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!

@FormerlyPathologicallyHappy I'm sorry about you losing your DH, by the way.

as I’ve said the big difference is “exercise” and general moving.

sitting on my arse in an office all day and then going to the gym won’t make a difference. As you point out that hour will probably only burn 3-400 cals, which you then think “I’ve been to the gym I can have a chocolate bar/cake”.

what I find is making more of a difference is trying to go back to the lifestyle I had in my 20’s. So I’ve ditched the car, back to walking and cycling. Making the effort to get up from my desk and walk to a shop for lunch, get up and go speak to colleagues rather than sit and teams. Going to the shop more rather than online shop so much.

that activity is burning an extra 500-800, sometimes more calories per day. Funnily enough by adopting the more active lifestyle of my youth I’m now closer to that weight than I’ve been since having kids. Only thing I miss is going out dancing for a few hours on a Friday/Saturday- that must have been a massive calorie burner!

I sometimes wonder whether “menopause” weight gain is more often a slowing down/less generally active weight gain, as we stop doing the school runs, are less likely to walk or cycle, prefer more sedentary activities like going out to eat or getting a takeaway. Plus drinking habits change- when I was young I only drank when I went out, post kids drinking as home become the norm and intake increases significantly.

You really do have to do both. If you're say 40, female and relatively sedentary, you may burn 1700 calories a day by existing, working, walking a bit. If you diet at 1400 calories a day for 2 weeks you'll lose what, 1lb? 30 minutes HIIT with weights a day burns 300 calories, increases metabolic rate and therefore doubles the speed.

I haven’t read past this point but I’m shocked to hear you’ve lost nothing at all if you’ve really cut back and upped your movement.

I am (was), 12.1 stone at 5ft 2. I’ve been dieting for 3 weeks and lost 8lb.

I’ve been going to the gym twice a week for 40 minutes and using an app called Noom (the free version) and its really helped. You basically put in how much you weigh, what you want to reach and how fast you want to lose. It gives you a base starting rate of maximum calories for the day, the more steps you do the more calories it gives you. You can log any additional exercise you do and at what intensity (for example I work on a farm so if I’ve been mucking out stables I might put that I’ve done 30 minutes of yard work at low intensity) and it’ll calculate roughly how many extra calories I have burnt and then gives me a few extra on my daily allowance, if I’ve used a bike in the gym I can manually input the calories burn’t based on what the bike machine tells me I’ve burn’t. By inputting your food it tells you how many calories everything you are eating is so you can physically see after each meal how many calories you ate or are about to eat and how many you then have left in your daily budget. It might be worth trying.

I’ve been shocked to see just how little you can actually eat. Portion size plays a huge role and the high calories in things you wouldn’t expect. I’ve been having fat free yoghurt 5 tablespoons (100g) and 20g (a tiny sprinkle) of granola for breakfast. Most days I’ve skipped lunch or just had a bit of fruit or half a sandwich otherwise I don’t have enough calories left for a ‘proper’ evening meal unless I have a tiny portion. I made chicken in creamy peppercorn sauce with mash and asparagus one week at my normal portion size and a glass of wine to go with and it took me well over my daily allowance just on its own!

My friend is quite a lot bigger than me and shes been using a trampet everyday and following youtube trampet fitness video’s and has lost loads of weight. She got me to have a go and 2 minutes in I thought I was having a heart attack (I’m so unfit), its super fun but highly exerting and is a great way to build stamina and burn calories, considering getting myself one now.

Good luck!

Well done Op!

Hi everyone. Just wanted to give a quick update, in case anyone else has been in the same boat here with weight loss.

Since my last post, I carried on with the diet and exercise, regardless of feeling deflated. I wasn't perfect. I stuck to 1200 cals a day and walked a lot, BUT, I still had wine a few times a week.

I didn't weight myself for ages, as I thought that I didn't want to disappoint myself. Well, I finally weighed myself yesterday, and I've lost 10 lbs !!

I've still got a long way to go - about another 2 stone to lose - but seeing the scales go down has massively improved my resolve.

So, to anyone else feeling discouraged, just keep going, it has to come off eventually!!

Oh well done,that's fantastic!

Well done!

Thank you! I am now going alcohol free, for a minimum of 21 days, to see how that helps further. I will report back!

10lbs! You're well on the right track now. Well done!

What is working for me
Protein in every meal.
Hardly any UPF. I am making my own curries, soups, sauces, breads etc. No shop bought cereal.
Water. I have cut coffee to two a day. At one point I was on much more than that!
One alcohol drink a week ( sometimes I skip that)
Weight training 4 x a week
Cardio 1 x a week
Flexibility x3
I have been doing this for a couple of months. I have not weighed my self but I am lighter and looking better.

Sorry, I posted but then I have just seen your update.
Well done. I am pleased for you.

I haven't read all, but are your clothes not fitting better? There's an app called Me360, it does all the measuring for you, maybe you're losing inches, not lbs?

Amazing! Well done, op!

That's really good to hear! You must be feeling so much better @CollagenQueen

(And good news about the alcohol too)

Wow, that’s impressive, well done!
how much were you thinking you had lost?

Well done!!

Make sure you include the calories for the wine in your 1,200 a day.

Yes!! This is brilliant. You’re proof it needn’t be on a crazy low calorie plan - you just need to be able to stick to it!!

well done. You should be so proud.