@Overthemenopause something seems wrong about the nutrition the stir fry recipe stated.
Your lunch has more calories and higher carbs than the egg noodle stir fry.
Maybe the stir fry recipe has an error. 27g pp of carbs for a bowl of noodles seems very low.
I do understand your frustration. Many many of us share it.
All I can say is if you are gaining weight then ultimately you are taking in more energy than you need.
It's not about 'fair'. I know we all want the magic key. Some little nugget of info that makes us go 'aha' and we tweak something and it's all good. Because we feel like we are doing all the right things so it's not fair and it must be something else. But it's not. There is no magic key.
The solution is less energy in than our bodies need if we want to lose weight.
The same energy in as our bodies need if we want to maintain our weight.
So we have to do two things. Boost the amount of energy our bodies use and reduce the amount of energy we consume.
We boost what we use by increasing our metabolism through exercise and building muscle mass. We reduce what we take in by eating less 🙁
And we try to eat hormonal helpful foods that boost our gut biome, don't raise our insulin levels, fuel our bodies to give us every and no empty calories.
I found to do this I needed to cut my intake WAY down. I eat VERY little. Something like 1 poached egg, a couple of slivers of avocado, a couple of cherry tomatoes and a sprinkle of rocket for brunch.
A SMALL salad of some chicken breast, some salad stuff, broccoli with olive oil and balsamic late afternoon. Or a small piece of fish and lots of steamed vegetables. Herbal tea and one soya coffee a day. The odd bit of fruit. I don't drink alcohol.
The meals are tiny. I am used to it now and I'm not really hungry. I lift heavy weights and walk a LOT. If I go out and say it's pizza I'll have 2 small slices. If it's a restaurant I'll have something tiny and a single course. If it's formal I'll eat a little from each course and select the vege and protein. I never eat a meal bigger than about my clenched fist. I don't eat after 4-5pm and don't start again until 10:30/11am unless I'm out socially. I drink a lot of water.
Sounds fucked up. But that's what I found worked after trying every keto, fasting blah blah diet and still gaining weight. It is what it is. Pretty much nothing gets eaten unless it is nutrient dense because I eat so little, every morsel counts.
I read wonsn who train like I do saying they can eat 2000+ calories because they lift heavy and have muscle. I lift heavy and have significantly more muscle than typical for a woman of any age let alone late 50s. I train with a huge 6'4 rugby playing PT who knows what my goals are and is not afraid to push me. But I can't eat much without gaining body fat and as I'm gaining and maintaining muscle my body is getting what it needs from my meagre intake