Calories sorted, but exercise?

[DivinityMum]

I have just hit my 40s and desperate to lose about 2 stones that's making me overweight. My food and calories are sorted - I take about 1200 calories every day and don't feel like am starving. I do around 8000 steps daily. But I am still losing weight at a terribly slow pace.

I am thinking I may have to restart the gym to help with the burn? I worked out for 2 years with a PT in the past, mainly doing weights, and became toned, but did not lose even 1lb in the process. I don't want to go through the same thing again, and really want to lose lbs this time.

Can someone who has successfully lost a few stones in weight with exercise help me with this? What kind of workout can I do (gym or other) where I can actually lose lbs quickly?

Stick to the 1200 calories and weight train as often as you can with a small amount of cardio. Steps don’t count unless they are part of raised heart rate cardio

What kind of cardio can I do? I like running but again the weight loss seems to plateau. How about aerobics classes?

I'd be trying HIIT. I think it's the best of both worlds - burn loads of calories and retain your muscle.

HIIT is the quickest way to lose weight. They suggest just 3-6 minutes everyday but you really have to push yourself as hard as you can.
I do circuit weights with a PT (6:1 ratio) it’s slow and I don’t lose weight but inches instead.
I’m also on 1200 calories and weigh 9st 6lb

How long have you been on the 1200 calories? What is your starting weight/ height? How many calories were you eating daily, prior to dieting?
I would really have thought that 1200 calories daily would be enough for most ( reasonably active) people to lose up to 2 lbs a week?

Ozy I've been on 1200 calories for about two months now, my starting weight was 12 stone which is about a couple of stones in the overweight category. My problem is that I've always eaten healthily and around 1400 calories so it isn't a massive lifestyle change now. I think the issue is my lack of movement and sedentary job, so maybe that's the one thing that can help me shed my lbs now. Hoping.

What’s diet like you say it’s healthy are you weighing out the protein? Carbs and fats ?
Do you log into my fitness pal? If not I’d just log it to the last gram even your fluid intake
It could simply be that you are eating healthy but food is higher than should be do to not weighing it out. We’ve all done that

That's what I was wondering. At 12 stone on 1200 calories per day, even if fairly sedentary, I would expect weight loss.
Check that you are measuring and recording your calories accurately. Myfitnesspal is brilliant for that.

What is your typical food diary like?

Are you weighing and measuring things - for example knowing how many grams of porriage oats with how many millilitres of milk? The weight of the apple you eat, or breaking down the calories in the weights of ingredients you use when cooking?

I use the fitbit app to track calories in this way. But as mentioned above, myfitnesspal is another good app.

A mistake I made initially though was just putting "1 serving" for things into the tracker, without checking the size of that portion. Or I would use generic options like "house salad: 1 serving", when in actual fact my salad had much more calories when you break down to the weights of ingredients.

I used to use MFP regularly but now on a calorie controlled food delivery service, so if they're accurate (seem to be) I am only taking 1200 calories a day including my coffee and any extras.

My protein intake is very low as a vegan, maybe that could be a problem here?

I’d go and have hormones and everything checked as you say you are in your 40s. It could be a number of different things but your output in exercise is also literally zero.

I am only taking 1200 calories a day... My protein intake is very low as a vegan

In that case the problem could be that your carb intake is proportionally too high. If few of your calories are coming from protein, the "bulk" in your meals may well be carbs. I understand this is a common problem with vegan diets - lots if pasta, rice, bread etc.

I don't really know enough about protein in vegan diets, but I'm assuming pulses? How about things like quorn or tofu? The idea would be that you eat these instead of the carbs in your meal. Not in addition to the carbs.

I eat mostly pulses, lentils, quorn, tofu. Sometimes eggs. Probably comes to around 20-25g a day. I don’t eat bread but I eat a lot of other grains like rice, quinoa, bulgur wheat etc..

I can try and increase protein intake but I still think I need an extra hand with the exercise to shift weight. I wonder what cardio/how long/how frequently done can help with the weight?

Definitely HITT, and the great thing is it's not too time consuming. I use the fitness blender website that someone recommended in here. Workouts are free and you can choose the length and focus - arms, legs, whole body etc I just do mine when I have 20 mins or so free. Surprising the difference the short bursts have made to my weight.

That's reasssuring to hear chorus, I will definitely try it out.

Thanks @strongbeatsskinny on the suggestion for hormone testing as well, I had it done a while ago so maybe good to get it done again.