurements and scale the 2-3 nights drinking is pushing you out of your calorie deficit.

No…they loose Water at the start of a diet, not muscle.

I am a similar age to you, here's what l have found,

To lose weight and not feel starving you need half of all food on your plate to be (non root) vegetables... preferably steamed.

Not carrots/parsnip/potatoes
Yes to broccoli/peas/asparagus/cabbage/onion/ mushrooms, aubergine.
Fruit,
berries are best, blueberries/strawberries/raspberries they don't give sugar spikes.
Or eat fruit with 6-8 almonds, filling and stop glucose spikes.
Salad,
Half avocado is filing, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, spring onion, peppers.
Hard boiled eggs are good.

You need a good breakfast, bran flakes are rubbish as are almost all cereals.
avocado on sourdough with a few tomatoes.
scrambled egg and bacon.
oats and greek yoghurt with blueberries, for a fast breakfast.

Find all the vegetables/fish/nuts/berries you like and eat as many of those.
Drink lots of water with ginger if you like it or sliced cucumber.

No to anything processed.

Chips/pasta/rice/bread (except the odd sourdough) are your enemies.
Look out for hidden sugar in all ready foods, it will shock you!
Remember it is 90 % diet rather than exercise.

Age is a bummer.