Not losing weight. Why?

[marrymeadam]

I am 5ft 4 and approx 13 stone. I have usually lost weight by the classic less in, exercise more. I have been really strictly watching what I eat for over a month and haven't lost anything. I recently had a food sensitivities test as a result of constant irritable bowel type symptoms and as a result , for the last 2 weeks have been really strict at giving up wheat, all dairy and pork products. I have been eating fruit with alpro soy and granola for breakfast, chicken salad for lunch and various things for tea but relatively low calorie things. I do have snacks but very rarely go over the calorie level set on my fitness pal. I have been weighing all the foods and logging them so what is going on? Is it that my body is freaking out with the changes I have made?! I can share screen shots of my entries if anyone thinks that will help

Are you weighing everything?

I think it's extremely unlikely/borderline impossible to not be losing weight in a calorie deficit! Are you active?

I am weighing everything and I am active but only day to day activity rather than classes. I recently had ankle surgery so can't run or do too much exercise.

How many calories are you eating?

Make sure your calorie change isn't too drastic. Going from 2,000 to 1,400 overnight can screw up your body. Gradual small changes for a few days/couple of weeks

No it can't! This is nonsense

It's probably simply that your injury is meaning you are just moving less.

however, on the food side of things personally I just generally try and eat very simply. Nothing low fat/low cal etc just plenty of fresh veg, fresh meat and fish, cooked in butter and salt and pepper garlic and lemon for flavouring. I avoid sugar and processed stuff as much as possible.

alpro soy and granola potentially has quite a bit of sugar in it for example.

a chicken salad could have quite a lot of oil depending on dressings etc?

Basically you are eating more than you need, potentially eating the wrong things and maybe underestimating on mfp. Fruit, for example, is high in sugars as its granola.

I appreciate you have an ankle injury and assume this means you can't weight bear? Nothing stopping you doing seated weights and core work lying down.

Try intermittent fasting, weighing everything and cutting out sugar.

My fitness pal has so many adds it's is a ball ache to try to screen shot so yesterdays breakfast was Frozen blackberries,frozen mango, frozen pineapple, frozen strawberries, frozen raspberries, 25g of granola, frozen blueberries all weighed 329 cals. Lunch was spinach leaves, wafer thin chicken, sliced beetroot and salad dressing all measured - 153 cals. Fruit salad strawberries, cherries, melon, kiwi, red grapes and black grapes all measured 246 cals. Dinner 2 poached eggs with olive spread on a free from piece of toast and tomato sauce 368 cals and a vegan ice cream 260 cals. This is an average day. I know there is lots of fruit but I am really struggling with finding food to eat that contains no wheat, no dairy, no pork, no fish. Dinner is often something like stir fry if I can be bothered. I do need to move more but it makes no sense. Initially I thought it was because it was the week before my period but I am now a month in

so 1356 calories yesterday and the majority of it is carbs
I'd say you're not eating enough, that's probably barely meeting your BMR and you're eating too much carbs and sugar.
I don't eat much wheat or dairy but I still eat proper meals and not just bowls of fruit! Chicken, lean mince, steak, quorn, tofu, rice, rice noodles, rice or corn cakes, hummus, potatoes, gf pasta, soya yogurt, beans, lentils, chickpeas......

You are right and I do eat many of the things you said occasionally. Because this is a new way of eating (the no dairy/wheat thing) I have been quite defeated about finding things to eat so have stuck with what is easy. I have bought the ingredients for pad Thai, Kung po chicken and bolognaise next week

I agree, increase your calories

I wouldn't go all "diet mode", just look at what you would normally eat and adapt them e.g. leaner meats, dairy free alternatives work fine for cooking, plenty of veg as well as fruit.

I’m 5’3” and I maintain at 1400 calories, so I’m going to disagree with everyone and say eat fewer calories and more protein. For reference i went from 86kg to 62kg, post kids now back up to 69kg but losing consistently. I aim for under 1200 calories or I won’t lose anything.

Definitely don't increase your calories if you're trying to lose weight 🤣
this advice has no scientific basis at all

I'm 5ft 6 and just over 70kg and I'm loosing on 1700 calories a day. I would be passing out if i ate less than 1400!

So you are approx 1400 calories yday
did you burn at least 2000 calories? How longs it been since you lost weight? It could be bloating it could be that the deficit isn’t enough, it could be that you are in a deficit but only a small one so it will take a long time to see, it could me a medical thing but I think likely you’re not moving enough.

do ignore the posters saying increase your calories, I’m not clear how that would help you lose weight

Insulin resistance? You do consume a lot of carbs so even if your diet is low in calories, you could be raising your insulin a lot, which would affect your ability to lose fat

I definitely didn't move enough yesterday but it didn't help that I didn't charge my watch so I can't give numbers. I am hitting goals on movement on my watch every other day though. It's hard when my ankle still hurts to walk too much. I long to be able to go for a run. I lost about 2 and a half stone last year but then had a very bad mental health crisis and was put on sertraline and mirtazapine to manage it which I know probably won't help with weight loss. I put about half the weight back on and am now eating what I was before but the weight won't shift

Ignore people telling you that you need to cut calories. You need to work out your BMR. I lost weight from 12 stone to 10 by eating 1700 a day. As long as you're in your own deficit you'll lose weight.
However I do agree with upping the protein. Carbs aren't the enemy but you don't need to eat loads and loads of them x

But you set those goals didn’t you? So if you set them low that won’t help you.

walking until your ankle hurts isn’t the only thing, you can just be more active in general
or you can do things that are low impact on your ankle
yoga, Pilates, swimming, do body weight exercises. walk as much as you can walk

youll get there

@prunell I put my weight in my fitness pal and said I wanted to loose a couple of stone and it put my calories at 1360 per day

Sorry @Prunel

But my fitness pal doesn’t know how many calories you burn.
so if it says 1360 and you misjudge or overindulge a few days a week like most people do and eat say 1450 on average and you actually only burn 1700 calories a day then you aren’t in much of a deficit and it’ll be ages until you see much result.So I’m asking how many you burn a day, because it’s very likely your deficit isnt big enough.

the way to fix that is to eat less or move more

How do I work that out?

Numbers on a tracker can be off up to 90% anyway. They're really not ever anything you should figure into your daily caloric limit, particularly since your body is very, very efficient at optimising itself for exercise and if you do the same thing all of the time, your body will use fewer calories to do it.

I agree that with an injury, you're moving less in general and not just in terms of planned exercise. Eating less will combat that.