Why am I not losing weight?

[livieast]

Cut out snacks since the start of the month. I'm only eating my 3 meals a day, and maybe an alpen light bar in the evening if I'm peckish (so I guess I just have one snack!). A typical day would be muesli and semi skimmed milk, a sandwich and 2 boiled eggs for lunch, then a normal, fairly healthy family dinner - spaghetti bolognaise, fajitas, baked spuds and cold meats etc. Fairly standard sized portions, slightly bigger than recommended but without snacking I'm absolutely starving at meal times. I weighed myself this morning and I've GAINED 2lb since the 4th. I'm absolutely devastated! Any ideas? I need to lose weight and I just feel a bit lost.

Way too many carbs. Ditch the Alpen bars, switch musli for eggs, and try to limit (or entirely get rid of) bread & pasta. Maybe do the sandwich with a small salad for lunch, instead of two boiled eggs, or put the boiled eggs in a big salad and ditch the sandwich and use balsamic vinegar instead of store bought dressing.

Don't bother with skimmed milk, fat isn't something to be afraid of, sugar is.

I'd ditch the sandwich and have soup, salad or a pitta. Also have the eggs in the morning instead of museli. Bulk evening meal with lots of veg for yourself. Use lean meat and drink loads of water. I was told 4l but not sure if it needs to be that much.

No expert! Have a heck of a lot to lose.

For me that is too many carbs.

Also I would recommend tracking with something like myfitnesspal. It is a faff to do initially but once you've found your foods and measured them once it's easy. Eat what you would normally eat and then add it in so you can do an 'audit'.

Something like fajitas would have way too many calories for me. Esp if was having a big serving. I have chilli with salad but can't add things like wraps and cheese etc.

I think you might be surprised by the calories of your evening meals.

A meal with mince plus starchy carb like spag Bol can end up very caloric. I just have the mince and some salad. Or make courgette 'pasta'.

Though as mentioned it's not just the calories. I track so I can watch my macronutrient profile.

The problem with lunches is I have to eat on the bus on the way to work, or on the walk down so I can't heat anything or sit down. But I might try putting some soup in one of those insulated coffee mugs and having that on the bus.

I'll get rid of the morning muesli and try the eggs, I used to have eggs every morning but time is an issue now! Would a smoothie do? Trying to think of quick things for my early starts. I got a nutribullet for Christmas so this could be easy.

I need to seriously up my water intake too. I'll have a big glass when I get to work!

Thanks :)

Try a green smoothie for breakfast, with coconut milk, and do the eggs for lunch.

I can tell you what worked for me.
Understanding how many calories I ate/eat and how many I actually needed.
Download a calorie counting thing like My Fitness Pal and log everything that passes your lips religiously for a couple of weeks. This will mean you will need to weigh out your food.
Then you'll have an accurate idea of how much you are eating.
Work out your TDEE (Google will show you a calculator) and to lose weight you need to knock 20-25% off your TDEE. Don't 'eat back' calories earned by exercise, as your TDEE accounts for activity levels.
To give you a rough idea, I'm 10st 7 ish, 5 ft 5 and 'lightly active' (2 X hardcore exercise classes a week plus 1 X Pilates) and only need to eat about 1800 calories a day to maintain my weight.
I used to weigh nearly 16 stone, and understanding this helped me lose weight and crucially, keep it off. I haven't yoyoed (sp?) apart from a max of 7 pounds caused by periods of prolonged overeating eg on holiday and I always take that weight off as fast as I put it on.
Others may come along and tell you what has worked for them - I really think the key to long term weight control is finding something sustainable that works for you. Not a 'diet' for 6 weeks/months, but a genuine sustainable change for life.
Good luck.

Yep, too many carbs. You're also not eating frequently enough hence overeating

Also there's loads of hidden sugar in the food you're eating, ie alpen bar

Try and "eat clean" by having as much unprocessed stuff as possible. Swap the spaghetti for courgettini and swap the wraps for raw spinach leaves.

Have a snack every few hours of celery / hard boiled egg / few slices of ham

Are you doing any exercise? Google HIIT and do that 3 times per week. But weight loss comes from diet, not from exercise.

I eat loads of carbs, drink wine, snack. Eat chocolate etc and still lost six stone over a yr.
Work put how many cals you need per day (the heavier and more active you are the more you need) and how many you are eating.

Then just eat less than you need. Its that simple tbh.

Well ok not simple but you don't need to avoid sugar, carbs etc.

Oh my exercise was walking nit much at first but built up to 10miles with a 10kg rucksack once a week.

That is a lot of carbs on an evening unless you're doing a substantial amount of exercise! I think lots of people fill up on carbs but actually proteins help you feel full for longer - also don't forget your 8 glasses of water a day!! Good luck X

It def sounds like MFP and measuring your foods for a week would be worthwhile for you. One other option might be to be conscious of the portion you put on your plate and reduce the quantity esp as you said the portions were a little large. An example would be to stick with the two eggs at lunch as they are low on cals and good for protein but save half the sandwich for the next day. You could also make your own museli as apparently museli can be really high in calories, you could use rolled oats, chopped nuts shredded coconut etc but no added sugar and a smaller bowlful. You could also switch the alpen bar for a small ramekin of nuts, I also gained weight the first time I switched from toast to museli to lose weight but didn't pay attention to the labels and calories etc.

Eating "healthily" does not necessarily equate to eating to lose weight. You can lose weight of shit food, and you can gain weight on healthy stuff. For me, I have to account for how much I'm eating, so I count calories. I mostly eat the same healthy stuff I was before, but less carbohydrate, less sugar, and a bit less fat, so overall my diet is less calorie-dense.

What I find is that reducing carbs, and especially simple and processed carbs (eg: cereal bars) actually makes me less hungry overall, because my blood sugar is much more stable. If I get really hungry between meals I have 20g almonds as a snack (always in my bag, measured out into little pots). However, I've also adjusted my attitude to hunger - mild hunger isn't a problem, and it certainly isn't a crisis. I'm not exactly going to starve to death waiting for the next meal!

MrAli yy to the weighed out nuts! I do this, too.
Also totally agree with your hunger attitude - I used to live in fear of hunger as seemed very sensitive to blood sugar dropping and would rapidly go from feeling hungry to physically slowing down and slurring my words due to low blood sugar.
I very rarely get this now my eating is better, and can totally feel the difference between this (meaning eat emergency nuts) and feeling hungry because it's nearly dinner time and I'm ready for food (personally I think this sort of hunger is desirable, feels a bit dodge to 'never feel hungry')

Amen to that, dun1urkin! I used to get a load of migraines due to blood-sugar dips, so when I started losing weight I snacked regularly to avoid that... Almost no need these days, but if I start to feel it go, I've got my "emergency almonds". And hungry-enough-to-relish-dinner sounds like something to actively cultivate, right?

What are you drinking in place of water?? Do you recognise the calories in what you are drinking?? I would also recommend MFP and see exactly where all your calories are coming from.

HTH

Lots of really good advice here, thank you all! Lots for me to look in to. I've tried to use My Fitness Pal before and didn't like it, but I think I need to persevere and teach myself to like it because I think it will help.
In place of water I've been drinking nothing or sugar free squash. I'm terrible for remembering to drink anything

my fitness pal shocked me when i first started using it when i saw the calories in stuff/portions i took for granted, i thought nothing off cooking 2 handfuls of pasta, when i actually started weighing things it was a eye opener
i still eat a lot of carbs but count them in and reduce portion sizes where needed especially if im exercising but sometimes if i have had carbs at lunchtime i wont have a carb heavy meal at dinnertime
i dont eat a lot of veg so cant even bulk up on that, i find salads very bland and can only have them if i dose them up with salad dressing which defeats the purpose
cheese can be my downfall so i limit it - my mantra used to be as long as i had cheese, pasta and bread i would never starve, but pile on the weight

Upping your water will get things moving.

Salads can be very flavoursome - it takes a little while to retrain the taste buds especially if they are used to a high salt/sugar diet. My gave hast to be sweet chilli Salmon on salad Yum!!

**fave has