Please analyse my day!

[dcrxcm]

Hello. I am hoping that I can call on you lovely fellow mumsnetters to help me work out why I am so severely in a rut with my loss. I can't ask a consultant as I am doing this solo from home!

I have been on plan since 1st January and have lost roughly 2 stone in that time (from 13.10 to 11.10 - I am 5"3) There have been holidays and the odd weekend totally off, but I've never gained more than a few pounds which have ultimately come off. Around July time my losses just.... stopped and I'm at a loss as to why!

Today for example I had:

Weetabix with almond milk (2 syns), banana and blueberries HEXB
Coffee x 2 with milk (2 syns)
Babybel light with radishes and cherry tomatoes (2 syns)
Fritata (potato, spring onion and quorn sausage, feta) HEXA with salad
Sw chilli and rice with cheddar (3 syns)
Fat free yoghurt and berries
Mini twister (2.5 syns)

I drink a minimum of 3 litres of water a day and walk around 3 miles. I do other exercise twice a week roughly. Although people sort of notice I have lost, I just feel a bit glum that others (on instagram for instance!) seem to have shed loads of weight and that SW has never 'stopped' working. I've tried doing SP and cutting carbs right down but it makes no difference. I've also experimented with calorie counting and I log anywhere from 1300-2000 a day. It doesn't make much of a difference to my losses.

Thank you in advance :)

A couple of things.

Your breakfast has no speed foods. Try swapping the banana and blueberries for speed fruits. Also, your dinner doesn't seem to have a lot of speed foods but this depends what you put in your chilli!

Are the quorn sausages free? I don't eat it so I'm not absolutely sure but I think I've heard someone say that there's only one variety of quorn sausage that is free.

You have both potato and rice in the same day. While there is nothing wrong with this and it's absolutely fine under the plan, personally I don't lose if I have two lots of carbs per day. Might be worth cutting out one lot of carbs and see what happens. Maybe try cauli rice with the chilli (which would also increase speed foods).

You also have quite a few dairy items - milk in coffee, a babybel, feta, cheddar and yoghurt. Again, what you have listed is absolutely fine under the plan as you're either counting it as HEA or synning it. However, maybe your body isn't dealing with that level of dairy very well? You could try cutting out some of this and using your syns for something else instead.

Hopefully some of that may help!

Bananas and blueberries aren't speed?!

Good points above. I would also say that if you eat pretty much the same things every day/week, then try to shake it up a bit. Eg have yoghurt and fruit for breakfast instead of weetabix. I find that helps to kick start more weight loss.

Also, have you tried sp days?

What are your portion sizes like? I've heard that when weight loss stalls on sw it's often because you're eating too much free food, I know I can get through mountains of sw chilli. A 4 egg omelette is obviously going to have more calories than a 2 egg one, even though eggs are free. I know on sw we are encouraged not to think of calories as such but something I struggle with is portion size ('go on give me a big bowl-it's freeeee'!)and I find it helps.

No bananas aren't speed, they are free though but as I said a big banana can be 100 calories so, whilst free if you have loads of them you won't lose weight!

Thanks all for your feedback:

As you've suggested, I have been actively mixing things up for breakfast (sometimes I have melon and yoghurt, overnight oats etc.) as I was worried I wasn't losing because of lack of variety.

Good point on the dairy - I think this is probably because I am not into meat so can't just snack on a chicken breast for instance! Perhaps I can think of other things to have instead. Veggie, syn free, non dairy and not sugar based ideas anyone?

I definitely get a lot of speed without a doubt - I haven't listed it very well above, sorry!

I think my portion sizes are fine - I.e. 40g rice, 50g pasta for example and I am always under my recommended caloric intake which supports that.

Do any of you think it's possible that the plan just stops working sometimes? I wonder if my body has got too used to this way of eating/working?

Soup season now so hoping that might kick start things!! Thanks all x

Thanks for the info re: bananas!

Do you do Amy exercise? (I don't) As it sounds like you're doing everything right on the plan and you've plateaud, maybe you need to do more exercise? That's something that has been suggested to people in my group.

Re: veggie and filling snacks, 14 cashews counts as a hexb! I love them, and often have them as my hexb.

As a veggie I have the same problems with snacks- have just eaten half a pot of cottage cheese! Though out of the quorum products, I do like the frankfurters and the ham is ok with something (had it with salad and tsp Mayo for lunch).

Quorn! Wtf is quorum, autocorrect?!

I do love the frankfurter ones actually - not sure on syns tho so haven't incorporated them into SW meals yet. Dying to try sausage patties...

I do quite a lot of exercise compared to before really, walk 3 miles a day roughly, swim twice a week or do aqua classes for cardio then on top I do squats/weights for my bingo wings. I do enough I reckon but not so much that somebody could wheel out the muscle weighs more than fat drum!

Are you doing it online or just literally solo? Because I'm wondering how you're working out what 2 Syns of almond milk is and things like that...

Without wanting to stitch anyone up - a close friend is a member so I have ready access to all resources!

Oh I wasn't asking for copyright reasons or anything, lol...

Just that... Taking almond milk as an example, depending on which kind it is, that 2 Syns worth could be anywhere from 150ml right up to 400ml.

Because usually I'd ask if your speed is definitely replacing a third of your portion and not added in, then I'd ask if you were weighing and measuring stuff accurately...but then it occurred to me that if you're not a member, how accurate is your info for stuff like the almond milk?

Oh I see - thank you! If in doubt I do 21 calories per syn which has kept me safe so far! If you have any other tips would welcome them :)

How far are you from target? In group people's losses really slow down/stop for a bit near target. Keep going!

Do you often eat similar things each day? Could you try eating completely different meals? Try the seven day plan from the mag for instance?

How recently did you up the exercise? Sometimes if it's recent you might weigh a bit more for a bit.

Try limiting syns to around 5, or 10, lower the number for a week, see what happens.

Absolutely back to basics - third speed for EVERY meal, speed between meals.

Are you measuring yourself as well as weighing? You might see some progress there.

Just some ideas!

A quorum by the way is the mimimum number of members of a group who must be present at a meeting eg to make the meeting valid.

Sorry not familiar with SW but I think you're probably eating too much and not active enough. I'm 5'4 and a little bit lighter than you and I don't lose anything much even though I have about a stone to go.

Have you worked out your BMR? That's the amount of calories your body needs to exist. You can work it out online. Mine's 1258. That's not a lot. I put on weight at around 1400 cals; again not a lot. I walk 10000 steps and consistently eat less than 1200 cals and I lose a pound a month. It's soul-destroying, especially when you see others apparently losing loads.

I've known a few people lose weight at Slimming World. One is very overweight and lost about 2 stone easily, but got bored after a while and put it all back on. Another dropped a dress size but put it all back on when on holiday.

They're both bigger than when they started at SW.

I think there's evidence to indicate that the less you weigh, the lower your metabolic rate will be. Bigger bodies need more calories; smaller bodies less. Being little, and having lost a significant amount of weight., perhaps you need to review your intake?

I've got a fitbit and it monitors calories burned against calories taken in. Even on the days I exceed my step count I don't burn 2000 calories. So I think that the advice given about 2000 being an average "burn" is nonsense for most people.

Anyway, well done on your weight loss so far. You're doing great.

How hard are you working at your walking and swimming? I can do a gentle flat 3 miles and it doesn't really do much, a hard often out of breath up and down hills 3 mile march while pushing a buggy is a different story. Do you get in the pool and work your arse off doing lengths or do get in and faff about at each end of the lane and and up just doing 10 lengths?

I have found the last stone really hard to lose and I have to work for every lb. Without being harsh, there are a few things that you have on your list of food that I don't eat if I want a loss week...Weeterbix, because I find oat based stuff fills me up for longer, and porridge oats have 0g sugar. Babybel, because it's proceed, I'd prefer to have a small amount of cheddar instead and again probably feel fuller for longer. I don't really eat any type of sausages anymore or potatoes, or only in small amounts, same goes for pasta.

Having said that I have completely overhauled how and what I eat and I now eat way less carbohydrate than I used to and have virtually cut out all processed food (especially processed meat) and refined sugar. So far I've lost just over 4 stone. The Joe Wicks books have some recipe ideas that are very lean but quick and filling...that may be a place to look for ideas to mix things up to kick start the weight loss again.

Thanks- I googled quorum after j asked!

Frankfurters are 1.5 syns (can't remember where I got that from- maybe lifeline online or whatever it's called- will double check).

Yes- definitely 1.5 syns.

I'm off to check my BMR!