Not losing weight despite massively cutting back

[Morgun]

Can anyone analyse what I’m eating and tell me where I’m going wrong? I’ve cut back so much yet the scales are not shifting. I’m 5ft 8 and 16st

breakfast - porridge oats, 2 slices of wholemeal toast with low fat spread, a fat free yogurt and a banana

lunch - pasta salad with a wholemeal roll and a packet of low calorie crisps.

Aftetnoon snack - apple, nuts and sometimes a fat free yogurt but not always

dinner - homemade spaghetti bolognese (wholemeal spaghetti), 2 small slices of garlic baguette, a weight watchers mouse and a piece of fruit

evening snack - a couple of biscuits

this is far less than I used to eat yet the scales are not budging. I’m being told to cut down further but I can’t see what else I can do, I’m struggling as it is.

You have more fruit than veggies there that I can see. You need to reverse that.
you should also (perhaps counterintuitively) have the full fat butter and yoghurts. This will fill you up far more than the fat free versions that are jacked up with sugar and sweeteners to make them taste nice.
You also still need to cut the quantities. 2 yoghurts and a mousse in one day feels excessive to me. You also don’t need pasta AND garlic bread (carb plus carb) or oats AND toast (ditto).
Keep trying. I know it’s hard.

Swapping to wholemeal bread maybe marginally better for fibre content but it's still cards and calories. For breakfast you are easily eating over 400 cals, same for lunch and dinner as well as snacks. You are easily eating about 1700 - 1800 cals. Obviously you've made some good choices in reducing sugar and junk but still too many carbs (and therefore caloroes) for weight loss.

As others have said , add more protien and fruit and veg.

Breakfast ideas
2 poached or scrambled eggs on one slice of wholemeal toast and a grilled tomato and mushrooms.
Full fat greek yogurt with blueberries and some flaked almonds or make it into a smoothie and add protien powder.
Porridge with berries / grated apple and protien powder or nuts.

Lunch ideas -
A wrap with tuna and salad - really fill it up, whole can of tuna and loads of veg / salad.

Home made veg soup but add some beans or chickpeas before blitzing.
Egg muffins and salad.

Grilled chicken and salad but a decent palm sized portion of chicken.
Or your usual roll but add a side of crudités instead of the other bits.

Dinner - make the spag bol but your usual halve the pasta and add a side of roasted veg.

Curry but serve on wilted greens.
Chile on a sweet potato with cottage cheese.

No snacks. Small portion of greek yogurt and fruit if you really need an evening snack. Lots of water.

Basically, take away some cards, in most of your meals you are having 3 portions of cards. Add more protien to fill you up and loads more fruit and veg.

I don’t eat fruit no, my veg intake is reasonable (I love most veg and usually have a good portion with my tea) although I’ll be the first to admit not where it should be. My several coffees a day all have milk in and I will occasionally have cheese in my mash or incorporated into my dinner. Not sure if that’s enough for the calcium.
Occasionally I will have a salad for lunch but it’s not very often because the salads at work are about £5 for basic salad items with no dressing, so honestly it’s probably once every other week at most.

My diet isn’t perfect, there are changes I could make-it would help if I took my own lunch but I always seem to run out of time to sort it. Typically the work canteen charges an arm and a leg for the healthy stuff hence the yoghurt and low cal crisps.

I’m really interested by the number of people commenting on how much food this is. You see, I don’t think it’s a lot of volume. But it’s pretty much full of junk calories without enough volume - I’d be hungry eating that each day.

I aim to eat around 1500 calories a day. That is about 300 calories below my maintenance level.

I eat:
Breakfast: half a cup of egg whites with two small tomatoes and a cup of frozen spinach all cooked into an omelette with about 3G of cheese. That’s under 309 calories. I have a cup of coffee with milk.

Lunch is my main meal at around 500 calories:
about 200 grams of tuna or chicken breast with a massive amount of steamed broccoli (usually 300-400 grams) or the equivalent of courgettes with another couple of tomatoes and a pepper - I grill or fry the vegetables after steaming with a teaspoon of sesame oil and something like soy sauce for flavour.

I try to stop eating at around 4pm so I’m wing in an 8 hour window. My late afternoon meal is about 200 grammes of 0% Fage Greek yoghurt with a scoop of vanilla protein powder and some frozen chopped fruit, such as strawberries, blueberries or mango mixed in.

If I get really hungry at say 8pm, I’ll have a chunk of cheese - maybe another 30 grammes or so. I find the fat in cheese is satiating.

I buy loads of frozen fish, vegetables and fruit from Iceland and I cook from scratch.

I also aim for around 2 litres of water a day - mostly fruit tea or plain water.

Im not perfect, when I travel a lot for work I eat differently , but this is my basic formula. And I try to plan it so I don’t feel hungry.

This. You need to change up your macros. And your breakfast is 3 in 1, you could easily be hitting 800 calories before you’ve even had a mid morning snack!

Also, watch your dinner portions. It’s very easy to overestimate how much you need.

Hmmm........honestly, I would only consume that many carbs if I were running a marathon in the next couple of days. Prioritise your protein intake (mine's a minimum of 1.5g per Kg of lean bodyweight) then focus on vegetables and healthy fat sources. I find fasting useful when cutting, maybe see if that works for you? You can always introduce it gradually. Do you exercise at all?

Tbh - That sounds like quite a lot. I eat half of that amount and that just maintains my weight. You really need to weigh your food so you know what your daily calorie intake is.

OP you're the same weight as me and a couple of inches taller. I can see, like me, you like your food.
Things I do.
Drink more water- boring but makes a difference.
Walk 10000 steps. You don't have to do it all at once. Walking an easy way to burn calories without too much effort.
If you can't ditch the snacks swap for things like quavers or small bags of popcorn. Stuff to munch and occupy your mouth and hands but less calories.
Ditch the biscuits.
Calorie count for a couple of weeks. Try all your meals out, you'll see what comes in high and low.
If you have a bad day, then it's one bad day. Make the next day a good day.
I'm on about 1400 calories a day. Still eat carbs, have the odd treat.
If you plan a big tea eat a smaller lunch.
I'm losing 2-3lb a week.

Breakfast: half a cup of egg whites with two small tomatoes and a cup of frozen spinach all cooked into an omelette with about 3G of cheese. That’s under 309 calories

I can't see how it can even be anywhere near 300 calories. Spinach will have virtually no calories...ditto tomatoes. And why just egg whites...as it's a low carb breakfast, why wouldn't you just use the whole egg? Isn't most of the goodness in the yolk?

So as you can see I’ve cut down a hell of a lot

Yes, you have. But before you were steadily putting on weight. Reducing your input by some amount doesn't automatically mean you will now lose weight. It might mean that, but it might also mean you just stay where you are, or it might even mean that you just put on weight less slowly.

The maths is pretty simple. Every 9 calories more that you consume (through normal life and then more for exercise) more than you eat, is 1 gram of fat saved. 1 stone is 6352 grams, or 57169 calories. You have to burn that many calories more than you eat to lose 1 stone.

Suppose you burn 2000 calories per day. If you eat 100 calories less than that, you will lose 1 stone in 571 days, which is 19 months. So to get from 16st to say 12st, you would take 6½ years. If you eat 500 calories less than you consume, it will take 15 months. This basically means cutting out at least one of your carb-based mains, and no snacks, until Christmas of next year — or greatly increasing the amount of exercise that you do — or both. Walking 5km will burn around 400 calories, but it won't help if you treat yourself to a Coke and a Mars bar for having completed the walk.

you're doing a great job there. That is really good.

I think it's just calorie counting to get the portion sizes right and you'll be sorted. Well done OP. You're doing great.

You've done fantastically well OP to change your eating habits as much you have. You are eating far more healthily now and by the sound of it maintaining your weight rather than gaining.
But it is a work in progress. Adding more vegetables and protein and reducing the carbs will help you lose weight and will probably leave you with more energy as well.

I have not read the whole thread, but you really need to do something like Nutracheck (I have found this to be the best calorie counter app, it is very easy and you can just scan barcodes in). You are eating a very large amount of calories daily, and need to count them religiously at the beginning if you want to lose. Nutracheck will do that for you and quickly highlight for you where your calories are coming in from.

Your BMI is 34.1 so well into obesity, so you would be eligible for Mounjaro, I really recommend you look into it and give it a try. It will completely change your thoughts about how much food you should eat.

How old are you OP? And are you peri menopausal or menopausal?

I’m the same. I’m 4’11” and no I’m in my fifties I have to do the fast 800 really strictly and no carbs (other than in veg) to lose. 😐

Maintenance is the same but 1000 calories instead of 800. Fun times.

The aim was to make her aware that she's currently eating enough to feed a rugby team, which she is!

You’re eating about 4/5 meals worth of food (your breakfast is at least 2) and from your follow up haven’t actually cut that much back, just swapped a few bits. Basically your calorie intake is still far too high.

I have porridge for breakfast, oats so simple and I put a bit of jam, honey or spread in it. That’s roughly 250 calories. If I assume your
porridge is the same, plus 2 pieces of bread with spread (roughly 250 calories), yogurt etc that’s way over double. Also, things like low calorie crisps are marginally different…if you compare say sunbites to walkers multipack, it’s barely any difference.

Ditch the snacks, up the protein and vegetables and limit the carbs. Wholemeal is healthy but you’re having a lot of it & with every meal.
up your steps/walking to 10-11000 steps a day. Drink more water.

How does that compare with what you were eating previously? You’re “double carbing” at all meals. I would visualise your plate as being 1/3 carbs, 1/3 veg and 1/3 protein for starters. And ditch the processed foods.

It’s a lot of spinach and I also add cheese. Spinach and tomato are carbs - but slow release. And I round up.

My point isn’t about nitpicking the calorie count however (although how like MN to do so!) but to show @Morgun how she can eat a lot, but stay in a calorie deficit.

The secret is vegetables ( not potatoes) and lean protein

Op isn’t just double carbing each meaL
nore like double mealing each meal and snack

I get that it’s hard when you make big changes and it feels hard and it still isn’t enough

it will be worth it for you long term

That’s great but you haven’t addressed the comments above which have pointed out that you are still eating too much and not eating enough of the right foods.

You need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight, it’s unlikely someone of your height to be in a deficit on that diet unless you’re a competitive athlete.

You asked people to point where you have gone wrong and they have. I suggest you take some of this advice on board.

Think of the past changes as progress towards where you need to be , however you’re still not there with your diet. So your weight will either plateau or you might even gain weight again.

I used to order greasy fat and sugary food on Deliveroo twice a day during the pandemic so when I “cut down” to 3 x a week I thought I was doing great! It’s only now that I rarely use food delivery services (maybe once every few months) that I see my initial changes were a start but not enough.

This has got to be a joke?

That is a lot of food!!! Have you put it into MyFitnessPal to see how many calories you’re consuming?

Yes I totally agree with you - but for a total beginner to weight management who knows nothing about nutrition (OP, no disrespect meant to her) counting calories is the essential place to start. It took me years to get the hang of focusing on nutrition rather than solely calories and I only managed to do it because of Mounjaro. When a person is addicted to sugar and carbs (as I was, though not quite in OP's league!) it's not as easy as just switching to high protein low carb food.

You’ve done well to cut down but you need to rebalance what you’re eating now. One of those items for breakfast, perhaps a banana as a morning snack, more protein and fewer carbs at lunchtime, filling up on salad/veg/fruit too if you need more, a protein heavy dinner with carbs as an accompaniment, not the main part of the meal. Maybe some squares of dark chocolate as a snack. What do you think? As those can take up a huge amount of calories if you’re drinking fizzy drinks, alcohol, hot chocolate etc.