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!

Not all are. I checked carbs on plain yogurts vs plain low fat/fat free and the difference is negligible. Like 1g per 100g. These are also not UPF

I am your height and I weigh 8 stone

I work full time, two children and walk for one hour every night

No breakfast, no snacking - rarely lunch and a very normal dinner. Food isn't an event for me, it's just something I do because it's necessary

I can't eat what I want, most slim people can't

I was thinking of what I usually have - unflavoured skyr yoghurt which is high protein, naturally fat free and has no added sugar. Same with fat free plain cottage cheese and fat free plain fromage frais.

I agree that low fat versions of some foods aren’t ideal. Ideally you wouldn’t have mayo at all because low fat or not it is highly processed and of no nutritional value. But we live in the real world. Low fat mayo is a lot less calorific, so if you want to have mayo and lose weight it is a reasonable compromise. You also have to balance the short term harm from eating lower calorie versions of processed food to get you through the day and helping you get down to a healthy weight, or long term obesity.

That doesnt sound super healthy - a few extra pounds might be preferable

Fat free/low fat yoghurt and Skyr are very different from Muller Lights and not UPF. I've just had <250 calories of Skyr with fruit for breakfast and it's 40g protein.

I think it should be general rule that when people say Yogurt, it's plain yogurt. Anything else should be flavoured yogurt.
Like water. If you say water you certainly don't automatically mean flavoured water.

Okay, good luck with that one!

You say food isn't an event for you and just something you do to stay alive, but you also say you can't eat what you want (to stay slim, I presume). Which is it?

I don't think most people would function well on one meal a day.

I agree with you, I would be thinking about food incessantly if I only allowed myself one meal a day - but everyone is different and so are our metabolisms.

What a totally unhealthy lifestyle!

In reply to Lahdedahiam (forgot to press quote)

My thoughts exactly. I find it hard to believe that someone can maintain their weight on one meal per day, particularly as they seem to indicate they have a fairly active lifestyle. They would also have some massive nutritional deficiencies as there is no way you can cram everything in to one meal. Not a good example to set children either but that's just my opinion of course.

Actually I’m the same, height, weight, 2 kids, walk over an hour a day drop off/pick ups. Breakfast has never agreed with me since I was a kid, and have 1 main meal a day. You can survive, I admit not healthy but that’s just me. Again, I eat what I want but since I was a kid, food for me was something I had to have not become I looked forward to it.

what I like to add, is that whilst you have given up most of your unhealthy food/drink which is a good start, you have been walking a lot. Prehaps your weight loss is not showing for now because you may have gained muscle mass over the period of 6 wks of extra walking?

what I suggest is what a friend did which is intermittent fasting combined with a 24hr fast. Start off with intermittent so your body gets used to it then introduce a 24hr fast in the week. My friend was able to lose weight without any dieting in her younger days, now similar age to you and premenopausal she finds she can’t shift the wait without really looking at what she eats. You need to try a diet that works for women that are in menopause or premenopausal. Read the book ‘Fast like a girl’ it really helped my friend to understand which diet was the best for her after reading this book. Good luck and keep going!

No. There is no need for disordered eating like that to lose weight. I'm perimenopausal and on HRT. I've lost 10lbs in 4 weeks by being in a calorie deficit. High protein, but still eating carbs and fat. I weight train three times a week. The OPs walking is not going to be building muscle in a way that means she's lost no weight because she's converted body fat to muscle.

@Jige your friend is probably underestimating what she is eating.

OP - how are you getting on?

I have lost over 10 kgs at 51. I eat at least 2 meals a day, with healthy snacks, and I don't believe in staying hungry. I do believe in eating better, and not drinking or eating junk daily.

Hi all. I'm still ploughing on with it. Scales say I've lost 2 pounds, woop de doo. I'm defo less bloated - where my tummy was round and hard, it's now softer and more empty, but it's just not translating to the scales. Had 4 nights of no booze last week. I think I need to cut this further, to 5 nights. Did a very long walk yesterday and have the same planned for today. Whoever suggested weighing cereal was right. I did that this morning and my serving was 60g, not the 30g they quote on the box. But who would eat 30g, that's tiny!

Well done on reducing the booze. Keep at it if you can. At this age it takes longer but you will lose it eventually.

Well Done OP. I haven't had a drink for over 4 months and I know we're all different but personally I've found it easier to have none than to try and moderate. Why not try a month alcohol free? (Although it took me about 2 months to start really feeling the benefits,

I’ve been doing 20 mins on the cross trainer every day for two weeks, I’ve only just lost two pounds.

Well done on the booze reduction and the weight loss - it will come if you keep at it!

Regarding the cereal portion, yep it's tiny and no I wouldn't eat only that much either. At least now knowing this tiny quantity is what they're basing their calorie figures on gives you an indication of it not being a particularly good meal - you need to eat too many calories worth to feel at all 'full'. From a quick glance at the numbers on the box it looks pretty good, though, which is what they want you to think.

I eat Quaker protein oats. More filling than sugary cereal and better for you.

I know it's been mentioned many times on this thread, but exercise doesn't do much for weight loss unless you're doing vast amounts of it. Not to say that exercise isn't important and great for your health, of course.

I've just had a look at an exercise calculator and it shows that 20 mins on a cross trainer at a good level of effort is 109 calories for a 10st person. So less than the equivalent of not eating a single slice of bread with nothing on it, or 1 biscuit per day.

You need to do around 6 hours on a cross trainer to burn just half a pound of fat off.

That's why it's an awful lot easier to modify your diet a little to achieve better results than by exercise.

Yes, exercise does almost nothing for me. Though I enjoy walking and swimming. Diet is everything.

I would love to try this. I find it hard because my DH still drinks on his days off. So much harder to sit next to someone who is drinking wine, when you are trying not to! I asked him if he wants to go tee total, but he doesn't.

My diets really good, exercise works for me. I used to be active before dh died but since then there’s been sitting around so the weight went on despite diet staying the same.

Humans are meant to be active.

I don't disbelieve you but I'm simply talking physiological facts rather than anecdotally.

Burning off 1lb of fat requires a calorie deficit of ~3,500 as there's approximately 3,500 calories in 1lb of body fat.

Whether you create that 3,500 calorie deficit by diet, exercise or both doesn't matter in terms of actually losing the weight. It's just that doing it by exercise is a lot more difficult due to how much you need to do to get to 3,500 cals.

I also didn't say OP (or anyone) shouldn't exercise and in fact I pointed out that "it's important and great for your health."