Why oh why am I gaining not losing?!

[Bluesheep8]

Average day looks like this:

Either a couple of bananas OR a smoothie made with frozen fruit, fat free yoghurt, banana and skimmed milk.

Lunch is turkey or tuna salad OR weightwatchers soup or homemade soup with 4 ryvitas and laughing cow light.

Dinner is something like homemade chilli made with lean mince and lentils with cauli rice or homemade spag bol made the same way with spiralised bns. A weighed portion (40g) of reduced fat cheese.
At least 3l of water, a 20 min fast walk at lunchtime and 20 mins at least on the treadmill most nights. Yet I'm GAINING weight! How? Why? Help!!!

You can just make a throwaway email account with gmail and just use it for My Fitness Pal.

Thank you, I am not the most tech savvy of people! Don't know how to go about that

Have you also considered it could be what you are drinking? Some flavoured waters can hide a lot of sugar and calories

Thanks for the water suggestion but I don't drink any squash or flavoured, just plain water. Skimmed milk in tea/coffee, no sugar.

Sounds like your body has adjusted to new exercise and diet. You need to change things regularly, your body will adjust to your new activity levels so they need to be increasing constantly. I know you said you can't do weights but could you do some squats etc. Just using your body as resistance.

Have at look at the 5:2 diet using intermittent fasting. There is a long running thread here run by the fabulous Big Choc Frenzy.

Just google gmail and set one up. Follow the instructions on the page-it's easy.

I think it would be good to eat less fruit and more veg. A lot more veg. Count your milk-I drink easy 150 calories a day in milk and being over 45, need far fewer calories. I can't lose weight on more than 1300, and 1200 is better for me.

I'd go onto hotmail or gmail and create an email address for yourself, with as few personal details as possible!
That will give you the ability to set up your own MFP profile.

It's amazing how easy it is to overdo portion sizes and add calories without realising. (She says from bitter experience.)

1tsp sesame oil for instance is about 40 kcal. A lot of recipes call for a tablespoon of oil... there goes 120 kcal. Butter is the same. 10g is 75 kcal, so an omelette with two large eggs is about 230kcal (160kcal if you use fry light).

My biggest temptation is pasta/noodles. I can eat silly amounts. One 50g nest of Blue Dragon noodles is 170kcal. I ate two last night. Probably should have stuck to one. Could have easily eaten three...

Skimmed milk isn't calorie-free either. The 180ml they recommend for a sachet of OatsoSimple for instance is 65kcal. I find I can cut that to 140ml (50kcal) so including the oats it's 150kcal. I use the ultra-concentrated squash'd things for sugar so zero kcal and nice fruity flavour porridge.

I saw someone on here the other day who said they'd had a couple of things from McDonalds and they were about 240 kcals. I thought that was a bit low, so checked on MFP and they were actually double that.

Moral is don't cheat accidentally! Good luck!

ha! Crosspost while I was typing!!

Also second intermittent fasting. I'm and old WW follower, and the way of eating just stopped working for me.

I've lost 1.5 stone with 5:2 and find it really easy to follow and maintain as you are really only having to think about what you eat two days of the week (although your WW mentality will serve you well on your "off" days).

Definitely find thread run by BigChocFrenzy - really useful and handy for starting out when you don't know anything about it.

You don't know how to set up an email? Really?

Fat free yoghurt is only a few calories less than full fat in most cases because of the sugar.
100g of banana is 89 calories.

If you can’t access mfp do a google search for your tdee and honestly answer the questions then weigh and google search for calories to eat around 200 calories less than your tdee every day.

You need to eat the fruit, not blend it. Would you eat that many calories of fruit (and mango is a high sugar fruit) if you had to sit and chew it?

Also how big are your portions?

MFP blew my mind when I did it.

prismguile no, I'm afraid I don't. Really. Just calculated intake on the tdee calculator suggested by a pp and it's 1239 (having subtracted the suggested 20%) so that's a good start, thanks.

I feel your pain. I've been successfully maintaining on a low carb diet for more than six years. If my weight crept up I just was stricter for a week or so, but the pounds have been creeping on and, like you, cutting back and exercising wasn't working. I added in IF 16:8, so just not eating between 8pm and 12 the next day and the scales have started to move. This morning I was 6lb down, so half-way there. Worth a try?

On slimming world most fruit you can eat to your hearts content but if you're putting them into a smoothie you're consuming more than you'd actually eat in one sitting. I usually have fruit and 0% fat yogurt for breakfast.

Interesting suggestions, thank you. 're the smoothie-it's 80g frozen raspberries, half a banana and 100g yoghurt plus 120ml skimmed milk.

Try defrosting/ fresh raspberries or blueberries with the yoghurt- even if you add the half banana it will save the milk calories and I think will feel more filling as you have to chew.

Also honestly setting up gmail or yahoo mail is easy- google gmail and it gives really clear step by step instructions- if you can start a thread in mumsnet you can 100% do it, go for it!

And more sympathy (solidarity?!) because I know I need to do this too!

(Also if you have a Fitbit you could log food on that, but it is less easy than mfp)

tanaqui thank you for your kind post. I had said upthread that I wasn't the most tech savvy of people, mumsnet is the only site I use, apart from occasionally googling something. Setting up an e mail account isn't something I've ever had cause to do. I will do as you suggest and put the fruit with the yoghurt instead, never realised putting the same stuff in a blender would make any difference tbh. Also plan to go back to the Dr as all I was told when I had my thyroid tested was that "it's normal"....

cathyandclare I.F sounds interesting. Stupid question though, can you have coffee with skimmed milk before 12 noon or just water?

Have you started exercising from a standing start? So you've gained muscle? Don't just look at the scales but how clothes fit.

Isn't 0% fat yoghurt full of sugar? Sugar is much worse for secret weight gain than fat.

I definitely recommend weighing / measuring everything you eat and tracking it (on MFP or other food tracking apps). Eventually you'll get used to the portion sizes and you won't need to do it as much but it is the best way of gaining an appreciation of what your body actually needs.

I am sure you'll reach your goal OP, let us know how you get on!

Thanks everyone. Clothes still fit ok but I seem to have gained extra around my hips and thighs which have been slim for a long time andarms have got even chunkier, shoulder prob doesn't help. But I will keep trying and keep posting

Gaining around hips and thighs after starting treadmill every day sounds like gaining muscle to me, no bad thing?

It's definitely not muscle. It's a roll of fat. Like a rubber ring. And I'm wider there all of a sudden