Please help advise me why I'm not losing weight before I give up!

[thecertaintyofchance]

Hi

A bit of background. I'm v small boned 5ft 2. Pre children 12 years ago I did the Atkins diet and maintained a weight of 7stone 10 without much effort on this WOE.

After my first 3 children I tended to go back to carb and got back down to about 8.5 stone. Whilst pregnant I crave carbs unfortunately so do put weight on.

The problem arose with my last pregnancy. I literally ballooned. He is now 3 and I still weight 11.5 stone. I have flirted with several diets since he was born. I did sw for 3 months and lost 2 pounds although I did stick to it. I am greenly a healthy eater. Lots of fruit/veg. I don't drink alcohol. My downfall is probably portion size and bread.

Anyway 3 weeks ago I came to the realisation that I have to do something. I look as though someone has put me in a fat suit. So I went back to the tried and tested low carb.

I am eating lots of eggs and meat. Fish, full fat plain yoghurt as a snack with a handful nuts. Salad and veg as well. I have gained 2 pounds in that time and feel very low. I know I can stick to this WOE as I have done it before but I can only stick to it if its working. I am craving fruit.

I assume that this issue is I have done this so many time now that my body is confused? If so will it work and when? I have huge willpower when something is working but not when it isn't! I know dairy can be an issue but it hasn't been in the past.

Thanks for getting this far!

You need to get actual fats. Dairy and eggs and things are only a secondary source. Fry your food in butter and/or oil, have oily dressings, eat fatty cuts of meat, keep the skin on chicken, have a few pork scratchings here and there.

You need to eat lots of fat, a moderate amount of protein and a small, low amount of carbs.

Nuts will give you fat, but they are also quite carby quite quickly.

But you can get fat from other things, like oil/lard/butter, mayonnaise and fattier cuts of meat.

Looking at your diet I'd make the following comments:

2 egg cheese omelette for breakfast as I do everyday.

This is a great low carb breakfast.

Handful of almonds and small glass full fat milk.

This is really quite carby - there are lots of carbs in milk, even if it is full fat

Lunch was chicken, lettuce, cucumber and egg.

OK-ish - but chicken is low fat. Did you have any dressing on the salad? What about full fat mayo?

2 slices roast chicken and a cheese string.

OK - but again, could have been relatively low in fat

Garlic mushrooms in creamy sauce for tea.
Full fat greek yoghurt mixed with double cream and sprinkling of cinnamon for pudding.

This is OK, as long as there wasn't any flour in the creamy sauce

Lots of water.

Great! Water is really important. How much are you drinking each day?

Overall, I think you're also eating a lot of dairy - it could be that you have a bit of an issue with dairy - it's worth cutting down on that a bit to see what happens.

And why don't you come and sign up for the next Bootcamp? Starts on Monday!

Hi, please check out some websites re low carb, because the likes of cashews are high carb foods. Seeds and (the right) nuts, such as macadamias are perfect. Take a while and work out which low carb (and ideally high fat) foods you like. If you can, try a little high intensity exercise ( only about 10 mins , 3 times a week). This will boost your metabolism and your fat burning capabilities, kick-starting your weight loss journey. Remember, its a marathon, not a sprint. Dont beat yourself up if you don`t lose loads of weight quickly. This way of eating is very healthy, what ever the scales say. Good luck and good health!

I don't do low carb (BMI of 20) but some of these posts seem to include an extraordinary amount of food for a diet. I would definitely put on weight on that amount of food.

I've been low carbing since January and lost almost 3 stone now. ime calories DO matter on LC. I know some people seem to get on fine without counting calories or carbs but some of us need to. I use mfp to track calories and carbs plus it keeps track of other nutrients so you can see whether you're eating enough fat, not going overboard on protein etc.

Exercise is important too, it certainly makes it easier to lose weight.

It's likely to be the dairy which can raise insulin levels disproportionately to the amount of carbs in it. I would say cut the dairy to just butter and full-fat yoghurt. I found nuts get out of hand easily so I weigh them out to make sure I'm not eating too many.

Give up all dairy product and nuts entirely.
I eat high fat and I have none of those products if I want to lose weight. Just pile on the oilve oil, eat your avocados, have lots of fatty pork etc.

I am trying to do a vegetarian version of this, but like the OP am pretty dependent on dairy and nuts. Apart from eggs (already eating a gazillion a day) what else is there to eat?! I have browsed through lots of great recipes on the recipe thread, but most of the vegetarian ones contain eggs (please no more!), cheese, yoghurt, cream or nuts.

I do have insulin resistance (am taking metformin for it).