Why am I not losing weight?

[BurningWeight]

I’ve been dieting since January 1st and haven’t lost any weight. I am 5ft 6, 163lbs and have a sedentary lifestyle. According to online calculators, my maintenance calories is 1,700, so I’ve been having at a maximum of 1,300 a day.

An average day is:

Breakfast; 3 chicken sausages, 2 turkey bacon and an egg.

Lunch; fat free Greek yoghurt, 1tsp honey, berries.

Dinner; pasta with homemade sauce and lettuce / tomatoes / cucumber.

I am weighing oil etc so it isn’t that. I’m not having any additional calories such as teas or coffees. Can anyone identify where I am going wrong?

Before going on a diet, I was maintaining my weight and just eating pure shite to be honest. Chocolate, sweets, sugary yogurts, biscuits, crisps, take aways… so it has been a significant lifestyle change and shift, I can’t understand why nothing is being reflected on the scales.

Agreed. I was taking issue with suggesting she remove (sorry, “avoid”) the only protein sources in her day and replace them with more veg because a couple of hundred calories on yoghurt and chicken sausage was deemed too much.

We did those starve yourself, live off vegetables diets in the eighties and nineties and look where that got us. Skinny fat and starving with no muscle, knackered metabolisms and rebound weight the minute we started eating again.

My point is just that protein is important, especially when on a diet. Cutting it out to save a few calories is going to backfire in the long run.

Edited to add - obviously vegetables are very important! In case I implied otherwise. Just that protein is necessary too, even a vegan would say that.

Thats mostly fruits so a lot of sugar.

The yogurt has protein in it.

Yes it does. It’s a brilliant, healthy protein source. And the previous poster had suggested avoiding it because it was too calorie dense - that was what I objected to 😁

Jesus. Can’t you read? I wasn’t suggesting SHE remove it. I said I avoid it.

Oh I see and I agree.

Oh come on, don’t be disingenuous. If OP asks why she isn’t losing weight and you reply mentioning the things in her list that you’d avoid because they’re too calorie dense then obviously the implication is that you’re advising her to do the same.

I dont know why you’ve blown this up into a row though, I was perfectly entitled to put an alternative opinion and I didn’t do it rudely.

Not sure about calories, but that doesn’t look like a great diet to me. I would cut down on the ultra processed crap.

E.g omelette with mushrooms and avocado instead of all the ultra processed meat. Full fat Greek yogurt - not fat free which likely has sugar as a fat replacement. Skip the honey. I would avoid white pasta, but if you must, make sure it’s a very small portion and stick some chicken or other protein in it.

I really recommend the fast800 method. I really struggle to lose weight but this worked for me. Currently (post Christmas!) doing 5 fasting days/2 normal but will swap it back around when I'm back within my target weight

Not sure I’d ever think of yogurt as “dense”

Could be cortisol? You must be run ragged 4 kids and 12 hour days, this might lead to insulin resistance, cut out the pasta, insulin resistance loves pasta, I use the skinny pasta from b n m tastes like pasta but almost zero cals. I'd have the turkey sausages but have loads of mushrooms and grilled Tom's too.

31 and the steps fluctuate between 4k - 8k.

Just keep going, throw in some resistance or weights, lots of fluid and just keep going. Sometimes it takes me weeks to start losing weight and then it drops quickly and continues. It’s so easy just to give up when it’s about to start paying off.

Drop 100 calories and add 1000 steps if you’ve lost nothing in another week or so.

So you are pretty young and not menopausal or anything.

Yeah I’d massively up your exercise, try and burn 400 a day and keep your calorie intake around 1500. You can get little walker machines too that you can store easily. Just walk while you watch TV when the kids are in bed?

It should work for you 1.5 lbs a week no problem

We are only into the second week! Give it time and keep going!

Weight training, walking. Alternate and do one daily.

Don’t give up! It is only 2 weeks in and can take some time to start seeing results. Also slow and steady better for long term change.

I was similar weight/height as you. So not loads to lose and also quite sedentary. I started in July and lost 9lbs up to Christmas and for the first time in a long time wasn’t in the overweight BMI. Weight mostly stayed off over Christmas (couple of pounds gained) and I’m back on it again now.

I’ve tracked all calories in the NHS weight loss app. Avoided processed food and eaten more whole food. And upped exercise a little. Doing some resistance exercises morning and evening. Weight loss has been very slow. But it has stayed off and I feel I’ve made a life style change.

You can do this. 2 weeks in is such early days. Don’t go back when you’ve already done the hard bit of making life style changes. Results WILL come. Good luck.