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!!!

I'm 37. Definitely tougher as you get older.

I've noticed too that I can only really have 1 treat - - in my case it's wine. Can't have wine, cake, chips, crisps, cereal, pastries etc. It's just too many calories!

I live abroad and the takeaways are shit so we don't have them. 95% of the time I cook from scratch : and it's all clean stuff, if you will. Very little in the way of bread, pasta etc. This is because DH is French and I've just adapted to his way of eating I. E. Not having a carb with every meal, and me educating myself on blood sugar, weight gain, etc.

halfwitpicker yep, definitely becomes harder with age. With me it wasn't even gradual. I turned 45 and BAM! A sudden increase and it's kept happening. Wine is my treat too and if I'm honest I sometimes make some not so sensible food decisions with that glass in my hand! I've just been able to manage my weight to the pound by being careful during the week and having (And appreciating ) treats at the weekend.

What i meant to say is that i maintained my weight at between 9 st 6 and 9 st 8 by doing that for years. As per a suggestion by a pp, I've started fasting from 8pm til lunchtime the next day on weekdays. Lunch is then a mixed salad with hardboiled eggs and a small tin of tuna. Will see what the scales say this week.

And apart from 2 coffees with skimmed in the morning, I've switched to herbal tea for the rest of the day to save on cals from milk.

I went out to lunch today. Had a fish finger sandwich which came with chips. Left the bread, so just ate 4 small fish fingers and the chip portion was tiny anyway. One small glass of wine diluted with soda. Three cups of tea and that's my day.

Dinners this week have been homemade chilli made with half 5% fat steak mince and half lentils with spinach instead of rice, peppered mackerel with salad, small chicken breast with roast veg. Lunches as I have described with fasting til 12:30. Weigh day today. And I have GAINED 1 and a half pounds.

thenightsky that is the sort of thing I have to do when eating out.It's fine when it shows on the scales but miserable when it doesn't! It's blooming unfair!

For me, the only thing is exercise

Doing cardio also, weirdly, curbs your appetite a bit

I eat quite a lot of carbs (with every meal, porridge, baked potato, pasta etc) as otherwise I cannot give it my all for running or dance-fit or tennis

It seems to go against MN wisdom, but this keeps my weight and appetite stable (bmi 23, maybe you think that is high, it's not a skinny bmi, but healthy iyswim)

I had a whole pizza and 2 cocktails for dinner, for example, when eating out yesterday

I'll be doing 2 hrs exercise today so not worried

Did you measure portions blue?

Ah, the spam, it’s burning my eyes!

Bluesheep- it does not make any sense at all. Have you checked your scales are working correctly??????

Why was tha post deleted I wonder? My scales are correct. DP is maintaining. Yes, I weigh and measure everything.

Where are you in your cycle?

Cycle is all over the place and has been for the last couple of years. I only tend to have a period every 3 months ish. I put that down to age too.

How hungry are you?

How hungry? Well I get hungry of course and I do want to eat. Why do you ask?

Didn't mean to sound abrupt, sorry!

Actually, now I think about it, I do feel full very quickly when eating.

I just ask because if you are constantly battling against hunger, a low carb diet might help. But it sounds like you aren’t abnormally hungry for carbs, and if feeling full quickly then that might help guide you with portion sizes.
I’m not a diet expert by any stretch, but i wondered if what worked before isn’t anymore, so a change of plan might help. But actually it sounds like maybe you have just hit the age when you would benefit from reducing your portion sizes.

boullardii thank you for your thoughts, I understand your asking the question now And I appreciate what you're saying. I'm honestly not sure how I can reduce what I'm eating though... today I ate:

Nothing til 12:30 apart from 2 cups of coffee and 3 of herbal tea, lots of water.

Large salad of lettuce, cucumber, red and yellow peppers, grated carrot,spinach and low fat dressing. 3 wafer thin slices of chicken and a hard boiled egg.

Mid afternoon a red pepper sliced into batons (because it was packet of crisps time for everyone else!)

Tea tonight was a very small chicken breast, oven cooked in a stock cube, roasted veg (onion, cherry tomatoes, red pepper) done with low cal spray and balsamic vinegar. A small amount of low fat mayo and 25g grated reduced fat cheddar. I'm not sure I can reduce what I'm eating much further!

Hi, glad the question made sense!
I’m not an expert at all, but I think people upthread were recommending my fotness pal. This gives you a clear idea of calories in and out, and perhaps over a few weeks that will shed some light on what is going on. Like people say, it’s Not one day’s food, but over a period of time that shows what adjustments you can make. Good luck turning it around. I found it completely impossible to stick to a calorie controlled diet as I was starving hungry all the time. I am managing better on a low carb diet, as it has killed the sugar/ carb cravings.

Thank you for your suggestions. I've also been thinking about my thyroid test result ("normal") and think it's an idea to make an appointment to have the results explained to me. Just been on line to book in at the drs and there are NO appointments available up to week ending 6th April! But that is a whole other story, maybe even an AIBU!

I suggest you change from low fat to high fat. I can see that you have lowered your sugars and carbs. Low carb goes hand in hand with high fat. Good fats like oily fish, olive oil, nuts, avocado, olives. Suggest reading about the science of LCHF eating. Basically you put your body into a mild state of ketosis and your body burns fat in your diet and fat on your body for energy rather than carbs in your diet. Read Blood Sugar Diet, Atkins or Keto diet.