What am I doing wrong?

[Tigerpit]

Second week on SW, and second week to stay the same.

This is a typical day for me. What could I be doing wrong?

Breakfast - wholemeal toast with laughing cow light (Healthy Extra A and B)

I use semi skimmed milk in tea through the day - I count this as 2.5 syns

Lunch - Homemade. Sometimes a sandwich (counting the extra 8 syns for the bread) or pasta, or leftovers from dinner the night before....if there's anything that needs counted, it gets counted. Usually I'd say that was just bread for a sandwich, but sometimes I have a multipack sized bag of walkers baked (6 syns) after a salad. The rest of lunch is always free foods.

Afternoon snack if needed - fruit. But I don't often have a snack. If I've not had any syns at lunch, then I might have an Alpine Light bar late afternoon (not sure of the syns of these...I'm guessing around 6)

Dinner - Always home cooked, and always syn free, or at most, using 2 or 3 syns for anything I add, such as a measured portion of cheese to pasta.

I'm always under the max 15 syns.

Here I am, staying the same. I'm clearly doing something that isn't working.

Any advice for me please?

Make sure the fruit you have is speed, not just free.

Drink LOADS of water. Measure milk... I was shocked at how much I was using. I use semi skimmed... a kids bottle from McDonald's is 250ml which is the allowance so I just fill one of those on a night and use it for the next day!

Agreed - I find it best to measure my milk out at the beginning of the day. I only use it in tea so it lasts, and there's usually a bit left at the end of the day in my wee jug.

I'm not a big fruit eater, but can imagine that some of the sweeter ones could affect your result, such as bananas or grapes. I tend to go for an apple or watermelon, but not often as my stomach rebels if it gets too much fruit.

I'll look at My fitness pal - thank you for that suggestion.

Interesting...

Using yesterday's food in My Fitness Pal, it came to 1081 calories. And yes, I included absolutely every single thing, down to the counted skooshes of frylight and the weight of my potato for my rosti (yes, I weighed it).

Now I'm even more confused.

It seems a bit tricky at first but when you've been doing it a little while it becomes second nature.

I have the same issues as you with menopause and cortisol. I know it is controversial but I do think middle-ages women need to be careful with carbohydrates. More and more evidence is showing little blips in the calories in, calories out argument and nutrition may be far more individual than that as our bodies respond differently to things

I know from personal experience that I would not lose on your daily plan as there are too many carbs in there for me even if the calories are low. Our group leader always says the plan is a good guide but you have to find what suits your body within that. I try to make sure every meal is half speed foods, a quarter protein and a quarter carbs or fruit and that works for me (when I stick to it!)

Give it a bit more time, it’s only your second week.
Some great advice on here, hopefully you get a loss soon.
Have you been doing any exercise?
Upping steps & going for a long walk helped me. Also Pilates is really helping to reduce the tum

Interesting Ivor, thank you. We're all different, after all, so I imagine it takes different things to bring our weight down. I just haven't found the right balance yet, but I do have hope that I will.

Would you be prepare to share a couple of days of your plan with me? It might kick start me off.

Felix, I've not done any exercise yet, apart from increasing my walking a bit. I did yoga for six months last year and it helped enormously, but my wonderful yoga teacher had to stop for personal reasons and I haven't done it since. I need a slap, as I have an online teacher who I really like (on youtube) and I've done one or two of her classes. I just need to stop feeling so hopeless and actually do something. Thanks for the reminder!

I found having alien lights or extra bread for syns caused me to maintain. Ironically now I am at target, and having extra HE's is causing me to lose more weight.

Breakfast for me is Scrambled Eggs with ham and spring onion. Or Porridge with water, yoghurt and frozen fruit. Fruit with yoghurt on non work mornings.

Lunch is a salad, soup or beans on toast. Sometimes have scrambled egg or an omelette if I am at home.

Dinner is usually a meat/fish with veg and potatoes or pasta with salad or a rice based dish like risotto or jambalaya.

I do snack on fruit and veg. I'm trying to replace speed fruit with free fruit to help maintain. I also like quark to snack on,

I was beyond stuffed after that.

Found the problem! You shouldn't be eating until you're stuffed, eat until you're comfortably full. That's one of the key rules of skimming world (and any other diet)!

MsHippo, it was just an expression of speech ffs! I didn't do a Mr Creosote and explode all over the damn place, I promise. I'll translate - I meant that I was comfortably full, and didn't need anything else to eat after it. Now, maybe I should change my name to GreedyPig......

Honestly, the weeks where I lose are the weeks where I don't eat bread. And use very few syns. You're eating a lot of stuff I wouldn't touch.

For me:

Breakfast if fruit/cucumber/cherry tomatoes

Lunch: soup or salad with plenty protein

Tea: something like casserole and a baked potato.

2 babybel for a snack.

I would never eat what you're eating and expect to lose weight. I know it's all technically 'allowed' but you can't eat bread, crisps and cereal bars and really expect to lose weight!?

@Tigerpit I'm not saying you're a greedy pig at all! Just that eating until you're stuffed is not really part of a diet methodology. I'm not judging at all, I often eat until I'm stuffed! But just not if I'm trying to lose weight!

You should be eating 1/3 of speed food, such as fruit, with your breakfast.

I find I don't lose much in a week where I have bread, rice, pasta or potatoes so I don't have these every day. I've been back on plan for three weeks and lost 5lb. Mainly I have overnight oats with fruit for breakfast. Salad with chicken or tuna for lunch with extra pickled beetroot, sometimes mayonnaise. Evening meal usually meat and veg or salad with 4 new potatoes. Or a fry up. Snacks would be babybel cheese and fruit. Syns are used in sugar in my tea and mayonnaise used at lunch. I find eating melon often gives me a boost and also making sure I drink at least 1.5 litres helps. Regarding calories I'm generally eating 1100 to 1300 but if I have something like jacket potato, bacon or steak then that soon increases above 1500 so I try to only eat these once a week.

I'm very similar to others here OP. On a good day:
B - Scrambled eggs (butter adds a couple of syns here) with bacon, sausage (synned), smoked salmon, ham and spring onion, etc. If off work I might have overnight oats with berries or fruit and yoghurt but it doesn't fill me as much
L - Homemade soup, chicken or fish with salad, jacket potato with beans and veg. etc usually followed by a piece of fruit
T - Typical main course like curry, shepherds pie, stir fry, etc but I often use veg like celeriac or cauliflower for mash or rice to increase my speed veg and reduce carbs. There's some great recipes on Two Chubby Cubs if you like cooking
Dessert is usually fruit and lowcal jelly, yoghurt or HaloTop ice cream
Snacks could be things like almonds (HEB), fruit, apple slices with peanut butter (synned), lolly ice in nice weather
I use my milk in tea and use Skyr natural yoghurt which is higher in protein than Mullerlights although I may have one of those now and again
I try to add more speed veg and not have too much fruit

Controversially, I don't worry if I don't have a HEB some days. In the olden days potatoes, beans and olive oil were in here and I'm having those things anyway now in my free food. Nutritionally there is nothing grains add but fibre and I reckon I am getting enough from my veg. Quite what value we are gaining in eating processed stuff like Alpen or Hifi bars I don't know
Good luck!