I only lost 500g in all of January and am feeling gutted.

[vincettenoir]

I have put on 8 kilos over the last year and in Jan I have been using the NHS better health app to try to lose weight. But it’s just not happening for me. I eat around 1400 calories a day and I do hiit workouts and I go for walks. I thought that given I have a fair bit of excess weight the first couple of kilos would come off really fast, but they haven’t. I am making a concerted effort with counting calories and being active. Where could I be going wrong?

I’m not familiar with that app. When you say counting calories are you weighing and logging everything on the app like on MFP?
If so are you also logging your exercise? That tends to add additional ‘earned’ calories on MFP & that’s the only time I never lost weight when logging my cals. I’ve seen the same issue mentioned on a few chats because cals burned can be overestimated so it could be that, or else your scales aren’t accurate so your food portions are more than expected? It maybe your ‘around 1400 calories a day’ isn’t accurate.
Do you weigh yourself at the same time each day? How long have you been doing it?

What does a typical day look like food wise? Are you tracking all your drinks and snacks. Drink plenty of water etc

Same questions as @flowerythoughts

Usually when people say "around x calories" they are guesstimating.
And absolutely don't eat, or at least not all of the, exercise calories back. I had issue with it for two weeks. It was just greatly overestimated.

I am sure you will get some advice here which will help you crack it.

Also, remember taht the less you have to lose, the more difficult it can be because you need to create considerable deficits. It's a different matter if someone needs to lose 80kg or 8 kg.

I count all calories in drinks and sauces even down to a teaspoon of mustard. My calorie counting is careful and accurate I believe. This app does not give additional calories for exercise so that’s not where I’m going wrong. I thought going down to 1400 calories a day was a good way to lose weight as it would be sustainable over 12 weeks or so. When I say around 1400 a day I mean 1400 max so one day it might be 1290 and the next day it might be 1350. But the results are so slow I feel like I am on the wrong track. But I have a toddler and couldn’t handle some crazy-arse crash diet because it wouldn’t suit my lifestyle. Has anyone had a similar problem?

You should you've been doing exercise, have you considered that you've been puuting on muscle mass? Muscle is far denser than fat, so for example it is quite possible to put on say 1kg of muscle, lose 900g of fat. In this case only using net weight gain or loss you have put on 100g, but in actual fact you have gained 1kg of muscle and lost 900g of fat. What your weight is doesn't strictly matter, whatatters is losing fat, and given your exercises, you will put on muscle mass, and through this gain muscle weight, as a % of your body weight.

You said*

Ah well, that is frustrating!
And I absolutely agree that crash diets isn't a way to go.
Do you see a difference in your body though? That sometimes happens when people start working out more. The shape changes, body gets smaller, but weight stays kind of a same for a while, then drops.

www.active.com/fitness/calculators/bmr#:~:text=Basal%20Metabolic%20Rate%20is%20the,gender%2C%20age%20and%20weight%20below.

Your basal metabolic rate s how many calories you need to neither lose nor gain weight. You can use that to see what your calories need to be.

That sounds appealing hopefully I have been putting on some muscle mass. I would just like to see some tangible results. I’m still hoping if I stick with it that will come over time. But I’m just having a bit of a wobble and doubting what I am doing.

I just feel a bit like I might aswell have been eating chips every day.

My basalmetabolic rate is 1431. So does that mean I should eat less calories than that per day?

@vincettenoir

That sounds appealing hopefully I have been putting on some muscle mass. I would just like to see some tangible results. I’m still hoping if I stick with it that will come over time. But I’m just having a bit of a wobble and doubting what I am doing.

We all wobble sometimes. Measure yourself and use both weight and measures. It often happend to me that one didn't move while the other did.

Basal metabolic rate is an absolute base without any movement extra, like walking or... Well movement. Tdee is what you need to look at. That includes anything outside of rest.

But if your bmr is 1400 you should be losing on 1400.

I don't know the app so I wonder what their food etc is like? Maybe the food in there is too salty? I hold water like my life depended on it if I eat salt a lot. But it's nhs so I doubt it.

Can you pop here some of your food for a day example?

I've reduced mine to 1200 calories and having good steady weight loss, did you take your measurements start of the month? It's worth measuring. Also, is your period due? My period masks weight loss, so I don't weigh the week before or after, I try to weigh once a month.

Yesterday I had shaksuka with 2 eggs for breakfast, a falafel pitta wrap with lots of salad for lunch and a cauliflower curry with a small triangle of wholemeal chapati for dinner. Then 125 ml of red wine. I usually go for wholemeal carbs at lunchtime and keep dinners fairly light on carbs often going for soups and zero noodle dishes.

I do usually add salt to meals. Perhaps that’s something I could improve on.

It could be period related actually. I ran my pill packs together on the advice of my dr this month.

I would do intermittent fasting (16:8 or 18:6), skipping breakfast and drop the wine. So much easier to fit into family life. I’ve found it the easiest one to stick to since having children. There is great science behind it too.

@vincettenoir it's something to do with the water retention I think, it'll mask up to a 3lb loss for me, so maybe weigh again in a week, I know it's so disheartening. Just as a warning 1400 calories a day is a supposed 1lb loss a week on my MFP but I find I need to eat 1200 or less to get about 1.5lb loss a week, don't take it as gospel that 1400 calories = 1lb a week loss although MFP says that.

Oh and like a pp I inadvertently fast because I don't eat after 7pm and don't eat until lunch time next day, I used to love breakfast but find if I delay eating that actually it delays my appetite. If I eat breakfast I find myself hungry for a mid morning snack, if I fast I can quite easily satisfy myself with water until lunch time. It means I can use my calories on a couple of heartier meals.