Cut out alcohol, carbs and all other rubbish but put on weight???

[AnyoneForPimms]

Hi,

Looking for some advice and support from all you wise mumsnetters.

On the 1st of May I cut out alcohol of any type. Normally I'm a couple of glasses a night girl !!

I also followed the duken diet for 5 days. This was hard but I did it. In the process I lost 5lbs and was well pleased.

I have now been following a "healthy " diet. Plenty of fish, chicken, salads , veg and lowfat yoghurts. I have stayed off all the carbs so no bread, rice, pasta potatoes. I not touched any biscuits, crisps, fizzy drinks or any naughty foods. ( god I sound like a saint!)

I cycle around 3 miles round trip to a zumba class twice a week and I also do another 2 zumba classes.

My weight has not moved in fact I have put on 1lb.

Gutted.

Any advise?? What am I doing wrong??

But since the 1st May you have lost 4 lbs- that's great. You probably aren't eating enough right now. The best weight loss comes from steady healthy eating, including carbs if you're doing all that exercise. Introduce small amounts of carbs, wholemeal if you prefer but it doesn't really matter for weight loss, and keep at it! Do you want to lose a lot in total?

I want to lose around 2 stone in total.

I 5' 5" and would like to be under 10 stone if poss.

Is it really possible that I'm not eating enough? I'm not hungry

I wouldn't worry about it - if you haven't lost any weight in another week then you should start looking at what you're eating in more detail.

Most of the weight you lost doing Dukan would have been your body burning through its carbohydrate stores resulting in a loss of water. Now that you are eating food with carbs again your body will have built up your carb stores again. The fact that you've only gained a pound since you stopped doing Dukan means that you've probably lost a pound or two in real terms. There also are a load of other reasons why you might be a bit heavier now such as if you are due on your period, have been eating too much salt, are a bit constipated (which I wouldn't be surprised at if you were doing Dukan and still aren't eating a lot of fibre).

The only way to be sure is to work out your calorie intake. Too little and your body is in what they call 'starvation mode'. You need roughly about 1300- 1500 to lose weight at a sensible rate. The only foods you have mentioned that have calories in are fish, chicken and low fat yoghurt- there's not a lot in those! Hunger doesn't really have too much to do with it.

All fine in that department and no period due.

I'm not eating pots, rice, pasta bread though??

Typical day's food

Hot water with lemon

Scrambled egg, toms, mushrooms for brekkie

Large salad for lunch with either cottage cheese, sardines or chicken. Maybe a couple of ryvitas. Fat free yoghurt and fruit

Last night was roast veg and salmon with jelly and raspberries for dessert.

I drink around 1.5 litres of water a day.

Snacks... Maybe a babybel or hummus with veg sticks.

Can anyone comment on weather that is enough or anything wrong??

Thanks

I don't know what a Dukan diet is, but it sounds dangerous and counterproductive in the long run if you are completely eliminating carbohydrates from your diet.

I would look at the fat content of your diet. Do you cook your own meals or do you eat processed food? How much olive oil and/dressing do you put on your salads?

Hummous is very fatty and jelly is basically sugar.

You should have a slice of bread or a full tablespoon of steamed rice instead. You would feel fuller for longer and take in less calories, as well.

Thing is, you are weighing yourself, which is wrong.
Don't forget that muscle weighs more than fat, so if you are also excersising theen you are turning your fat into muscle. Ergo, the scales say you are heavier, but not with fat, with muscle.
I always go by how my clothes feel. If they feel tighter, I know I need to diet.

I always cook from scratch and don't eat ready meals.

I do feel my clothes are looser

Thing about dukan is that you eat no vegetables so you loose weight very quickly. The fact that you went back to more sensible eating, and didn't really put on weight is good news. You are doing nothing wrong. I had a go at dukan but I am not convinced that the protein only days are healthy, stick with the low fat low(ish) carbs and you will loose.

The way I see it is that you can't really loose more than 1.5lb of fat a week, so if you started on 1st May and have lost 4lbs then you aren't due to be another pound down yet. Keep on going but assess if its working or not at the end of May - if you have lost 7lbs.

I assume the jelly was sugar free?

Its the 12th of May and you started this healthy eating on the 1th May, you say you want to lose extra weight - can I ask how many days did it take for you to put the extra weight into your body? Was is 12 days? 122 days? or possibly 365 days? or even longer?

Muscle weighs so much more than fat (I think it's about 2.5 times heavier) so if you have recently increased your exercise but not gained much weight you have actually lost fat but gained muscle - that's why BMI isn't accurate for athletes!

It takes a lot longer than 12 days to increase your muscle, sorry but but you are looking at months and months building muscle.

The jelly was sugar free!!

What about your portion size? You may be eating lots of healthy foods but if you're eating a big piece of chicken, a whole tub of hummus etc then you'll be eating too many calories maybe? (BTW I'm not saying you are just thinking of reasons).

First I think losing 5lbs in 5 days is not a "real" loss IYSWIM, dukan would have been quite a shock for your body, the 5lbs would most likely have been mostly water...so now you are eating normally, your apparent gain is actually your body just kind of rebalancing itself, if you had eaten like you did before dukan you probably would have "put on" more than a pound. So look at it another way, you have lost 4lbs in under two weeks, that is still quite a lot!

The things you have cut out are mostly the right things, but there's no need to remove all carbs, try just cutting out the processed ones. foreverondiet is right about giving it time, as is ivykaty re muscle vs fat argument and also ladywithnomanors - just because food is "healthy" doesn't mean you don't need to watch portion sizes. Also i would say allow yourself the occasional treat otherwise you are going to feel really deprived and end up binning the weight loss plan before you reach your goal .

Try weighing yourself no more than once a week, once a fortnight is good if you can manage it. Good luck