To think I’ll be stuck at 16 stone forever

[justmeandthedogs]

I’m in the process of losing weight and since the start of the year I’ve lost about 13lbs.

But I seem to be in a loop. I’ll hit 16 stone 0.3 on the scales and then go back up to 16 stone 4, then go back down, then back up. It’s like an annoying cycle.

I eat well:

breakfast - yoghurt with berries and sometimes a drizzle of honey. On low protein days I’ll add some skyr.

lunch - something from home. Usually soup, a salad or a bit of meat with some veg.

dinner - again something prepped. Can be another big salad, cottage pie, pasta bake.

I eat 1550 calories a day, which is a deficit for my height and weight. I go to the gym twice a week (under the direction of a PT, to lift weights), try to run 3 times a week but I’m waiting on some new running shoes, and the other two days a week I’ll walk 10k steps minimum. I try to drink 4 litres of water a day at least.

my clothes fit better but the scale just won’t change 😥 do I just accept I’m stuck here?

I would say stop weighing yourself because it's fucking with your head!
Maybe 1 X a week or 1 X a fortnight carry on being consistent with what your doing and I thing you will be pleasantly surprised ❤️

If this is the case for you then you probably have fairly low muscle mass. You can increase your muscle with a planned programme if you want to. You'll have to be ok with minor weight gain on the scales though but it will be beneficial for your health, longevity and enabling you to eat more :)

I agree. If the objective is weight loss alone then excersize is not helpful. You end up having to eat 350 extra calories to fuel a 5k run so you don't pass out. Easier not to eat the 350 calories and sit on the sofa. (And of course if you eat 350 cals in carbs to fuel a run it is very, very easy for that to become 700cals becaise after all you're going for a run.)

For me the big wins from exercise is that while I'm exercising I'm not grazing and it kills my appetite for an hour or so.

This isn't how energy expenditure works.

What makes you think she's gaining muscle? How?

I don’t even necessarily want to be slim. I want to be healthy, and I have a secret goal to run a marathon, which would not be possible at my current weight

So much terrible advice on this thread!! And misinformation. First of all: calories in vs calories out is absolute rubbish. If you eat 500 calories worth of biscuits in the morning, and then go to the gym and run on the treadmill til it says 500 calories - you have NOT cancelled out the biscuits. Because you use energy from glycogen stores in your liver and muscle before you start burning fat. You would need to burn about 3000calries worth of energy before you get to your fat stores and most of us who are not elite athletes don't get anywhere near that in one gym session. That's not to say you shouldn't exercise as it has loads of other brilliant benefits (including reducing insulin resistance) but it does NOT burn off fat. Advice to reduce calories further is also terrible. You'll be really hungry and it's not sustainable. Stop focusing on calories and instead have a really good look at what you are eating. Anything that has sugar in it or carbs that break down quickly into sugars (potato in cottage pie, pasta etc) are extremely insulinogenic and will make it very difficult to lose weight. You need to cut those out for now. Focus on protein and low carb fruit and veg, healthy whole fats (eg full fat Greek yoghurt etc). No UPF. Don't use diet or low fat products, they are usually full of crap. A boiled egg is 70 calories, same as a muller light yoghurt for example but much less insulinogenic and keeps you fuller for much longer. That's why focusing on calories is not helpful.

Way too many carbs. Your stores are only accessed in the absence of insulin.

The repeat carb intake (even salad) will keep releasing insulin.

What is your height ?

I see you haven't responded to any of the comments abut weight loss injections.
They helped me lose 6 stone and I'm now a healthy weight.
Like you, I was insistent I was tracking my calories correctly. Evidently I wasn't.

People lose weight on Atkinson because they eat a lot of fat and protein which is very satiating and therefore they eat in a calorie deficit without effort. It also has the effect of balancing blood sugar and reducing insulin resistance. It still works by creating a calorie deficit.

So what am I meant to eat? I thought 120g of lean protein a day with 7+ portions of fruit and veg, some fats from
yoghurt and EVOO and whole carbs was a good thing?

I’m not keen on them, I have considered them. I am 99% sure I’m tracking correctly.

Because you'll be eating more veg, protein and fat in place of the carbs and feeling more satiated thereby making it easier to eat in calorie deficit. Not because carbs have some intrinsic fat retaining properties.

There is always one term in these threads that imo is pretty much always the answer. The OP will say how the diligently weigh food, do their exercise etc but they refuse to budge on their daily allowance as that’s what their TDEE tells them.

Always amazes me, it’s the TDEE! Why are people fixated on a number that simply asks them age, height, weight and a very basic question about exercise (what is ‘moderate’ anyway!). For a start, as previous posters have stated, exercise has very very little impact, it’s all about calories in. You are simply eating too much, people who are slim don’t eat much that’s why they are slim.

A great source of nutritional information is the Zoe podcasts. Also would you consider weight loss injections? I was like you going up and down the same loss and regain. Had my thyroid checked and I’m hypothyroid. Could you be?

Weight training and clothes fitting her better would suggest that.

OP there are some shitty people on this thread and some poor advice! Its sounds like you are doing everything right but have hit at plateau, this does happen. Eating at maintenance for a week helped kickstart me again. Iv lost 20kg in about 18 months, it is slow and sometime very frustrating! Going lower in calories is not sustainable especially if you are running which could lead to binge eating. Your clothes are fitting better which is a huge sign that this is working, keep going and stay consistant

Because 1200 calories is the allowance for a toddler
at 16 stone with exercise, her TDEE and therefore deficit should be way higher so something isn’t right

If you want to be able to eat a 'balanced' diet you will need to eat a lot, lot less than you think. And if you are exercising that will be hard, because exercise makes you hungry. Go on the WLIs and then you'll be able to eat any food you like because you won't be able to eat very much of anything.

If you don't want to go on WLIs then you should follow a low carb diet focusing on protein, meat, fish, greek yogurt, eggs and low carb vegetables with a few very low carb fruits like berries. You won't need to calorie count and can eat as much as you like, providing they are not carb heavy foods. You will burn body fat far quicker that way than going to the gym and eating carbs for the energy you will need. That's digging holes to fill them halfway in again. It can feel slow, laborious and counter-productive, as you are finding.

While it's good to exercise for lots of reasons, it's a pretty inefficient way to lose weight if you are still going to eat too much of the wrong things. Not that any food is 'wrong,' just wrong in the context of what you are trying to achieve.

Are you counting your calories correctly is the new cancel the cheque.

Are you measuring anything else other than weight? Body composition can change - fat loss and muscle gain can actually increase your weight, but your health status is still changing. I think you probably ARE still losing fat, but possibly other factors are affecting your actual weight - water retention from carbs maybe, or like I say, muscle gain from your training.
If you don't have them already, I would get some scales that measure your body composition including body fat percentage, water mass, muscle mass etc and track this, as well as physical measurements like your waist and hips etc.

Have you amended your TDEE after losing weight so far? Adjusting your intake based on your current weight?

Also, I've read that with a plateau it usually can mean your body has adapted - so changing something in your routine can help. You day reducing calories further doesn't work well for you, so can you change up your gym routine? Different exercises, level of intensity, length of workouts etc?
As a PP said, you could also try intermittent fasting or changing up your calories on different days to see if this has any impact.

One other thing - how balanced is your plate? Are you getting the right balance of protein, fats, carbs, but also fibre and fruit / veg? You say you're tracking macros but have only really mentioned protein and calories.

It sounds like you're doing all the right things, and you're still seeing changes despite the scales staying the same so I would take that as a win. I bet your other measurements ARE changing too. I'm currently in a WL plateau so I am thinking of trying some of the above too. Let us know how you get on X

Well done on your weight loss so far.

I don’t use a set amount of calories when I start dieting, I gradually reduce my fairly calories until I start loosing weight. If you are not losing weight at 1550 then 1550 isn’t your deficit for your height and weight. Try 100 calories less and see what happens.

When I’m dieting the results are very closely related to my calorie intake.

I also lose weight very slowly. I find it hard. I just need to shift half a stone at the moment but it’s taking forever

This is your answer, OP.

A few weeks in the context of something you've been doing since the start of the year is really not much.

You have to look at the total loss over the 5 months you've been doing it. It's normal to plateau for a few weeks, it is frustrating but just keep doing what you're doing and it will eventually break.

The problem is when people plateau and then stop what they're doing, and then of course they're going to gain again.

Your body isn't a machine, it doesn't work on a steady downward trajectory - it will be up, down, plateau, down again, plateau again, maybe up a bit, etc. That's just how it goes.

As long as you know you are doing the right things (which you are), just keep right on. You need to give it a good 6-8 weeks to truly see if it's not working. If you are still doing it the same and still at this weight at the end of May/ June, then maybe think about changing something.

It sounds to me like you're doing great :)

I have to have a much bigger deficit than the 500 it takes to lose 1lb, I simply don’t lose unless 700-800 deficit. Can you increase your steps before cutting calories?