A week of careful calorie counting and gained weight!

[MotherForker]

I'm using the fitbit app. I've checked my TDEE/BMR independently and aimed for a 500 calorie deficit. And I've kept to that.

I run every other day, only 5-6k at the moment as just starting again after injury.

I started at 13st 1lb and this week I've gained 1lb! It's a bit demoralising! Any tips?

I feel your pain. My period is due and bam. I have gained, no word of a lie as I weight daily, 5lb overnight. It just makes me want to stuff my face.

I'd say it's definitely your period, I can be 5lb heavier that week and a couple days before

I'm also 5'6" and was the same weight at the beginning of last year- I started couch to 5k Boxing Day 2019 and am now 10st 8lb- but I didn't notice a difference on the scales until around March 2020! I was doing the 3x/week run (still am), daily yoga (sometimes as little as 10mins, sometimes 1/1.5hrs- eps when I was furloughed!), plus calorie counting (I allowed 1800cal/day- that was 'active' on the app). I would not survive on less!

Most of this calories on a good breakfast and dinner- lunch was smaller. I would pick eat in the mornings/evenings, so made sure I had had a substantial meal to stop that! I usually drink about 5l per day anyway, I really don't think I could drink more to keep hunger at bay (I suffer with HAs/migraines and dehydration is my biggest trigger).

Don't be discouraged! At the very least you'll be improving your fitness which will have a great impact on its own

If I ate what mfp said I could even with a 500 calories defeciet I would gain weight.
As I got older I needed less and less calories.
I eat 1200 a day, do 14-16 hr fasting and run 10km twice a week. Two strength sessions and walk dogs every day.
I surf or sea swim most days too.
I am early 50's menopausal and a size 12 at 5ft4.
Its simple if you arw gaining weight you are eating too many calories.
As for being hungry... Well it doesn't hurt you.
We seem as a society to fear a bit of hunger and feel we must snack... No... If you feel. Hungry just wait for your next meal... You don't need constant feeding

@Resistthethoughtpolice whilst I know that makes sense, I am also trying to do this at the same time as working full time from home and homeschooling two young dc. I did do a whole year without sugar once, but I just don't think I could do it at the moment. Same with alcohol. I'm drinking much less than I was in the first lockdown, but I need something to help me escape the shitness of life right now.

I am aching and I was off running for 18 months due to injury (and then covid). I did cycle during that time, but probably not enough to maintain my fitness.

I will persevere with 1600-1700 and try and up my protein. I have to be careful about eggs as my medicationalso makes me chronically constipated (oh the glamour!)

@Theredjellybean how do you fit all of that into a day? I walk the dog every day, usually between 1.5-2 hours over whole day.

I did 16:8 fasting before Christmas and did quite well, but not sure I could do that and calorie count?

The hunger thing- this isn't natural hunger though, this is medication induced hunger. I liken it to hangover carb hunger. If I am so hungry at night, that my stomach is rumbling, I can't sleep. Being this hungry makes me snappy with the children I am trying to homeschool and work full time at the same time.

I have also done 5:2 in the past, very successfully, but I am not allowed to do that due to medication now.

I think you need to be a bit kinder to yourself and give yourself a break
Right now set fitness goals and view any weight gain as a bonus.
In COVID times I reckon not gaining weight is a result!

How are people coping with the insane stress of lockdown, working, homeschooling (and I'm in the middle of a divorce) without nice food?

@PurpleDandelions thanks. Maybe you are right. I haven't been this overweight for so long though. None of my clothes fit.

We have lots of nice food!
Just finished a fab roast dinner
Got some lovely hake for tomorrow.

@MotherForker remember that as your fitness improves your ability to use up calories quickly will hugely increase and the whole thing will become easier. When I was really ill I couldn't help but put on weight because my ability to burn calories was so crap.

Calorie counting is a road to nowhere. We are not like a combustion engine.

Low carb / absolutely no refined sugar or carbohydrate, seed oils or ultra processed foods is the way to go.

There is a reason why this is true but it would involve a very long post.

So take a look at any of these people who all say the same thing in different ways: most are drs

Michael Moseley
Jason Fung
David Irwin
Dave Feldman
Zoë Harcombe
Aseem Malhotra

I get up very early... Naturally.. Usually run from 5am for hr, then do some work, stop about 9ish, have dog walk on beach, I swim or surf after that.
We live literally on a beach.. Run on coastal path.
Its harder in winter when it's dark.
I am lucky week day job super flexible and I onky have young adult older teens at home

Sorry missed the meds bit... Yep of it's steroids it a very nawring un relentless hunger.
Difficult to lose with that

@hamstersarse I think the jury is still out. I could equally list the doctors out there who think that CICO is the only sensible approach.
And for many of us it works really well.

I think we need to all find the approach that works for us and be less dogmatic about there being only one true way.

@hamstersarse thanks. It just doesn't sound very much fun 😉

My ASD dd only eats a variation of beige foods (actually her fruit /veg is OK). We don't eat much meat as she doesn't eat it and neither odes my veggie ds. This makes low carb more tricky.

Eating no refined sugar at the moment just sounds like punishment. I've seriously cut down my chocolate habit, but sometimes after falling at parenting and working I need some sort of treat/pick me up

Maybe I'm a lost cause!

What did I just say about being kind to yourself?

@MotherForker I am making sure that my low calorie foods are bloody delicious 😂 which helps to cut out the chocolate, biscuits and cakes.

So I make a lot of casseroles and tasty soups.

Beef casserole for example is just under 300 calories a serving, I make it with 400g beef then whack in lots of veg like chestnut mushrooms, green beans, carrot and tinned tomatoes, herbs and seasoning.

Serve that with a heaping load of asparagus, green beans or broccoli that have been roasted with a little olive oil, garlic and sea salt. Green beans are 40 calories a cup, olive oil is 40 calories for 1tsp.

You can have a mini fry up for around 200 calories if you grill back bacon (2 slices) and serve with mushrooms (1 cup) and 2 medium sized eggs fried with fry light spray.

If you miss bread you can buy the mini loaves, 1 slice is 58 calories. If I do 1 slice with a tsp of can't believe it's not butter that's enough to satisfy the craving without killing my calorie count. Add it to the fry up as fried bread to bulk that out and you still have a meal for under 300 calories.

This thread is making me hungry!
I thing I need to leave.

I'm going to make some veg soup I think. Any recipes welcome.

I can do without bread, after the first few weeks I don't miss it. It's just very convenient.

Lots of soup lovers over on the Lose It thread

LOSE IT! January 2021 http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weightlosss_chat/4119782-LOSE-IT-January-2021

The general theory seems to be, put whatever you have in a pot with mushroom, veg or chicken stock. Simmer for 30 minutes, season then blitz with stick blender. It usually ends up being a flavourful bowl of stuff 😆

This is a very old discussion in which I posted 10 years ago under another username
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/food_and_recipes/1328336-please-post-your-yummiest-soups-recipes

So on the soup front, there are some rules and combination that work well and other not so much. Mushroom are not a good addition in soup unless you are doing a mushroom soup because some will turn black and the taste is not so nice. Mushroom are nicer roasted in the oven.
Pumpkin + carrot + 1 onion is a nice combination
Tomato soup is easy
Minestrone is excellent

My father is from Belgium and we used to spend the holidays on the coast. In UK you have the ice-cream van, in Belgium, we had the soup cart, and when hearing the bell, women came out of the house with pot, and soup is sold by the ladle. In Belgium , in winter , you eat soup every day at dinner. Soup is the first baby food .

OF course, avoid the cream, the butter, and no bread. Be careful with the cheese. You can use instead nutritional yeast which will boost your protein and vitamin Bs.

Your weight can fluctuate by a few pounds in a day. Two measurements a week apart isn't enough to tell if the diet is working or not.

Your calories sound high. I would got for around 1200. There is nothing wrong with being hungry when you are on a diet, that's when your body will start using your fat reserves.

Why would you go hungry?

Of you're hungry, eat sensible good and portions