Weight that WILL NOT come off

[samsmum2]

I'm so fed up.... Over the last year, I've put on a stone in weight and nothing I do seems to make a difference. I had a minor stroke and the consultant took me off my HRT as he said it was a stroke risk, (Femoston) so I assumed that was why I suddenly piled on the pounds. (Also was less active for a while) Anyway, I battled to get back on it, and the HRT clinic I went to managed to persuade the consultant that the research showed that stroke risk for use of oestrogen patches with separate progesterone tablets was minimal, so I went back on it, hoping for a change in the weight. Nada.... At this point I was eating healthily, v low carb, lots of fresh fruit & veg, not processed food etc, but nothing changed. I have recently taken up weight training and attend 4-5 classes a week. I've noticed a change in my muscle tone, but not lost a pound and I still carry a horrible flabby spare tyre around my middle, though my limbs & face are quite slim. I've also been super careful with my diet, under the guidance of the PT at the gym, so again v low carb, high protein, I've cut out most sugar (except for honey that I have on my yoghurt with nuts, seeds & berries for breakfast) and I still haven't lost a pound. I'm feeling so low about it with summer coming, and unable to get into half my wardrobe. I walk the dog daily for a good 5 miles. I'm aware of how much sugar there is in fruit so have been attempting to cut that back too, but life becomes a bit dull if you can't even have a piece of fruit after a meal, let alone a pudding. I only drink at weekends - generally a g&t & a glass of white wine, and if we go out and eat a 'normal' meal at a friend's house/pub, I'm up 2lb the next morning. Just bought some fat measuring scales which put my fat percentage (38%) in the obese range, although most people would say I'm not even overweight. 10st.11 & 5'6" tall. Now toying with the idea of coming back off HRT as can't work out if there's a link or not. Feeling so rubbish... any advice anyone?

I always assumed that your body begins to hold on to weight during this because as you get old and your appetite decreases you become frailer, and thus more vulnerable if you have an injury or illness. Having a little bit of weight to come and go on can really help you in old age

Not really.

It's not healthy to be too thin, but appetite doesn't necessarily fall off in older age. (many of my Mum's friends in their 80s are overweight/obese and diabetic and eat like horses.)

Frailty is due to loss of muscle, not fat.

I'm 53 and have had some success with weight loss by loosely following the 700 keto diet for a few weeks, and since then avoiding all obvious carbs so very little fruit as well as no bread, potatoes, chips etc.

I don't know if it's primarily because of the calorie deficit rather than the keto thing ( as have never been in keto) but I am gradually losing weight, mind you my start point was a bit higher than yours.

I do eat nuts when I'm hungry but I buy the single KP bags of them with less than 200 calories. I also have Bounce bars for a treat and Aldi protein chocolate mousses- not all on the same day mind .

I don't count calories now as I find that too restrictive and makes me more likely to rebel. If out for a meal I will ask for no chips and extra veg or whatever- I don't think it works if you are on and off it.

Or perhaps earlier on in evolution we wouldn’t be given as many calories by the group because we weren’t carrying out hunting or child producing. So we had to cling on to every last calorie to survive.

i like to think I’m just becoming very energy efficient 🤣😭

Me too!

I was in the same boat. 6 years and couldn't shift a pound.

My menopause specialist told me that SOME women ( before I get leapt on by the 'that didn't happen to me' brigade) gain and then desperately hold on to fat because fat turns to oestrogen which your body is craving. It is In turn difficult to diet because your body makes you hungry because it wants you to make fat.

I put on 4 stone during peri and menopause, whilst exercising ing 5 x a week, doing weights, eating healthily bla bla. It wouldn't shift. I've thrown the towel in and gone on Ozempic. I've lost 11 lbs in a month. I don't think your BMI is high enough to be prescribed it though.

Nuts (and cheese) are a far better source of fat than they are protein - unfortunately! I also thought for a long time that nuts were a great source of protein, and they do have some, but not that much, and it comes with the fat (healthy fat, and I'm not saying nuts are bad, but they are not a high source of protein).

I was very disappointed to learn this

Greek yoghurt, meat, and supplementary protein powder are the best three things I've found for protein intake (disclaimer I am not menopausal, but I do a lot of weights and naturally tend towards binge eating so had to research protein!)

I'm a (menopausal) personal trainer. I do shit loads of high intensity exercise, weight training, etc, etc and I have to admit that it is more difficult now to lose weight than it was for me in the past. Many of my menopausal clients struggle too. However, when we examine their lifestyle and eating habits we find the same things time and again -

• they tend to overestimate the calories they burn during exercise (weight training and walking have a multitude of benefits but they will not burn a huge amount of extra cals in the scheme of things)

• outside of exercise, they tend to be more sedentary than they used to be. You might be exercising more, but you may also be resting more to make up for it. If your sleep has gone to shit and you have upped your activity you are potentially going to be needing to rest more during the day. I've had to start taking an afternoon nap - I'm definitely burning less cals than I used to be when I was able to be more active outside of structured exercise sessions!

• they (often vastly) underestimate the number of calories they are consuming/ they need to consume to put themselves into a deficit. Without accurately tracking calories it's impossible to know how much energy you are taking on board. Once you have that information, you can then look at whether you need to reduce calories further. If you are not losing weight, gradually reducing your daily intake for a week or two at a time until you start to see a difference will tell you where you need to be.

You will get a million different suggestions from well-meaning posters here on what diet is the best for weight loss. At the end of the day, the best diet for you is the one you can sustain over time. All diets work because they put you in a calorie deficit, you just have to find the most tolerable way to reach that deficit. I don't know what that is for you, however I will say that if you are experiencing brain fog, low energy etc, then cutting carbs is probably going to be counter productive. Filling up on protein will help you to maintain and build muscle mass. Get plenty of fruit and veg - as many different colours as possible! There is plenty of information on the nhs website if you search 'nhs eatwell' as well as a calorie calculator which will give you a starting point.

My Fitness Pal is a great free tracking app, but set it so that it does not give you back your exercise cals to eat. If you want more personalised tracking, I recommend an app called Carbon. It costs a tenner a month, but will automatically adjust your calories and macros according to your progress.

Finally, if you're looking for good trustworthy information on nutrition and diet there is a book by Ben Carpenter on amazon called Everything Fat Loss. It is unbiased, detailed and completely based on actual facts. He has nothing to sell and no vested interests. Worth following on Instagram too.

Hope this helps, I tend not to post on these type of threads too often, but it is quite frustrating to see how many of us are driven to try increasingly complicated, miserable and expensive methods of weight loss when actually the whole thing comes down to a few very simple basics!

Just to add, having reread your first post, a 2lb weight gain after a salty/big meal is not unusual. It isn't fat, just water retention which will drop off in a couple of days. You may also be changing your body composition over time, which means that the scales might not move much, but which will be borne out by changes you will see in your shape. The bit we hate the most is always the last to go, it takes time for changes to become obvious. Your PT ought to have talked through these concerns with you if you have discussed them...

Thank you for for all this!

Thanks for the advice - and I tend to agree, I probably am over eating on things like nuts/fruit. I find it incredibly hard not to snack between meals as it doesn't seem that long ago when the buzz word was grazing, and we were encouraged to eat little and often so that became my default. My snacks are consistently healthy but obviously calorific. I will restart logging my calories on My Fitness Pal and try and be a bit harder on myself. My 'fat scales' suggest I stick to 1350 calories a day but to me that sounds tough.

https://tdeecalculator.net/

This is a calculator to work out how many calories you should roughly be eating.

Personally I would go for weight loss of about half a lb per week. So you would need a deficit of about 250 cals a day, which isn’t much. It might take longer but it will be sustainable and you could also build a bit of muscle (which would be harder to do in a bigger deficit).

I agree with a lot of things Tim Spectre says, but if you are in a calorie surplus you’re going to gain weight. And if you’re gaining weight you are probably in a calorie surplus.

A moderate calorie deficit, protein, fibre and some fats at every meal will keep you full and keep your blood sugar even.

Op I def found that too. I cant shift my weight all around my middle. I do good bit of walking. It did increase with patches. Bit disheartening.