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!

Just an add on Collagen Queen :) Like others, I think you've been absolutely amazing reducing the amount of alcohol you drink.

I just wanted to add that with all the talk about calories, as Marmite says, the what you eat is important, not just for weight loss but for our overall health. All the water, the fruits, the veggies, salads etc will have you looking glowing and beautiful for your daughter's wedding, whatever you weigh on the day. ❤

Thank you. Wishing you the best OP

It works once people stop thinking it doesn't

It genuinely doesn't. You need proper nutrition to regulate metabolism for one thing. And hormones which cause puppy fat are back when it it comes to the menopause

Not the same hormones, or lack of them.

I think the least processed food we can eat in our late 40's onwards the better really. I don't like it anymore than the next woman but I am determined not to gain weight as I age.

Alcohol is a huge sleep disruptor, sleep should get better with no booze and with weight loss blood pressure drops.

I've got bread in the bread maker with lard in it not oil as veg oil is more processed compared to lard.

Keep going though and tweaking, no one gets it right first time and your making huge lifestyle changes.

Ok I think it’s the booze. So 3 nights at 2 bottles a night is 6 bottles.

at 600 cals a bottle that’s 3600 cals. Which is 515 a day. Before you eat anything on those days, you’re already 515 cals consumed. Then you eat things like sausages and chips , which can be very calorific.

you also don’t really refer to portion sizes as such. So what you’ve done is stopped yourself gaining further which is good, and reducing your wine 4 nights is fantastic for you , making good choices much of the time, but when you make poor choices, it’s stopping uou loosing.

so if you need 1700 a day to lose weight, at a pound a week. Then you need to consume in the region of 1150 to offset the wine you drink.

Honestly I would completely cut out the alcohol. Just so that you can give yourself a kick start.
It 100% affects your metabolism to it's detriment.
Your body works hard to break down the alcohol in your system before it even considers bothering itself to burn off food calories.

I read this from a Doctor. Not sure if it was Michael Moseley? 🤔 It made perfect sense to me.

If you find it hard to completely abstain, could you add sparkling water or diet lemonade to make a spritzer?

Can you reduce the glass size and get down to 1 bottle? 6 big glasses is soooooo much. Imagine drinking 6 big glasses of anything else in the evening. It's a lot!

Just wanted to add in Sydney Cummings on YouTube to this suggestion. She has hundreds of free workout varying in time, intensity, with or without equipment.

Her and MadFit and my favourites.

Good luck!

Not in beer 😂
Liquids are weird

@CollagenQueen If you have a dependency on wine, it may be worth thinking of getting help, professionally.

Sorry if you know this already, but alcohol is very dangerous for women's health. It raises the risks of breast cancer hugely once you go above 1 small glass a day.

best of luck with your goals!

Perhaps if you replace the wine with something you like better than plain water sometimes, then you won't feel as deprived. There are some nice flavoured sparkling waters or Aldi does a alcohol-free, low-calorie prosecco substitute.

For sleep, if you're not on HRT, then take magnesium. Also, take a multi-vitamin if you're not already.

Some GPs refer to WW. If you meet that threshold then that might be good to try. It focuses on four pillars: food; exercise; sleep and mindset. It also has a menopause group that has lots of great advice. And you'll eat three meals and snacks. There's no cutting meals or fasting which tends to be unsustainable and often unsuccessful for menopausal women anyway.

You've made a great start. Good luck!

Can we just remind each other here that food isn’t evil? I know op is trying to lose weight but people saying ‘I couldn’t eat that much’ over a fairly normal amount of food is a bit ridiculous. As well as that, there will come a time when having a small amount of weight on with help you fight against illness

It does get like that. I don't think some people understand that a coffee for breakfast, dinner at 4pm and nothing after 5pm except a quarter of a square of dark (must be dark!!) chocolate will cause some people to keel over with low blood sugar. If I try to eat only twice a day, I faint.

They wouldnt and its not a surprise at all

If you frequent WLS forums and support groups and have had it yourself, you would know that the calorie intake is around that amount for several months (and for some of us for much longer). Stalls are common, normal and frequent, people can sit on the same weight with the scales not budging for weeks and months sometimes despite that level of intake.

Its not unusual in the slightest.

For others, it flies off regularly, but not everyone.

I can’t believe all the people saying you’re eating too much. What you eat looks very low cal to me. It’s clear it’s the wine that’s the culprit. Why don’t you try eating more normally, knocking the wine on the head or having two glasses max at the weekend and cutting out carbs and snacks after 5pm with green leafy veg at each meal? Honestly i think the weight would fall off and it might be a lot more sustainable and interesting!

800 cals a day you don’t stay static for months, it’s not feasible.

Agree, but the devil is in the detail. For example the plate of chips. The sausages, how big is the portion, she says she’s baked potato with butter, how much butter, how big are her dinner portions.

but agree the wine is a large part of the issue. It’s a huge amount of calories.

I've seen people on MN claim they can only eat 600cal otherwise they maintain. It's mental here

Maybe you have PCOS OP. This happens if I diet, but if I follow an insulin resistance eating plan, the weight drops off me. Go and see a nutritionist, worth ever cent.

AndIKnewYouMeantIt
I once went low (none really) carb and really felt it and my manager pulled me aside and told me it wasn’t worth it in our business (circa 17000 steps a day, running up and down stairs for customers, carrying boxes etc). Same here on the 2 meals thing, I’d be on the floor too!

Keto also made me feel very ill. Lasted a day, after low carb. Low carb suited me, so ate root veg but ditched the white carbs, went back to it.
It was very much a what's for tea rethink. Now starts with protein and veg, as opposed to which sandwich or baked potato filling.

I don't understand how people following keto aren't chronically constipated...where do they get their fibre from?

Can you get anything that's not wine that you'd like? Elderflower cordial isn't calorie free, but if you could cut another night out, even having a glass of something that's not calorie free would be a lot fewer calories than 6 glasses of wine.

Alternatively, you are currently drinking 1200 calories of wine on a wine night (3x a week) then if you could make that 1 large glass (200 calories) instead, that would be nearly a pound a week in terms of weight loss.