Why is my weightloss plan not working? (calorie restricting)

[itsasecret1]

Hi everyone!

Hoped that someone might be able to offer some advice here. I'm desperate to lose some weight, not loads but enough that I feel confident in myself again. Currently I'm 11st3, 5"3ft and I had a baby in Jan 18. I work at a desk so pretty sedentary lifestyle although the baby runs me ragged and I walk my dog daily.

My aim was to lose 1lb a week by cutting my calories down to 1430 per day. I've been doing it for just over 2 weeks and hand on heart I know I have stuck to it completely, been super strict on myself! Somedays I even eat nearer 1200 calories.

The weight has not changed, and whats worse if I weigh myself in the evening the scales say 11st4! I don't understand it. I know its only been 2 weeks but for the intense hunger I feel I would have thought I'd lose a pound or something!

I'd be tempted to cut the calories more drastically but I have started feeling genuinely weak and dizzy at times, it really feels like a struggle!

Ant tips / pointers / ideas very much welcome?

Oh forgot to add, I am tracking using MFP and I tend to eat 300cal breakfast, 400 cal lunch and 600cal dinner approx. My snacks are always fruit.

@managedmis Not at all. I think this is going to be fine!

For now I'm going to stick to under 50g carbs a day, which is easily do-able for me and clearly works. Might step it up to under 20g later on.

Try noom? I've been using them for 4 months and lost 1st and a half. They balance exercise with food. On a day without exercise means intake of 1300calories and when I do exercise anything between 1600&2000! I'm not going hungry either

It's my first time on any kind of diet and I like it. It's def one for changing your diet for life

However the healthiest way to loose weight for good is eat less and move more. I didn't want to work out just eat less and it just wasn't working for me so when I finally started going to the gym that's when coupled with less calories did I start losing weight. Good luck!

Join Weight Watchers I am into my second week, they don't count calories but use a points system which is much easier to track.
They have weekly workshops and the people are very nice, also you get to meet people who are the same as us.
It also gets you familiar with portion sizes, one thing I didn't realise at first is how few carbs I was eating by having a lot more healthy foods like salads, pulses, chicken, fish ect.
They have an app in the play store it's WW, easy to follow to track your points and activity if you have a fitbit or similar.
When you enrol they weigh you and give you a points allowance for daily and weekly.
I lost 5.5lb first week 😊

Thanks guys, I tried Noom - hated it! I felt hassled by the app all the time and it was too complicated for me. WW is too expensive.

I'll stick with low carb / keto for now.

Sounds like you've got a plan OP! I definitely agree that lowering carbs is a great hack, even if you don't go full keto. I could never sustain keto, but I now only eat them at weekends, and I think it's the single biggest lifestyle change I've made. Eating carbs was such a habit for me (like you, I always went for the sandwich) that I was stumped at what to do without them, so going keto even just for the short time I did it forced me to get creative. FWIW: the key for me was changing up my presentation. I'd normally eat on a plate, and something like a salmon fillet with roasted veg looked "empty" without carbs; I now eat from a small, shallow bowl - getting a smaller bowl is another easy win, if nobody's mentioned it - and all meals start with a big base of salad, then the protein and veg on that, then various garnishes, and a carb portion on the side for Mr. Sounds like a small thing, but it helped me at the beginning if the meal looked "complete" without the carbs.

Another thing is - do you look / feel slimmer? Because you might be making progress which isn't reflected on the scales. One of the myriad ways in which our body resists weight loss (kept us going for milennia, now killing us) is that when you deplete your fat cells, your body refills them with water to maintain their structural integrity so you can lay down replacement fat more easily when you manage to fell your next wild boar. You can sometimes see it in the areas of fat on your body, people call it "jiggly fat", when it looks looser and more dimpled. Then all at once you have a "whoosh" as your body releases all the stored excess water and you suddenly see a difference in the scales which have been stubborn for days. Just a possibility.

post menopausal my body shape has changed from hourglass to that of a toddler

^ that just made me laugh Joan (in recognition :-))

@Qwertyguerty

Eat less and move more is not how to lose weight. All calories are not equal so it's very much about what you eat as well as how much you eat

@itsasecret1 very glad carb restriction is working for you!

Well done OP
Low carb high fat has taken me from 11.8 to 9.5. I’m apple shaped and also look toddler shaped if I’m overweight.

Thanks @QuimReaper that is a very good point, I will defo remember the 'bed' of salad when planning my next meal.

Thanks @Siameasy I feel so happy that I'm getting somewhere, and I don't feel hungry anymore!

Yes the lack of hunger is liberating as most dieters are used to deprivation and misery. You can now enjoy delicious ful fat food - yay

are you breastfeeding/expressing? If so, and you haven't factored that in, well... ta dah...

all this advice about cutting calories more, and anyone who tells you to eat more is a fool?

I'm that fool. Starving yourself doesn't work. At 11st, 5'.3', a new mum, who also works, probably does the chores and the washing and walks the dog, etc, etc: I reckon you'd need about 17-1800 cals just to keep going. Add breastfeeding/expressing, and you might need an additional 100-250 cals a day.

If we assume, here, that you'd need a -250 cal deficit from that 17-1800 cals to lose around 1-2lb a week, then your goal of 1450 cals daily sounds about right.

so much bad advice on these weight loss pages!!

Slow and steady wins the race.