Getting fitter but not shedding weight. Help!

[TheWorstWeek]

Like lots of people, since having my kids (eldest is 6) I've gained a fair bit of weight and my body has totally changed shape. Finally got fed up about it around Christmas while I was the largest I've ever been and decided to make a change for this year.

Since January I've been doing short YT workouts five times a week, building up from about 10-15 minutes to 35-40 minutes in the last couple of weeks. It's a mixture of cardio, dumbbell workouts and functional exercises. The school run is also an extra 20minutes, half of which is uphill. A minor thing but movement nevertheless! I've seen quite a big change in my fitness, strength and stamina which is obviously the main thing but I really would like to shed a little weight now. Now that I'm doing a 35-40 minutes mixture of strength training and cardio regularly will that be enough to help lose the weight or do I need to be increasing cardio? Or something else?

I know it's probably largely diet now. I do a fairly good job but I know I could probably do with drinking more water and cutting out the snacks. I'm definitely a bit of an emotional eater with snacks! Any tips on how to suppress the desire to snack?

I'm trying to lose the weight in the healthiest way possible and want this to be a permanent lifestyle change.

Unfortunately i don’t know but thought I’d bump for you as would be interested too

Sorry to say it, but you will lose very little weight exercising. (Watch some of the Dr Mosley tv programmes if you can), and in the meantime try a keto diet or low calorie diet. No highly processed food either.

Violet, how do you work that one out? IME, you will lose weight by moving more and eating less. So I suspect the OP needs to eat less, as she's clearly moving more, and says she has a bit of a snack habit.

There's no need to do faddy diets - just eat fewer calories (it can be tempting to eat more once you're exercising, because you can think you have 'earned it').

Best tip for not snacking, OP, is don't buy any snacks. At all. Just buy what you're going to eat every day if possible. If you have children, they don't actually need snacks either - if you think they do, then something that you don't like as a snack, so you'll be less tempted.

I think the only way to cut out snacks is to decide that your absolute priority is your good health. You then need to change habits so firstly only have very small and very healthy snacks and only when genuinely hungry.

You then need try to work out if you can change the order of work, meals, exercise, kid stuff so that you can cut snacks out altogether. You also need an alternative activity at the points you normally snack. Go for a walk, read a book, only drink tea or water when you would normally snack. Overall remember your new priority is your good, healthy diet. If it is really your priority, you won't waver.

I'm similar in terms of reaching a point where kids are a bit older and I want to make a change. Realised I was heavier than I was during any of the pregnancies. I've upped the exercise but food wise I don't want to make massive unsustainable changes as I'm prone to binging.

My tactic has been to stop snacking but eat what I want (within reason) for meals including occasional puddings etc. So far weight loss has been quite steady but I'm trying to see it as longer term changes and fuelling my body. I've noticed clothes being more loose rather than massive changes on the scales but I feel so much better.

Good luck - you're not alone!

I cross posted with this but think it is excellent advice and the kind of mind shift I'm trying to make

They say you can’t outrun a bad diet and from my experience this is right. The exercise is so good in lots of ways but weight loss isn’t one of them.

Any diet will work, sticking to it is harder. I recommend cutting out sugar and processed food - both addictive so gets easier over time. If you can cut our snacks too even better. The simpler the food plan the easier it is to stick to. Have easy to make and healthy lunches and breakfasts in easy reach so you don’t have to think to hard about those.

Books - Why We Eat (too Much), The Sweet Poison Quit Plan, The No S Diet(also free on the internet) and (new) Ultra Processed People.

If you're currently a snacker, I'm of the (likely unpopular opinion) that just trying to stop entirely and suddenly probably won't work, especially in the longer term.

I used to be a massive boredom snacker, and a kind of replacement therapy was an absolute godsend for me.

I'd start by replacing your usual snacks with lower-calorie options – instead of crisps, biscuits, etc, look for things that are flavourful and crunchy and low-calorie but somehow satisfying.

I find very salty / vinegary things get rid of my snack urges quickly, so I keep a jar of little pickles in the fridge for moments when I want to reach for crisps.

Sliced cucumber and tomato with a little bit of salt or feta or balsamic – a bowl of it in the evenings, eaten slowly (while I'd usually be mindlessly jamming chocolate in my mouth) is oddly satisfying, and mostly water.

Baby carrots, popcorn, melon, peas and pesto... Look out for nuts, as they're super-high-calorie despite being 'healthy'.

It all looks a bit odd written out like this but I've found switching to these kinds of snacks has made a MASSIVE difference to me – it gives my mouth something to do without creating the sugar / carb spike that used to leave me wanting another snack not too long after the first.

Plus, protein and fibre, protein and fibre, protein and fibre. The more of those you can get into your meals, the more satiated you'll feel for longer throughout the day.

Weight loss and exercise:

https://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2016/01/28/exercise-alone-wont-cause-weight-loss-study-shows/#:~:text=Exercise%20alone%20is%20not%20enough,way%20to%20shed%20the%20pounds.

Just a thought here, OP, have you had your thyroid levels checked? I lost almost all the baby weight after DD was born, but barely lost any after DS. DH suggested it might be an underactive thyroid, so I saw my GP and it turned out it was. I've been on meds for quite a few years now.

It depends how much you want to lose. If you cut 20% - 25% of your current calories (this is doable without being too painful) and maintain your exercise levels you will lose weight slowly - anywhere from 200g to 1lb a week - in my experience. With all diets you will reach a plateau though and you need to keep going. Personally I do a zig zag i.e. higher calories on some days, lower on others and 1 very low cal day of about 800 (3 small meals) to reset and cleanse once a week. I am losing about 1lb a week consistently.

The key to giving up snacking is to increase your healthy fats e.g. slices of avocado, a spoonful of full fat yoghurt and some berries, a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil, max 30g nuts a day, to be had with or just after a meal. They have less impact on blood sugar. These are calorie intensive so you have to lower your carbs or you will not be in a deficit. A lot of people say eat more protein - have a minimum of 50g up to whatever you feel comfortable with. Unlike most weight training advice I don't really think you have to eat lots, as the body turns food into whatever it needs. The advice of 50g minimum is based on research that found 95% of people need this amount, you may be the 5% who needs more of course (from the Zoe Nutrition podcast). There is also evidence that if you don't eat for 12 hours overnight, after 10 hours the body has used up sugar from your last meal, and used up glycogen stores in the liver and muscles, so it then turns to fat stores and will happily burn these. I tend to delay breakfast until about 10am for this reason then have something protein based to avoid a blood sugar spike. If you delay eating after 10am it can start to mess up the circadian rhythm and there is less evidence that long fasts work.

The other thing is to increase strength training as (I recently found this) muscle is denser and takes up less space than fat so you will naturally look smaller as it were! So do measure the inches lost and take a weekly body photo, even when not losing weight you will see a change.

Reduce or avoid refined carbs and added sugar as these cause bloat, ensure your diet is diverse i.e. half fill your plate with veg every meal. Ensure you eat enough fiber and drink double the amount of water you think you need.

I exercise a lot but it doesn't outdo the large number of calories I consume. As an emotional eater - live to eat not eat to live - I cannot understand people who 'forget' to eat or who live on 6 raisins a day! I can be absolutely spot on with my food intake for 4 or 5 days then blow it all on days 6 and 7 undoing every bit of good i've done. I cut out chocolate, sweets and biscuits for 3 months before - didn't lose a pound of weight because I just ate more 'good' food!

Calories matter and it takes a LOT of exercise to burn anything off. Depending on the terrain, on a 30-40 mile bike ride of around 2.5 hours I will burn 900-1200 calories. A weight training session in the gym will burn 200 an hour at the most. Running used to use around 100 calories a mile. Jogging and walking is more like 70 calories per mile so a 5K jog will only use 210 calories! But because I had 'done some exercise' I felt it gave me a license to eat what I liked and therefore I never lost weight.

You have the answer - it’s the diet. Implementing it is the tough part and I’ve been in similar boat. Lots of great advice from pp

One thing that helped me get to a place I’m happy are to introduce one change at a time so it becomes habit.
Water was the first one - once I’m used to drinking 2-2.5L per day, I feel dehydrated without it so I drink properly to avoid the feeling. Being hydrated also removes the desire for me to have soft drinks.
I then worked on substituting snacks for healthy ones - fruit/veg sticks with dips rather than crisps etc or plate of fruit followed by one biscuit rather than 3 biscuits in one go. I still want the sugar, especially at certain times of the month but by keeping it healthy rest of the time has helped.
I try make vegetables the main part of all my meals at home so they fill me up, not the white carbs

I have come to realise the compromise on socialising is not worth it for me. I simply don’t want to be picking lower calorie options the few times I eat out (in my case once a month or so) and I do want to enjoy the odd sweet treat or ice cream without guilt. That means I won’t lose the final few inches on my stomach that I initially wanted to but I’ve decided it’s not worth the sacrifice and I’m happy where I am.

Being active and strong is more important to me and that is my biggest focus

I find it much easier to lose weight in summer. Switch to large salads and cut back a bit on carbs. All that fibre takes longer to digest so leaves me feeling full for longer.
With lighter evenings, I run three times a week, usually for 45 mins each.
And yes, drinking more water too.

Weight loss is mostly dependent on diet. It can also take a few months of implementing any dietary and exercise changes for the scale to start moving.

You need to drink more water and stop snacking. Both these things inhibit weight loss. Add more protein into your diet too. Eat full fat rather than low fat as it's more satiating.

Most importantly, irregardless of what calories your Fitbit/Apple watch/whatever tracking device you have tells you you're burning through exercise, do not think you can eat these additional calories.

Losing weight is about what u eat, to lose 1lb by exercising u would need to do 7 hours full pelt.
Look at wot u can change diet wise.

Thanks for all the responses and helpful advice.

Like I said, I am aware that it's now mostly down to diet. I have already increased my water intake, cut down (a little) on carbs and am trying to swap out less healthy snacks for healthier ones. Its tricky this week for sure as I'm due my period soon which makes me want to eat everything in sight 🙈 there's been some really helpful advice on how to help with my snacking habit so thanks for that. I've taken it all on board.

Whilst weight loss would be nice, I know that the goal with finally exercising more was more about overall health and strength so I'm happy at the small changes I can see. The scale may not be budging very much but I am down 2inches from my waist and 3.5 from my hips so I'm doing something right.

I have lost weight with and without exercise previously. I find it much easier without exercise if you're looking at pure weight loss (a mix of eating differently to fuel exercise and the fact that exercise always makes me retain a load of water) but doing it with exercise gives better results in the long term in terms of overall healthy and body shape.

I’ve exercised away three stone but it took almost three years and I exercise a lot. Most likely my diet has changed a bit too but it hasn’t been deliberate. I don’t think it’s as simple as saying exercise won’t help you lose weight or you can’t out run a bad diet. It depends on how much exercise, what you’re counting as a bad diet and speed of weight loss.

Half an hour five times a week is great for building fitness and some muscle but it’s going to have minimal impact overall on weight loss as it won’t burn that many calories. Active calories might be 200 - 250 per session depending on your weight?

For me I find that exercise does really help with (slow) weight loss of one to pounds a month max but to get that my exercise has to be at around 40 - 50 miles of running and hill hiking a week. I exercise for about 12 hours a week.

They say you can't outrun a poor diet.

Sounds like you have the right idea.

I'm trying to cut out the crap and hoping that will shift a bit of the weight which needs to go 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

Calories in/calories out doesn't work uniformly. If you get weight loss from exercise, it's a side effect, and it's different for everybody. If you think that all the human body does with calories is to gain or lose body fat, you've a lot to learn. There are many bodily processes that can compensate for a calorie deficit, and the body is variously willing to give up body fat, according to its own individual circumstances and genetic constitution.

We've all met individuals who go on strict calorie controlled diets, lose no weight, and feel like crap because they can't sleep and their moods have gone haywire. Their bodies are doing what bodies do: trying to find the best way for them to compensate for the loss of calories. Quite why the body might decide to do this rather than, say, decreasing fertility or losing sebum equilibrium, resulting in greasy skin and hair, we don't know, but we do know that some bodies are more reluctant than others to use their fat than others.

Move more/eat less is a very naive way of viewing the human body. It's like saying 'If you put petrol in a car, it will go.' It's true, of course, as a very crude statement, but there's so much more going on. What if the car has no wheels? No oil? No driver? No key? Do you really think that the human body is just a simple mechanism of food = body fat? How would you account for Type 1 diabetes, or thyroid malfunction, where the person eats the same as before and their weight plummets or skyrockets?