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.

Before wli I was literally never satisfied. Although I have lost weight many times without them.

Well done for improving your diet. What you put in your OP sounds way more nutritious and filling than what you say you used to eat. Your issue is probably just eating too much of it, like others have said.

Now you've improved your diet you could look at cutting back portion size as the next step.

There are only three pieces of fruit I can see on the improved plan - and on the "before diet" plan I can't see any fruit or veg.

I'm not actually sure how long a body would keep ticking along like that. Are you sure, OP, you didn't forget to mention the fruit and veg?

It's great you've added some fruit op, but swapping one of those for veg and adding another couple of veg portions would be even better. Chosen wisely, veg can be quite filling because they are fibrous. if you really struggle to pull out the carbs, try a sweet potato as one swap.

Cut out all the bread and you’ll see a difference after a few days.

I was watching a TED talk or something similar where the expert said no more than 2 slices of bread a WEEK and it should only be sourdough.

Do you have a goal weight? The BMI range for your height is between about 9 and 12 stone but your goal is your own choice.

Use something like this to calculate your maintenance calories.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/how_many_calories_do_you_need

Then decide how much to reduce that by to lose weight. You’ll need to reduce by 500 to lose about a pound a week, more if you want to lose more quickly. But remember you need to sustain it so a sensible figure you can stick to is better.

Then plan your meals and track the calories of everything you eat for at least 12 weeks. Aim for high protein and high fibre, you’ll feel fuller.

How about swapping some bread for some green veg or salad?

Eating carbs won't prevent weight loss if you're in a calorie deficit. You need to make sure you're actually in a calorie deficit. It's a pain in the neck but for a week or so weigh and track everything you eat. There are hidden calories in so many things. Check your TDEE - Google will give you calculators to use. You don't have to rigidly go by what they say but they're useful as a guide.

You have carbs for every single meal.

Carbs + dairy = rapid weight gain.

There’s far too much salad and far too much food.

I’m not judging you at all - biscuits are like crack to me.

I have had stomach surgery and I’ve put on so much weight due to a combination of medication and biscuits/snacks. I can’t physically eat a full meal but those short bursts of sugar is what made me put on rapid weight gain.

I’ve started weight loss injections today. It’s not as expensive as I thought it would be. The price is staggered so that the higher the dose of the drug the more it costs. I wish I knew this before. I would have started it sooner. Cost was a primary factor in my not starting it sooner (and my partner refused to pay).

I’m not even eating because I’m hungry. It’s a combination of boredom, lethargy, an abusive relationship and situational depression.

There is no need to avoid particular foods, or combinations of X and Y. Overall calorie intake is all that matters for weight management.

Obviously, eating only bread wouldn't be a good move, but there is nothing wrong with it in itself. Wholemeal bread, for example, contains around 10--12% protein, lots of fibre, and hardly any fat - it's very good for you.

Yes there’s some awful ones with terrifying calorie ideas! I just posted the one on the bbc which i think is decent.

Look at you, medical marvel. They should study you as a person who has natural immunity to anorexia!

I would be gaining weight eating that amount of food daily. You really need to count calories. It does work but you need to be in deficit.

You have definitely improved your diet, just try to cut back slowly.

Drop the toast at breakfast and change the low fat yogurt to a higher protein one.

Loose the roll at lunch and make sure the crisps are low calorie ones.

No nuts for snack, these are so high calories and easy to over eat.

Garlic bread has to go - sorry!

Those cuts shouldn’t be too difficult to make, drink plenty of water if you are feeling hungry.

When those have settled start looking at your portion sizes for the rest. Unless you know how many calories you are eating how will you know if you are in a deficit.

I'd hazard a guess that if you input those daily calories into MyFitnessPal, you'd be eating over your calorie allowance for a healthy weight loss.

There's no way I could eat anywhere near that amount of food AND lose weight UNLESS I was doing a lot of exercise or strength training to burn off the calories.

The best way to go, in my experience, is calorie tracking using MFP and exercising more.

For context, I used to weigh a lot and lost 4 stone.

First of all, you eat too many calories. For example, you are having 3 breakfasts at breakfast time. I would have one of the 3 things, you have all 3. Similar with other meals, I eat much, much less. You should find out your basic metabolic rate with a medical or fitness professional, but it might be as low as 1,500 cal per day just to stay the same.

Secondly, you eat UPFs a lot. Fat free yoghurt, crisps, weight watchers stuff, biscuits, garlic baguette. Biggest thing for me was to cut out UPFs completely, I lost so much weight in just 2 weeks. They chemically alter your body and are addictive - watch Giles Yeo to get a better idea of how weight loss actually works. If you eat the same amount of food but no UPFs, that'll probably make a huge difference.

Finally though. Considering you have probably eaten this way for many, many years, the damage is likely already done. UPF and sugar addiction is hard to shake, you may be borderline diabetic, could have insulin resistance - these are common in overweight adults and I was nearly there.

I'd really consider weight loss injections. They have completely and totally changed my life and made me a different person in every way. The state of my health is unrecognisable and craving unhealthy foods or feeling uncontrollable hunger is no longer a problem.

The BBC TDEE calculator comes up with 2113 calories a day, with the same assumptions that I made. So a 2 calorie difference from the 2111 that I posted. The most relevant thing about the TDEE calculators is an honest assessment of activity level. Erring on the side of less active is sensible, to begin with.

You've probably heard more than enough, but I wanted to say that unless you have the right information you're flying in the dark, and there is so much confusing information out there about nutrition. You have made some big changes in the right direction, so bloody good on you for that.

I'd say that your calorie intake over the day is probably way way over unless you're doing an incredibly manual job for 12 hours, you just won't burn that off.

Instead of thinking about restriction, try to get your head around the way your body processes the food you eat and how.

The Glucose Goddess I find easy to understand, give that a look maybe.

You have cut down so you are not putting on weight, just maintaining it.

You won’t lose any weight while still eating bread.

Good luck x

I have found them really helpful, twice - but I don't think they're the all and end all. I use calorie trackers and both MFP and Nutracheck defaulted to 1200 calories which worried me - I was 6 stone overweight and suddenly eating 1200 calories isn't sustainable at that point. One of the reasons very overweight people fail to lose weight is because the changes they make are far too drastic to sustain. I used the TDEE calculator to calculate a smaller calorie deficit birth times and I've genuine found it better as a guide than the default 1200 calories.

Expert on what?!

An expert in what, orthorexia?!?

But cutting down doesn't mean you'll lose weight. It can just mean you'll put on weight more slowly, or maintain your weight. You're still eating a lot of calories from the sounds of it!

That’s a hell of a lot of food. I would probably put on at least two pounds a week eating that much.

This is all that is needed