Struggling to lose weight. Disheartened

[BryanAdamsLeftAnkle]

I'm early 40s in menopause, and fat. I'm about 90kg.

I have gone from 94kg to 90 but its taken me a year so far to do that.

I went to WW and followed the plan, I was a slow loser. 1/2lb here 1/2lb there and I would end up in tears as others had bigger weight loss.

I have been following the 800 and sticking to it. And I'm stuck.

Typical 800 day is porridge for breakfast and soup for lunch. Dinner salad.

I'm a student nurse so on my feet a large part of the day. 3-4 12 hour shifts. It's heavy and fast paced and I thought that would help me. But no. There has been no shift in 4 weeks.

What am I doing wrong?

I'm 10k steps. My feet hurt and my legs hurt. I'm the mum of a busy 4 year old so it's not like I want for activity

I'm actually devastated over this. I do everything as advised and I'm still fat. I quit ww as I was paying money and sticking to 23 points a day for nothing.

You would more than likely respond really well to keto / low carb

WW takes no account for insulin’s role in losing weight (ie.that just reducing calories doesn’t work for everyone)

If your insulin is high (eg from porridge) it’s really hard to lose weight. That is not a willpower thing or your fault, just biology

Check out dietdoctor.com Dr Michael Mosley’s Diets, or the low carb plan on here

They all use the same principles of keeping blood sugar down. And all based on actual biological science unlike WW

Low carb instead.

WW isn't working for you

Ditch the porridge, try eating mainly fruit and vegetables. Have you bought a glucose monitor as I wouldn't be surprised if your blood sugar is high. If it is then you could be insulin resistant which makes losing weight much harder.

If you're trying to do just 800 calories a day then it should be low carb so no porridge, bread, rice, pasta or potatoes. All calories are not created equal and the body's response to eating carbohydrates in the form of whole fruit and vegetables is very different to the one you get from carbohydrates in pasta etc. If you're a nurse you should read up on how it works because it absolutely makes sense.

Definitely ditch the porridge. And watch what you're drinking as well. Calorie counting never worked for me but getting rid of as many obvious carbs as possible does. I rarely touch sugar (even fruit) and never eat wheat now. It was like giving up crack to start with (well I'm guessing having never tried crack but it was similar to giving up smoking!). I have lapses on holiday or Xmas but generally I feel I'm in control now. As pp said read Michael moseley as a starting point.

Check out James Smith Academy. (Not advertising it or him, the guy just talks a lot of sense)

I'm doing WW at the moment and had a lot of success with it when I've struggled beforehand to lose weight. For those advising low carb, this is pretty much the way to do weight watchers successfully now. It's plan pushes you towards high protein, low carb choices. You can have other stuff as well. My typical day is eggs and bacon for breakfast, chicken, turkey or fish salad for lunch (zero points) and chicken, turkey or fish with 6 points worth of rice/pasta/cous cous/potatoes and dressing/sauce. The people who lose big at my class are mainly eating low carb foods and getting more for their points.

When you were following it, how much of the zero pointed foods were you eating? We've had a lady in our class who was practically eating chicken and fruit all day and night, instead of just 3 meals a day or when she was hungry.

Are you being honest with your portion sizes and calories? How big a bowl of porridge? What do you put in it? What about your soup? There's a huge difference in calories between somethings like a chicken noodle soup and a creamy soup. Frankly you could probably have something more filling for the same calories as a creamy soup. Same with salad for dinner. What goes into it? What about dressings?

I'm going to seem harsh, but in my own personal experience, when I've struggled to lose weight, I've not actually been sticking properly with what I'm supposed to do, no matter how much I convince myself that I am.

Doesn't sound like enough protein or fat to keep you full or get you fat burning. Low carb / keto is great

I'm being honest with my portion size.

I have had some checks of blood sugar at various points in the day.

I was 4.7 mmol 3 days ago at 9am and 7.8mmol after 6pm on a different day. My hb1ac is within limits.

I have started on hrt 2 days ago and back on it.

My diet isn't hugely varied due to food issues. Texture is a problem for me. So I can't do beans and I can't do some soups...

I can happily eat salad all day, with shredded carrots, a few pickles and some beetroot.

Porridge is a pot from tesco. It's a just add water, plain. I know it contains sugar.

Portion size isn't an issue. I tend to feel sick if I have too much.

I often skip meals and yesterday I felt crap and down so I ate lots of crap.

Tonight I have salad with a few boiled potatoes.

I will go back to cutting out bread.

I have gone from a 22 down to an 18 but haven't lost much. So I think my fat is remodeling itself 😂.

Have you been weighing your food? At your current weight you should be burning fat at a high rate on that calorie intake.

Things like beetroot, pickles and even carrots are (relatively speaking) higher calorie items in a salad.

You'd be surprised how high calorie some salads can be.

Green veg (loads and loads of leaves, celery, cucumber, green pepper) are your lowest calorie salad items. So I always bulk my salads with mostly (75-80%) the low calorie stuff. Then add things like beetroot etc as "extras" to the salad, rather than the main base.