Am I eating too much fruit and therefore not losing weight?

[Marushka82]

Hi everyone, I'm hoping someone here could help me answer the question of why I'm not losing weight (and always feel hungry!).
I currently weigh 11 st (70 kgs) but ideally would like to get rid of 11 pounds. My weight seems to be stuck and fluctuates between 68-70kgs (and has been like that for at least a year). I don't feel overweight, but I used to be slimmer (before DD) and just want to feel better about my shape.
I exercise (usually a mix of HIIT, weights, some cardio, but not too much unless I go for a run) usually 3-4 times a week for about 40 mins (can only do evenings after DD goes to bed)
I don't smoke, barely ever drink alcohol (I'd say once a month), barely ever (less than once in two months) get a takeaway. I don't eat out, cook all my lunches (bar an occasional sushi from Wasabi once every fortnight) and dinners from scratch. Don't keep any sweets at home and I don't really eat any sugary snacks/fizzy drinks etc.
I would say I eat clean and healthy most of the time with an occasional treat once in a while. Yet I'm not losing weight and feel like I'm hungry all the time so feel like snacking at work (doesn't help we're not too busy at the moment, I don't do a lot of snacking when busy!).

I usually have:
Breakfast: overnight oats with chia seeds, almond/cashew/coconut milk and some berries (plus 1 Tbsp honey or agave for sweetness) or smoothie (usually banana plus some frozen fruit and almond milk) -
with homemade granola (1/3 cup). On Sat/Sun I'd have some boiled or scrambled eggs, rye bread and avocado instead :D Love my eggs and avocado!
Snack: carrots and houmous (about 1 heaped Tbsp so it's not like I'm pigging out!) or cucumber and cottage cheese
Lunch: usually a salad made at home: e.g. roasted sweet potato, spinach, tomatoes, avocado, some black beans, a bit of olive oil or I'll have a salad with brown rice, edamame, spinach, avocado and smoked salmon with a tamari dressing. That kind of stuff.
Snack: greek yoghurt with berries and honey usually
Dinner: either some made turkey meatballs with tomato sauce and wholemeal pasta or turkey chilli with avocado and brown rice or some salmon and prawn curry with mange tout and courgette etc.
Snack (I am starving after exercising): sometimes greek yoghurt with berries, sometimes banana with peanut butter, sometimes apple.

I can see from this that I might be eating too much fruit.
I also drink lots of water and green tea (no black tea and only occasionally coffee). Where am I going wrong? I'm tempted to see a nutritionist/dietitian but scared I'll spend money to hear I need to eat wholemeal rather than white carbs, no processed food, no sugar etc, which is something I already know hmm

I'd be grateful for any feedback, I'm getting sick and tired of reading stories of people who give up one thing and miraculously lose weight!

How tall are you Marsha? or what is your BMI?

I am a bit like you, I exercise 4-5 times a week and eat well 90 percent of the time. Similar food.

I am 77kg, but would love to lose 5kg. My body really resists it though, it is like I am hardwired to be that weight. I have a BMI of 23.5, and wonder if it is harder to lose weight if you are already in the healthy weight range. Are you?

not Marsha, Marushka ...stupid autocorrect! sorry

Hi Ruby, I'm 5.7 and currently 69 kg so BMI of 23.9 which is close to the top of the healthy range.
Funny you should say about the hardwiring! I also feel like (especially as I'm getting older!) my body just resists more and more. I think the lowest weight I got to was 11 years ago when I got to 63-64kg and I was at the end of uni. Back then I didn't exercise AT ALL but I was following a diet where I didn't eat carbs and fats together, only had three meals a day (but could eat until I was comfortably full) and didn't eat a lot of things. Thinking back to it, that diet was quite restrictive and there is no way I could follow it again with the lifestyle I have now.

I'm hoping going low carb is going to help me shift a few pounds. I doubt I will ever get down to 60kg but hey, who knows?

I'm so annoyed with myself - had some chocolate (at least it was a dark over 70% cacao one, and only 25g but still, ugh!) and some quinoa crisps... Need to make sure I have a nice low carb dinner: I'm planning tuna salad with tomatoes, olives, cucumber, spinach and mozarella.

You need to sort out your attitude to food or you will never achieve sustainable long term weight loss.

It's not realistic or healthy to berate yourself for having some Quinoa or dark chocolate.

I only lost weight and kept it off once I changed my whole attitude to food. That's what you need to do. There is no "bad" or "good" food.

thanks, that sounds reasonable - I'm just annoyed that I cannot stick to the self imposed routine/rules. Obviously I know the extras I had were healthy but they were not what I planned to eat today :)

I'm sorry I haven't read the whole thread but it doesn't look like you are eating enough lean protein and that is why you are hungry. You can have 6oz of protein such as a steak or lean chicken and vegetables and you should not be hungry. I am losing weight on a diet designed by doctors and they emphasize how protein helps you feel full and gives your body the nutrients it needs. 1,200 calories a day combined with exercise and you should lose weight. 800 is much too low. You want to aim for a loss of 1-2% of your body weight per week. At the moment I replace one meal with a protein shake that has lots of vitamins mixed in with fresh berries. I have that at breakfast of two eggs plus 2 egg whites scrambled which is very filling with fruit. You should not be hungry then something is wrong and you need a change in your eating plan.

Sorry shake OR eggs.

Also you do need a certain amount of fat each day and it helps you feel full. For example I add a tablespoon of peanut butter to my shake in the morning.

I think shakes are not a great way to "eat", very fake-food!

better the egg/omelet, chicken etc.

I only have a protein shake after a workout, wouldn't really treat it as meal replacement (as I doubt it would fill me up!)
I've had pizza on Sunday (hangs head in shame) - to be fair, I don't even remember the last time we ordered take away or had pizza so I'm not too concerned. Back to low carbing this week obviously.

I had two scrambled eggs, serrano ham, kale and spinach and mushrooms for breakfast, kefir and strawberries for snack and my lunch is a mexican salad: spinach, chicken breast, avocado, tomatoes, and a mix of red onion, sweetcorn and kidney beans (now I can see kidney beans have a ton of carbs so will not use them again!)
Dinner will be lamp hot pot, but without potatoes for me, instead lots of broccoli and green beans.

Hi Marushka - I just wanted to say that if after a while you find low carb works for you - great, but also if it doesn't, there are other good ways to lose weight too. I've tried the low carb thing and it just didn't work for me, and I've now lost weight just through clean eating (I'm 5'6" and have gone from a size 10-12 to an 8-10). It seems to me like different types of diets are more sustainable and work better for different people, and it's about finding the right way of eating for you. I just didn't want you to become discouraged if it turns out low carb doesn't work for you (but of course it might!).

Thanks Peony!
Thing is, I'm not sure how many carbs is considered low - looking at one of the websites gives me a range of 50-100:

50-100 Grams Per Day

This range is great if you want to lose weight effortlessly while allowing for a bit of carbs in the diet. It is also a great maintenance range for people who are carb sensitive.

Carbs you can eat:

Plenty of vegetables.
Maybe 2-3 pieces of fruit per day.
Minimal amounts of starchy carbohydrates.

And so far, bar the pizza on Sunday I managed to stay within this range.
I will give it some time as I generally feel better and lighter/less bloated!

Re: clean eating, I know about it as well and I feel like I eat pretty clean (I try to avoid processed stuff as much as possible) about 80% of the time - my problem (as evidenced in my first post which listed what I eat) is that I seem to be eating too much of the good stuff (avocado, houmous, peanut butter etc) so need to count calories as well to have some self control haha! Well done on your weightloss Peony! Can you tell me what your typical meals were/are?

That all sounds great Marushka and I'm happy you're feeling good! I definitely think low carb can work for lots of people, I guess it just didn't work so great for me. Having said that though I try to really limit my bread intake and to a lesser extent stuff like rice too. But I think that's more because it's better to replace those calories with more nutrient dense foods.

An average day for me:

Breakfast: Soy or coconut yoghurt with berries and a small amount of nuts
OR
Porridge with berries

Lunch: big salad with lots of greens, carrot, beetroot, beansprouts, hummus (I make my own no-oil version). I use ACV as a dressing.

Dinner: Usually something like rice pasta with pesto, greens and pulses or a big vegetable stew or curry.

I've always eaten healthily but I think the key to losing weight for me was making sure that the main bulk of all my meals is fruit and veg rather than bread, rice, etc, and also not snacking between meals. I just make sure I eat enough at meal times so that I don't get hungry. Another big thing is that I have salad (made pretty much of just veg) for lunch ever single day. Obviously this won't work for everyone - it's just what works for me.

If i'm out and about with friends though I never stress about indulgences and always have a piece of cake or a pizza :) also I never let myself go hungry - if I did get hungry between meals, or still feel hungry after finishing my portion, I always eat something.

Tbh I think your food sounds really good and very healthy!! Carry on letting us know how it goes :)

Thank you PeonyPony, your food sounds delicious!
I almost always have a salad for lunch, today it's spinach with a mix of kidney beans, sweetcorn and peppers, with some serrano ham and 1/4 avocado. I'm really looking forward to my dinner tonight which will be roasted aubergines with tahini, greek yoghurt, pomegranate seeds and coriander (from a Clean Eating Alice book).
I have to say I miss my overnight oats with berries! I had 0% greek yoghurt today with blended strawberries, chia seeds and blackberries - delicious! (if you have an Aldi nearby their Greek yoghurts are the bomb!)
Can I ask how you make your no-oil hummus? I love me some hummus but it's so calorific!

Hi Marushka82

I think I'm going down the same rabbit hole as you are. I am firmly in the healthy weight category, and my figure looks totally fine - nice even! I also barely drink, and eat lots of healthy delicious food (am pescatarian - are you?). Really really I should stay just where I am.

But I just want all my clothes to fit perfectly and very slightly loosely, and for my hipbones to be more prominent etc etc. So to this strange end, I am restricting the amount that I eat, and sure enough I am slowly losing weight and perhaps I am halfway to the weight that I want to be - the weight I remember being in my early twenties. But it turns out that this only happens if I am hungry quite a lot. Perhaps I will just always have to be hungry quite a lot to maintain this slightly lighter weight. And I am wondering: is it worth it? Is it wise?

Perhaps what I already have - and what you already have - is really precious. The holy grail really! To be in the healthy BMI zone, fueling activity well, and eating healthy food in a way that completely satisifies your appetite, without having to weigh or measure what you are eating... that is many peoples' idea of the ideal place to be.

I read recently that people who successfully maintain a large weight loss (which would not be us - but I think it is relevant anyway) display physiological and psychological traits like an anorexic. Their bodies are primed to gain weight, and they are very strict to maintain their weight - things that are also true of anorexics. It makes me think that to maintain a lower weight than my body has just naturally arrived at is going to mean some sacrifices - maybe a bit of sanity? And I'll have to be careful for ever because of the body being primed for weight gain!

So I think the sensible side of me is telling me - and surely you too - to drop this idea and revel in being a naturally healthy weight and enjoying delicious healthy food that satisfies you. But somehow... on I go, eking out the crumbs of an oatcake and counting the number of nuts I am eating...

Oh sorry - just seen the references to ham! You're not pescatarian, I was just leaping to conclusions because of all the salmon (yum).