Not losing anything

[hayser33]

Hi just wondered if someone can check I'm eating the right way on this low carb diet as I'm not losing atm.
Breakfast -2 eggs scrambled with dash of cream.
Lunch -small bowl of chilli con carne (no kidney beans,I picked them out ) with sprinkling of cheese. I d normally have some spinach with it but had ran out .
Snack -inside of a sausage roll as again all I had in and felt like I could curlew off my own arm.
Dinner tonight is roast pork spinach roasted peppers onions.
Lots of water and a few coffee ls with cream not Milk.
I've been doing this for a week now and stayed the same (I did have wine in weekend tho 😕)
Will I all of a sudden start losing?

I'm 5.4 and my weight has gone up to 12.7 since Christmas (I was 11.7).
Feel fed up and have a headache
If any one can give me some tips I'd appreciate it such as how much cheese is ok to have in a day etc .
Thanks in advance

Breakfast -2 eggs scrambled with dash of cream

This is a perfect low carb breakfast

Lunch -small bowl of chilli con carne (no kidney beans,I picked them out ) with sprinkling of cheese. I d normally have some spinach with it but had ran out

What else was the chilli made with? Onions and tomatoes could all have made this quite carby. And why only a sprinkling of cheese? You can have plenty of cheese!

Snack -inside of a sausage roll as again all I had in and felt like I could curlew off my own arm

The sausage here could be pretty high in carbs. You wouldn't have been able to check this, though, as the carb count on the pack would have included the pastry. But you need to make sure that you have things to hand that help youth snack if you need to, that are low carb. However, once you're into low carbing, you're unlikely to be hungry so won't need to snack as much.

Dinner tonight is roast pork spinach roasted peppers onions

That's fine, but try substituting the onions with shallots, as they are much lower in carbs.

Lots of water and a few coffee ls with cream not Milk

Great - but maybe keep an eye on how many coffees, and how much cream, as it does add up eventually.

I've been doing this for a week now and stayed the same (I did have wine in weekend tho 😕)

Well, a week is not time at all really, and if you've had wine, then this will have had an effect!

Will I all of a sudden start losing?

Only if you really stick to low carbing properly

I'm 5.4 and my weight has gone up to 12.7 since Christmas (I was 11.7).

Feel fed up and have a headache

^Well, the headache is actually a good sign, as it shows that you're withdrawing from the carbs! Make sure that your electrolytes are in balance, which means that you're getting enough sodium, magnesium and potassium - so salt, salmon, avocado, spinach and full fat yoghurt.

Make sure that you're eating plenty of fat and drinking lots of water.

Weight loss is hard particularly if you're over 40.

I think though with low carb if you stick to it you will lose.

A couple of comments. In terms of your lunch and breakfast I think they're fine. In terms of healthy eating though, perhaps add more fish and vegetables as your daily menu seems to be more meat and fat based rather than fish / veg.

It isn't any more difficult to lose weight after 40 than it is after 20.

And there's nothing wrong with being meat-based - adding fish won't make it any healthier.

The other thing you need to consider, hayser which is difficult to tell from what you've written, is how much fat you're eating. Low carb should mean high fat. You should be eating fat, then protein, then carbs.

And finally, you really do need to be a bit more patient. The weight will have taken a while to creep up, so it's not just going to melt away in a couple of weeks. I know it's hard, but it is the reality of losing weight. Why not come over to the Bootcamp threads - there's an ongoing chat thread at the moment (although we're in between Bootcamp), and lots of help and support there.

I have a maximum of 2 hot drinks a day with cream in.
I would also avoid any alcohol

I read the pig to twig book and it really helped me.
I'm in my 40's and the same height as you.
I've lost 10lbs in 3 weeks eating like you've listed.

BIWI, I've found it very hard to lose weight since I was in my late 30s as compared to earlier years (I'm now early 40s). I think there's probably hormonal reasons for that too but I do think lots of women find it much harder as the years pass. That doesn't mean it's not possible. If you have some tips for more sustainable / quick weight loss regardless of age let me know, I'd be very interested. I just finished 30 days of whole30 which has some low-carb aspects and is generally a super healthy eating regime and basically lost no weight whatsoever (although have no cravings so that's great).

stilllovingmysleep I was 52 when I started low carbing. Lost the weight just like anyone else.

There are some who say it's more difficult when you're menopausal, but as I was perimenopausal then, I don't know if that's really true. If you want my honest opinion, I think it's an excuse. I think we get less active as we get older and forget what we were like when we were younger.

If you're finding it hard, list out for me what you've been eating over the last few days and let's see if I can help you.

BIWI thanks that gives me a bit of hope! I will list what I ate in a few days. I was doing whole30 for 30 (!) days but didn't lose any weight, which I attribute to the potatoes & dried fruit you're allowed to have on it.
In the past I had easily lost weight with total low carb which is why I'm going to do that again.
Do you then think that exercise is essential too? That's interesting advice & relevant to me as I haven't been exercising recently.
I will return with more info once I've continued my low carbing for a few days (I'm doing Pig to Twig after a few years of not having done it: day 1 today).

Exercise is great, because it makes you feel good, and it's obviously better to do some rather than none! But weight loss is much more about diet than exercise.

By the way wanted to say BIWI, in my case I do believe I lose weight with great difficulty. I ate very very healthily with Whole30 for a month, no sugar in any form, no grains, minimum carbs except dried fruit / fresh fruit / potatoes, no dairy and still didn't lose weight...
I think other people, with such a change in their diet would have lost weight.
I do believe in my particular case only very low carb might work but let's see.

Thanks all.
Tomorrow I'll address the coffees with cream and replace my onions for shallots.
One thing puzzling me is aside from extra Virgin olive oil and butter and fat on meat etc what other foods is fat in lol (that sounds daft)as everyone says eat more fat but I can't be eating blocks of butter or bottles of oil. So what are the best fat foods to have. Pleased to know I can eat unlimited cheeses (this includes brie goats cheeses and hullomi right ?)
The chilli had one chopped onion and a 400 gram carton of tomatoes but obviously it was a small bowl so probably not even a third of the onion and tomatoes was in there -does that sound about right?

I guess I'm going to make mistakes 😕just frustrating as I can't even look in the mirror atm I feel disgusting and none of my clothes fit it's horrible .thanks everyone x

stillLovingMySleep
By the way wanted to say BIWI, in my case I do believe I lose weight with great difficulty. I ate very very healthily with Whole30 for a month, no sugar in any form, no grains, minimum carbs except dried fruit / fresh fruit / potatoes, no dairy and still didn't lose weight

You did have sugar unfortunately. It's in dried fruit, fresh fruit and potatoes.
That might be why you didn't lose.

ihatethecold: I agree! Exactly. Unless (in my case) I do all-out low carb (=that is, minimum carb as in IPD or Atkins) I simply don't lose. There were many pluses with Whole30, and I'm glad I did it, e.g. cravings disappeared & I wasn't sleepy during the day. And generally ate healthily...but didn't lead to weight loss unfortunately.

What you've experienced, stillloving, is the reality that some people are less tolerant of carbs than others.

You definitely weren't following a low carb diet if you were eating dried fruit, fruit and potatoes!

You need to sort out how many carbs you can tolerate, whilst also losing weight. The Atkins diet is a really good way to do that, because you start very low (in the induction phase) and gradually add carbs in until you start to gain again.

But it really isn't anything to do with your age.

hayser cheese isn't unlimited, unfortunately - try not to eat more than 100g per day.

Other sources of fat - well, obviously cook with oil/butter, but also add it to your food, so butter on veg and oily dressings on your salad. Use/eat full fat yoghurt (assuming you're ok with dairy). Then buy fattier cuts of meat - chicken thighs rather than breast (and eat the skin!), shin of beef rather than lean braising steak, mince with a higher fat content rather than lean, etc.

I tried low carb for two weeks and lost nothing at all. I was starving the whole time. Turned out I have gall stones and should follow a high complex carb very low fat diet. Low carb may be fashionable, but it really doesn't suit everyone. High carb low fat might work better for you, especially if you can't tolerate much fat, which seems to be a key part of succeeding on a low carb diet.

notagiraffe - if you were starving all the time then you weren't doing low carb properly!

I'm sorry to hear that you're suffering from gall stones.

Low carb isn't especially fashionable - but there is a growing body of scientific evidence to support its effectiveness. Unlike low fat diets which are actually thought to create the problem with gall stones. Here's a bit of an explanation

NotaGiraffe, sorry to hear about the gallstones. How tough!
In terms of low carb, one of the main things it does is that you don't feel hungry on it. I wonder how come you were starving the whole time? Do you think you were eating small quantities? Or not enough fat?
In terms of low carb, I was convinced when I read this (which in fact I'll reread now that I'm restarting low carb). It's a fantastic, sensible book, really worth reading.

BIWI, that is really interesting. Thanks. I did have a very low fat diet for years and years because I found it really easy to stick to. I did the Hip and Thigh diet in my 20s (it was very fashionable then) and the habits stuck. And I got gallstones after a couple of years of serious stress when DS2 was very ill and I'd eaten almost nothing for ages. So they didn't happen after a high fat diet. Really interesting. I wonder what to do now, though as I feel really ill if I eat much fat now.