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.

Simply cut out the carbs, if you refuse then it’s your choice to stay as you are.

To start with the only fruit to eat would be berries and the only veg would be beans. Snacks would be nuts.

Your metabolism is clearly broken due to years of high carbs and you need to go keto or carnivore to fix it. Scrambled eggs and smoked salmon for breakfast for example. Lunch could a chicken and avocado salad. Tea might be a big bowl of beef chilli. The only healthy veg are above ground veg.

Remember eggs are the number one food source - they contain everything a human body needs except vitamin c, so eggs and berries is all you actually need. Oh and eggs are actually cheap to buy too!

Life is always a choice of pain and pleasure, the pain of looking overweight in the mirror or the pain of not eating what you want/like. The pleasure of looking and being healthy or the pleasure of eating unhealthy food. It might help to think of good food as medicine.

Well done for wanting to make changes and coming here to ask for advice. You’re going to get all sorts of responses on here but you need to find what works for you. You need to make changes that are sustainable for life, otherwise you’ll end your regaining any weight you lose.

I highly recommend getting Nutracheck (much better than My Fitness Pal in my opinion). Start by simply logging everything that you eat and drink. Make sure you weigh everything (including milk for tea, any butter/oils, literally anything that you eat or drink). Just log what you are currently eating, without worrying about huge changes. Once you can see where you are spending your calories you can start to make gradual changes that work for you. You don’t need to completely cut out any food. Just make small changes that work for you. The Nutracheck forums are also really supportive and there are lots of people who will help you.

I’m much shorter than you (and don’t need to lose weight) but I generally eat 3 good meals a day and sometimes a snack for less than 1400 calories by prioritising protein and lots of veg. You will be able to lose weight with much higher calories.

Get rid of all the “fat free” stuff and buy full fat greek yoghurt and real butter instead.
Stop eating bread.
Do you like eggs? Eggs are good for you.

I think you’re possibly consuming a lot more calories than you think and you need. Focus on veg and protein with healthy dairy. And I hate to say it but you may need to calorie count so you know what a portion looks like.

How does your post relate to mine and the post I replied to? That poster suggested she could not lose weight by calorie counting, even not losing weight oN less than 1000 calories a day. You having a slow metabolism and needing to calorie count appears totally unconnected

@Morgun kudos for trying to lose weight and make better food choices.

as others have said, you are still potentially eating a lot. There’s a guy on Facebook (adamhoodcoaching) who posts lots of videos showing common mistakes people make when trying to lose weight/get fitter.

One was two versions of a days’ eating with the “same” foods. But one lot of food was double the calories - so for example, a large versus small banana/avocado; 5 dates versus some raspberries; a teaspoon of peanut butter versus a tablespoon; a thick slice of wholemeal bread versus a thin/smaller slice - you get the picture.

Basically his mantra is you must weigh everything and resolutely monitor your calories. Otherwise a person will inevitably take in more calories than they realise.

I’m on Mounjaro but am stopping in a few weeks. After that I’ll be doing low carb/high protein as that has worked for me in the past.

Good luck - it’s not easy!!

That’s a big breakfast!

How about either ditching the porridge or the toast? But a couple of eggs with the toast would be more sustaining than all those carbs.

Portion sizes really important here. Agree with others, go for full fat yoghurt etc. Lot more protein. Eggs yes. Think Mediterranean diet. Nutritious foods that fill you up. Also you could try to increase the hours you don’t eat from evening to breakfast - give your body a chance to fast. Lots of info out there re this.

It's carb and calorie heavy. Nuts have a very high calorie content in a tiny portion. Porridge on its own is a healthy breakfast, but adding on toast and a banana too... Look at the calorie content in oats, weigh them out and you'll be surprised at how little you get for the calories. 2 slices of toast is easily 200 cals, a banana another 100, oats and milk depending how much could easily take you to 500+ calories.
You don't need both bread and pasta with lunch - replace one of the carbs with veg.
You need to look for foods that are high volume low calorie. Things I find quite good are fat free yoghurt with fruit, porridge with water instead of milk, veggie crudités with houmous, chicken stir fry with veg, etc

Here’s my day to day food:

Breakfast

• 2 eggs (scrambled or poached or omelette)
• a few small mushrooms
• spinach
• half a low carb toast slice with nut butter
• coffee with cream

Lunch:

• Chicken or fish with courgette or cauliflower ice or salad

Dinner:

• aubergine parmigiana or chicken or cauliflower soup or curry

Snacks:

I try to eat 3 substantial meals to avoid snacking but if I do snack, it’s almonds or berries or full fat Greek yoghurt

Rate loss is 1.5 pounds a week at the moment.

So it's very rough and ready but the BBC maintenance calories for your height/weight (assuming little exercise as a conservative measure) is 2113 per day. So that's to stay the same (not lose any weight).

Chucking your daily log into chatgpt suggests 2,180 – 2,600 calories (bearing in mind we dont know your portion sizes!

So at first glance, unless your portions are tiny and/or you're quite active, you're eating too many calories to activelylose weight. Per PP, eating more protein can help with feeling full, so you dont feel like you need so many carbs/treats. But definitely agree with downloading a calorie calculator and scrupulously tracking for a few weeks to see how your intake really looks and using that to make reasonable adjustments. Good luck!

Yes,there is some dodgy advice on here. Someone suggested 1300 cals which isn’t enough - especially for someone who has a good appetite.

Also. Op probably needs carbs at every meal for satiety.

Counting calories isn’t for everyone. Op can cut down on her own. She already has. She just needs to keep going.

That's actually a gigantic amount of calories and very carb laden. That was my diet when I was piling on weight.
You will literally never lose on that.
Breakfast should be one of those things, not all of them .
Lunch, pasta, OR a roll. No crisps.

Any more than a tiny drop of nuts and you are shovelling in hundreds of calories.

Sorry OP, but you are still putting away a lot of food- you’ve just swapped one type of UPF carbs for low fat UPF carbs. Lose anything low fat, up the protein, up the fresh fruit and veg intake and no carbs after breakfast. Cook from scratch - if it comes ready made in a packet, avoid it.

As someone who sympathises as I used to weigh a similar amount that's a lot of food. Even for a smallish portion of each item I can imagine you're on 3000kcal a day. The breakfast alone sounds like 800kcal. Is there a reason you need so much? I'd start tracking your food really accurately with Noom or MFP to see exactly what your intake is. I was shocked at my my own when I first started.

Are you actually tracing the calories - I lost 6.6 stone over 18m. My breakfast, compared to yours would be porridge oats OR two slices of toast OR yogurt and fruit - ie not all 3.

Lunches would be a (pasta) salad OR a roll/sandwich and a piece of fruit

No afternoon or evening snack, but if desperate it would be fruit

Dinner would be a meal of approx 400-450 calories in total.

Ie. about 1200 cals a day on average.

Tbh I think you are a) eating far too many calories and b) the diet is far too carb heavy.

That's a lot of food and a lot of carbs. Try downloading MyFitnessPal and accurately tracking calories. Research the daily amount of calories for your weight and height for a steady weight loss and track it properly. You'll surprise yourself with how much you are overeating. Good luck. 🙂

I think nutrition 😃

You're eating bread and pasta all day long. Of course you're not losing weight. I agree with PPs to increase protein and vegetables, cut out most of the empty carbs, and you should have an easier time losing weight. You'll also probably feel much better.

It's becuase depending on the size of the slices, with butter and filling, a sandwich could very easily come to 600/700 calories, which isn't a light snack and would make it very difficult to maintain a calorie deficit over the day.

If eaten along with meals, it's just whack of empty carbs and calories you don't need on top of a meal.

If I ate that I would be enormous. Cut the carbs

I would be very surprised if you’re in calorie deficit. am currently dieting and have lost two and a half stone so far. Miles to go! A typical day is as follows:
Breakfast - two pieces of toast (112 per slice). 224
two Laughing cow light (25 each). 50

Lunch - tinned soup 210
roll. 150

Dinner - 3oz pasta (dry weight). 300
Chicken breast. 200
1 tsp oil. 40
1 carrot. 25
1 onion. 50
40g Philadelphia light. 60

Maybe a yoghurt (107) or a couple of ginger biscuits (98)
This is less than 1500 calories per day and is working. i’m aware that this is also quite carb heavy, but I have a retracted,tiny stoma, with very little bowel left. This means that I cannot process lots of fibre. I usually also put tomatoes in the roll or sandwich, and occasionally eat raspberries or strawberries. The key is weighing food because it never weighs what you think it’s going to. 🙂 I don’t really drink anything other than water and if I do have coffee, the milk is measured. You quickly get used to the calorific value of things. Good luck.

I don’t think you have cut down, although you are making better choices. It’s a lot of food. However, as PP’s have said, you can only make a judgement by working out your TDEE and whether you are in calorie deficit.

I’ve been slowly reducing weight over the last year @Morgun without formally calorie counting but making healthier choices.

A typical day for me in terms of quantity would be:

Breakfast: one of unsweetened porridge made with milk, yoghurt and fruit, one slice of wholemeal toast with peanut butter or an egg

Lunch: one of fish or chicken with vegetables or salad, soup and a roll, a 2 egg omelette, a pack of sushi

Dinner: generally a serving of protein with vegetables and maybe a small porting of carbs

snacks: not every day but occasionally I might have one of 10-15 almonds and an apple, cappuccino or flat white, yoghurt and fruit, a glass of wine or spirit with low cal mixer

This doesn’t have weight falling off but keeps a reasonably consistent 1-2lbs loss per week if I stick to it all week. If I have a cheat meal I might still lose that week but more than one cheat meal has me either putting weight back on or staying the same for several days.

I am realising I need a lot less food than I thought and that eating at the quantities I thought I needed to stay full was what caused me to gain the weight in the first place. You will adjust to lower amounts of food very quickly

Personally OP, I would ignore the many posts on here about amounts of protein, fat, carbs etc. Everyone’s different, for example I find carbs really fill me up, but protein doesn’t!

You’ve already made some significant changes to your diet, so in a way you’ve already done a lot of the hard work, and now it’s about tweaking and reducing what you’re now eating. And doing this in a gradual way that works for you - rather than trying to emulate the diet of a protein-obsessed carb-dodging fitness fanatic which is bound to end in failure

The focus needs to be on reducing calories - don’t over complicate it by worrying too much about carbs, protein etc. If I were you a few quick wins to cut calories would be: eat one less item at breakfast; cut out the nuts; cut out the evening biscuits.

Unfortunately the only way I know I’m in a calorie deficit and therefore losing weight, is when I’m hungry for some of the time. So, basically cut a few things out, then maybe cut a few more, until you’re regularly feeling hunger. It’s no fun, but it’s doable, and it works.