To not understand why I only ever gain weight while trying to lose it

[SEmyarse]

I've been overweight for years, but not hugely, I usually sit at about 11 stone naturally (at 5'5''). I would like to be slimmer, so inevitably I go on a health kick, and ALWAYS put on weight. People are going to start going on about muscle weighing more, but it totally doesn't feel like that at all, it's always just my stomach getting larger. And then I'll fall off the wagon and settle back to 11 stone again.

So 2 years ago, my youngest child left school, and it dawned on me that I've been trying to lose weight for 28 years, this is ludicrous, I have NEVER lost a single pound, that I'm aware of, intentionally.

So eat less, move more, right? How hard can it be? Two whole years now of getting up early, 20 min walk to the gym, 40 min there, 20 min back. Then off to my fairly active job, first hour lifting and loading things in the depot, then 6-10 hours deliveries. Obviously driving isn't super active, but it's short drop, I'm doing 25-30 an hour, always run back down driveways, or flat steps. I've never been a big eater at all, just bowl of cereal in the morning, and dinner at night. Dinner's vary a bit since DH cooks, but that really doesn't seem like a lot of food for my lifestyle. It's only standard stuff, pasta or potatoes or salad etc. I cut out the biscuits that I used to snack on completely. And apart from a glass of orange juice with breakfast I only ever drink water.

And now I'm 14 stone, what the hell am I doing wrong?

OP I also wonder whether you are insulin resistant and the carb heavy breakfast and dinner are inadvertantly causing weight gain. I would definitely go to your GP and request a blood test at the very least.

Another one here saying you need to see your GP - start with a full set of blood tests to make sure your hormones, blood sugars etc. are all where they should be, and to check that you're not deficient in anything.

Your diet sounds very unbalanced and not particularly healthy.

This is totally left field and I don’t mean to scare you, but it is entirely possible that the big tummy is not fat at all. You say bot squishy, thin arms and legs. There was a poster here a few years ago trying to lose weight with the same description of where the “fat” was, and it turned out to be ovarian cancer. Of course it doesn’t have to be that bad - but it could be al manner of things in your gut, rather than fat.

Agree with approaching GP, but keep an accurate food diary in the meantime as that’s always what you are asked to do anyway. If that means weighing food for a week or cooking your own meals or whatever then you might just have to do that if your DH won’t be on board with it. Until you accurately know what you’re taking in, it’s really hard to draw any conclusions. But if you’re genuinely active and eating what sounds like 1000 calories a day and gaining weight then that definitely needs a proper look at to rule things out. Separately I would look at a healthier diet generally.

If it's just your stomach maybe it's bloating from a food intolerance. As you put on weight when you try to lose it, maybe there is some food you are upping that you see as a healthy food which is the culprit.

The cereal is wrecking your blood sugar.

Haven't read the thread so it might already have been mentioned.

Listen to The Obesity Code podcast on Spotify.

Enough cereal to make you feel full all day until dinner time is going to be a massive amount of sugar. Weigh out your usual portion and work out how many calories it is and I bet you'll be shocked.

Drop it and swap to something high in protein. It'll make you feel full just like the cereal as protein makes you more satiated than sugar/carbs.

That'll probably be enough to kick start everything as you'll drop calories, level out your blood sugars, and probably crave less carbs on your evening meal.

Also get your thyroid tested - every woman over 35 should get it tested as it's really common and easily fixable but plays havock with your whole body throwing metabolism and other stuff out of whack.

Enough cereal to make you feel full all day until dinner time is going to be a massive amount of sugar. Weigh out your usual portion and work out how many calories it is and I bet you'll be shocked

I bought a box of flavoured porridge recently....I weighed out a small amount... genuinely a tiny amount, not even half of a standard cereal bowl...it was 600 calories. About half my daily allowance on a diet. The box remains untouched in my cupboard

Nope, not “talking shit”. 500 calories of butter is just over 50 grams. Weigh it out, it doesn’t look like much and it’s very easy to put that much on 2 slices of toast. DH literally had no idea, which is why weighing and measuring can be so enlightening.

It's true

Look at a portion size of cereal. 30-40g. Weigh that out and people quickly see what their portion size is compared to what it should be.

I do agree that the OP should see a doctor though.

dizziness could also be anaemia, not necessarily blood sugar.

I’ll say again, keep a very detailed and measured food diary for two weeks and go and see your gp.

try and track any symptoms, dizziness, bleeding (are you still having periods, how are they?), any pains anywhere in your body, body measurements taken morning and evening, how often you are peeing, any changes to bowel habits, energy levels, sleep.

become a detective and go and see the gp.

it could be insulin resistance and a lack of protein meaning you have no muscle tone so carry your weight in your tummy, or it could be fibroids, cysts, growths or something else.

explain to dh you need good metrics and data to share with the gp to investigate your health.

im afraid they won’t believe you saying you eat two meals a day and are gaining weight without really thorough evidence.

id also be inclined to have a calorie measures breakfast and dinner for two weeks and see what happens. So, packaged food only as you have the exact nutritional information. Yoghurt, a cereal bar and a small carton of juice for breakfast. Water only through the day. Dinner a ready meal (doesn’t have to be a horrible one, prepped veg and a main dish from a nice range). You can then be 100% certain of your intake and see what happens.

OP, in the first instance you need some facts on what your typical intake is. Count calories rigorously (and honestly) for a week, which will tell you whether your typical intake is 1,250, 1,500, etc. If DH won’t cooperate with that for just a week then you have separate issues.

Once you have a typical figure then that will inform your next steps - if it’s high then look to reduce it manageably, if it’s low then something isn’t adding up.

I was totally on board with all of this until you got to recommending packaged meals only. Cereal bars and packaged juice are horrific for health no matter the root cause of the weight gain.
You can keep a perfectly good food diary whilst focusing on healthy whole foods. And it will be taken much more seriously by healthcare professionals.
A glass of orange juice has a similar amount of sugar as a can of coke. This level of sugar consumption will aggravate a lot of different health issues, even if the root cause here isn’t blood sugar related.

But she can’t keel a food diary, she has railed against that in several posts. So the other option is to have things you are certain of, just for a very short period so that you can look at what the issue is. I’m not recommending living on it! They were mere examples of pre-packaged things that will have the nutrition not guess work. You could buy prepackaged fruit, a Greek yoghurt and a carton of juice, for dinner a pre-packed steam veg carton and a fish dish. It’s literally to eliminate the huge variables within a “bowl” of cereal and a dinner she won’t / can’t measure.

And yet oncei was in hospital for a week. For 3 days eating nothing at all and 4 more of2 digestive biscuits and a bana each day. At the end of that id gained 4lb. God knows how

I put on 2lbs this week eating healthily and 1100 calories. What i hadn’t done was a poo for a week due to medication. Some good laxatives and I lost 2.5lbs.

there are lots of explainable reasons for short term weight gain. 3st is not this situation, it’s not a dehydration reaction, water retention, medication or constipation. It isn’t flying back from holiday and gaining a couple of pounds or doing intense exercise or having a salty meal and weighing more the next day. There are natural fluctuations, but they are a blip on a trend, this is just an upwards line.

the most helpful thing would be to see a gp, people are concerned that there could be a serious undiagnosed reason for this weight gain and it should be investigated. Too many people (women in particular) put up with changes in their body and put it down to other things and don’t get proper investigations and care.

@RubySquid if you were in hospital for a week then there was obviously some medical issue that you were being treated for, presumably some medication as well, maybe fluid retention, lots of possibilities.

Nearly all posters on this thread have told the op she needs to count calories and check there isn’t a medical problem.

…… because unless there is some medical condition affecting your body then fewer calories = weight loss.

Sepsis. Only medicine was IV antibiotics

Still doesn't make sense when people say it's only calories that count. I gained weight on very few calories

Do the Human Being Diet by Petronella Ravenshear. It always works. I was similar to you and fought nothing was working and started it in March. It’s miraculous and you eat really well. The book is on Amazon.

When I had ?sepsis they pumped me full of fluids on top of the iv antibiotics. Could have been something like that, or the sudden reduction jn activity.

whatever, it’s a short term fluctuation vs long term trend. It is not comparable. It is suggested people weigh weekly as our weight naturally fluctuates for all manner of reasons but the overall trend is what matters.

@RubySquid your body weighed 4lb that's not the same as gaining 4lb of fat because eating what you did and after only 4 days is not possible.

Sorry. Your body weighed 4lb more

You need to see a dr

I’d agree on calorie counting but eating enough of the ‘right’ stuff (protein, fibre, etc) is even more important, something that’s taken me years to learn. That and low carb is working for me.