How come I'm not losing weight?

[SillyTilly123]

I've just done my bmi and I know I'm over weight.

I'm 5'0, 11 stone with a bmi of 31 which is obese.

The nhs thingy said I should be eating 1369-1760 calories a day.

However I'm using my fitness pal and on a normal day (without trying) I will eat around 1500, when i'm trying i will eat 1200. I walk the dog for an hour 5 x a week, plus usual looking after 3 kids, running a house etc. So why am I not losing any? Its really disheartening.

I don't want to go on any particular diet as I cannot afford to cook seperately for me-I just have a smaller portion of what dp and the kids have.
I dont eat chocolate or drink wine, I dont snack at all or eat late.

Try even smaller portions, if you can, that might help, if you can't really change what you are eating.

It does sound quite stodgy though, tbh, sorry.

I've lost weight ( about 1 & half stone) through stopping snacking and eating much less at lunchtime, so maybe soup with one slice of wholemeal bread or 1 slice toast with a poached egg. I only have a full sandwich/toastie or panini once or twice a week.

I think the problem with apps like that is that people's metabolisms vary a huge amount.

In your position, I would up the amount of exercise including real cardio - how fast are you actually walking when you walk the dogs? - and also focus on building strength (muscle burns more energy than fat, and

I honestly wouldn't cut down on the food too much further as there is a tipping point where your metabolism will actually slow down as it senses the possibility of famine.

Resetting your metabolism can take a while, but the long-term benefits are worth it. I would increase the size of your breakfast (and decrease the size of lunch/dinner accordingly), consider using part of your calorie allowance for snacks (particularly veg-based snacks), and cut way down on the processed carbs. Never have bread where there is an alternative and if you do have bread, never ever have white bread. You need to make your body work harder to process the food you're eating.

The sausage carrerole was just 1 meal. Sometimes we have burgers with salad, roast dinners, spag bol, curry and rice, stir fry etc, its not all stodgy meals. Tonight is Jacket potatoes with salad.

Burgers..........spag bol......curry and rice..........roast dinners.......sorry but none of these are diet foods. Swap your jacket potato for a sweet potato.

Stir fry all good though :)

Hello. How long have you been on your diet? I think it can be hard to lose weight when you're 5ft because you need so few calories in the first place. I'm 5ft 4 and I weigh about 9 1/2 stone now (down from 13 st 9 18 months ago). I am quite sedentary so only need 1500 cals a day. I try to live on 1200-1300 a day but if it takes 3,500 cals to burn a lb that could take me a couple of weeks and I just need one takeaway for a setback. I only want to lose another half stone and it is taking forever.

I'm not dieting as such, just reducing the food i eat (smaller portions) I try to keep at the 1200-1300 calories a day. I'm going to be much more strict with myself

(And sorry but i dont like sweet potato i know i know )

OP - I would try eggs again, perhaps do a microwave poached egg (just pop it in a mug for 40 seconds).

Failing that, cut it to one slice of toast.

I, like you only liked porridge with sugar on, but have retrained myself to like porriage with blueberries and sliced bananas instead - it takes time but is a far healthier start to the day.

I'm on MFP and was also told 1200 cals if I wanted to lose weight, 1500 for maintenance, and I'm 5'0". I found that I was overestimating my portions, are you weighing things like pasta and rice and putting in the actual amounts you are eating rather than just picking MFP's "1 portion of .... " ? I also lost weight when I stopped allowing myself extra cals for the exercise I was doing! If I walk for 60 minutes, I don't up my total cals allowance anymore.

I also didn't want to make 2 meals, and didnt want to spend a fortune, lots of roast vegs with every meal is the best way to do it.

Good luck.

A trainer once said to me, he told all his clients (wanting to lose weight) that in the first 6-8 weeks forget about changing what you are eating and concertrate on how much you are eating.

It is calories that mater, god you will lose weight if you eat the right amout of calories in mars bars.

There isn't any rocket science involved. Like I said find a website (I'll have a look too) That tells you how many calories you burn just from doing your daily life and then eat accordinly.

Sorry, x-post times a thousand and I failed to finish a sentence or two.

Have just seen your update - you do really need to look at the amount of carbs and in particularly starchy carbs you're eating and replace them with something that makes your body work harder. Adapt the meals you're making your family - they get stirfry with rice or noodles, you just get the stirfry - no rice. Swap your potato for other vegetables. If you feel you must eat pasta, bread or rice make sure it's brown. Corn cake with avocado for breakfast instead of toast. Revisit some of the foods you don't like - not liking fish is a catch all because different fish tastes really different. When did you last eat tuna, or salmon, or mackerel? What white fishes have you tried recently? Batch cook for yourself for the week ahead and reheat as you go so you're not cooking double meals all the time.

And if your husband goes hungry rather than eating food you want to eat or cooking for himself, then bloody let him.

It is calories that mater, god you will lose weight if you eat the right amout of calories in mars bars.

Newbie - not convinced that is true to be honest.....1200 cals of good nutritional food is far better and effective than 1200 cals of mars bars. I know you are only using that as an example but............. (no offence meant BTW)

oh and OP, you're going to have to decide if you want to be thin or not. If you do, you might have to start retraining yourself to like, or at least tolerate, more healthy foods, put bluntly, you aren't going to get thin eating the same diet that made you fat.

I read that lily allen(I think)for a week just had milkshakes and fluids to kickstart her metabolism and then stuck to low cal diet inc exercise..maybe you just need to kick start your metabolism

No offence to anyone but most talk of metabolism is myth.

Studied have shown that ones metabolism has little to do with weight usually because there is nothing wrong with their metabolism in the first place.

It's the big bone or in the genes argument.

Of course certain food are digested in different ways and the body reacts differently to different foods. But no food is bad for you in the right quantity.

A healthy diet is a balanced diet, cutting thingsout leads to fads and yoyo weight loss weight gain.

I do know a lot of people who walk lots but don't lose weight - are you doing any other exercise? Are you weighing out portions? That can make a difference. Rosemary Conley sells portion pots which are good. I think for your height you probably are just eating a few too many calories, if you're doing a low fat diet.

Honestly, though, it's quite common to go on a low fat diet and not lose a thing. It clearly works for some, but I had a year on a low fat diet (and stuck to it religiously) and would lose a pound one week, nothing the next, put on half a pound a week later. Had no results beyond that. The paleo diet works differently, I stick to it in the same way and weight falls off. I know lots of other people that's happened to too. Not saying you have to do low carb/paleo, you just might be on the wrong diet for your Body,

You need to be realistic. Walking your dog for an hour and only covering 2 miles is not a lot of exercise. I walk my dog for an hour every morning and we cover more like 3 or 4 miles. Still, I do other exercise on top of this and you probably should too.

It's brilliant that you don't snack-stick with that habit and the dog walking is fab.

Just change them slightly and it'll drop off. If you want to shift it reasonably quickly then you have to be stricter - think tomato/non starchy veg soup(certainly no added cream or anything), switch to jam or something instead of lurpack on your toast, just have the sausage with lots of veg and miss out the carbs, have porridge with canderel and water or skimmed milk and make sure it's measured. Don't have take aways.

What you eat now is fine to maintain weight, but you'll not lose any.

I suppose if you really don't want to change then the other answer is start running with the dog. The only people I know who have lost weight are those on very few calories and runners.

I am building up to jogging, but i'm a bit self conscious, but getting better :)

Try to walk faster if you can, I do about 4 miles in an hour, uneven/hilly.

When I started exercising more it would take me about 1hr15mins to do 4miles & I just try and walk faster each time.

I don't think you necessarily need to eat 'diet' foods, just smaller amounts if the food is not esp healthy (burger/spag bol etc)

I cannot really walk too fast as I have fatty lumps (not sure on medical term as doc was uninterested) in both legs which hurt if I walk too fast, but they don't seem to hurt too much when i've done a little bit jogging (I'm assuming I'm using different muscles or something) so am going to try jogging a bit more.

Hi OP, just totting what you ate yesterday on WW pro-points, you would have easily gone over.

I don't really follow it seriously anymore, so someone else may advise better, but I would roughly tot up in my head:

2 slices toast - 8
baked beans - 3ish - could be more
bread - 2
butter on bread? 1
egg 2

milk for tea 2-3

which is 18 points - which leaves only 8 left for dinner, and I think sausage casserole & mash are far more than 8 points - even a small portion.

I just totted up my points for the whole day today, and it's around 19 or 20, and I'm a lot taller than you.

I think you should try cutting out the bread & beans at lunchtime - have an omelette instead. Cut down to one slice at breakfast? Also, sausage & mash would have been a complete no-no for me when I was dieting.

When I wanted to lose weight after dc3, I found WW very good, but I was hungry on it frequently. And no takeaways. Def no kebab meat!

I recently lost 4 stone just using mfp. I didn't log any activity I just saw it as a bonus. I set my cals at 1500 but aimed for 1200 and each day was somewhere inbetween. I hate eggs for breakfast but I eat them for lunch sometimes too. Breakfast for me was porridge or Greek yog with fruit and I put cinnamon on everything as it helps regulate blood sugar so I didn't need as much sugar or sweetner.

If I have eggs for lunch I scramble them, cover them in tabasco and serve them with just tomatoes or have poached eggs or an omelette with mushrooms or spinach. You could make frittata and both take that for lunch.

I weighed myself every day for a while, I noticed my weight loss was faster without rice, pasta and bread so I cut them out for a bit. I didn't low carb but had a few low carb meals and kept an eye out on the low carb thread for ideas.

Oatcakes and pb were a great snack and breakfast as were apple slices with philly and cinnamon.

I eat sausage and mash too but use other root veg or butternut squash.or celeriac chips.

Cutting out salt and drinking the water also helps.

Im not a massive salad fan either but find a decent yogurt and use it to make coleslaws and that helped me enjoy a salad.

My guess would be that your evening meal is more calories than you are estimating. It may be you are underestimating everything. What did the portion of sausage casserole look like? Was it more than 1 sausage? More than 2 tablespoons of mash? Any butter in the mash?

Potatoes and pasta are hugely calorific. Weigh everything. Have a look at what 50g of uncooked pasta looks like. Put the potato you're baking on the scales than find a calories per gram calculator on the internet and find out how much you are really eating.

I decided to lose weight in the new year after being 'relaxed' about my diet since I was pg with DD2 (nearly 2). What I am eating now is miniscule compared to my previous diet but I'm still only losing 1-2lb a week. (Not recommending this but) I eat:

1 coffee for breakfast
1 sandwich for lunch or soup (not cream based) with 1 slice of bread
Waitrose calorie controlled micro meal (under 400 cal) and half a dinner plate's worth of veg or salad for dinner.
I might allow myself 1-2 rich tea biscuits as a treat.

I don't think I get as much exercise as you although I don't drive so walk everywhere and have 2 kids under 5 at home 2 days per week, work 2 days per week.

I'm pretty sure I eat no more than 1000 cal a day. If I ate any more I'd lose nothing!

What I'm saying is you need to cut down further if you are not losing. Suggestions about upping protein and lowering carbs would help to stop you feeling hungry whilst doing this.

I think you really do need to cut out most of the carbs and replace what's left with lower go carbs like brown rice and whole meal bread. You are not going to lose weight eating buttery toast and mashed potatoes and not being more active. If you can't exercise more then you have got to eat less and stop making excuses about why you can't cut things out.

Do those of you who are constantly dieting not miss food? I love food (which is why I am overweight) and it makes me sad that I'd have to forgo nice food. I could live on toast but to think I should only be having 1 slice a morning is depressing.. I know its the price you have to pay though.

Mfp tells everyone to eat 1200 its ridiculously low. Find out your basal metabolic rate and eat that amount of calories and don't log exercise.