Only lost 7lb in two months. I mean really!

[Desperelda]

I am quite pissed off that despite working out 5/6 days a week and cutting out junk (most days) I’ve lost so little weight! I have lost 4 stone over the last 18 months and still need to lose another 3. I had hoped to be a third of a way there by now by increasing the exercise. I’ve had a week off exercising last month due to having flu but other than that the exercise is very consistent.

Typical days food is:

AM - Greek yoghurt, banana, apple, black coffee

Lunch - 2 egg omelette, half tin baked beans, grated cheese Or omelette with peppers, mushrooms and cheese. Black coffee

Snack - 3 rice cakes with peanut butter/houmous and pepper sticks Or apple slices with peanut butter

PM - rice, bean chilli, Or small soya mince cottage pie with broccoli, carrots

Around 3 litres of water

I have a small glass or red wine most evenings and will have a small dessert like ice cream over the weekend.

I burn off around 800 calories at each gym session which is the calories from
Breakfast/lunch and snack so it’s basically only the evening which I calculate as a calorie allowance so no more than 1200 at a push. More likely under a 1000. I do weight train so I know I’m building muscle but I’m 14 stone 3lb at 5ft 8 so plenty of fat to burn too!

Anyone suggest where I’m going wrong?

You’re doing really well - don’t lose heart! This always happens with me too, I reach a plateau and it just stalls for a while. I think you just need to be patient and let your body catch up a bit.
At 5”8 and 14 stone eating 1200 calories per day and also exercising you will definitely continue to lose weight. I would say continue as you are and just be patient. It’s a marathon not a race!

I forgot to say, it took me 18 months to lose the 4 stone as there were lots of ‘blips’ —most days— and I often cba to go to the gym. I’d lose a bit then put half of it on again etc. Never been so focused as I am now though.

I don’t count calorie deficit from exercise into my daily goal. So I don’t have ‘extra’ calories because I’ve worked out. 1200 calories for an evening meal sounds a lot (if I’m reading your post right). Maybe stop subtracting calories burned?

You need to start cutting your calorie deficit further if you wish to loose weight faster. As you get slimmer your body needs less calories to maintain its weight. As such, your intake needs to get lower. Or you expenditure higher, to maintain the Same deficit and drop weight.

Thank you Bette. It’s so frustrating. I just want to be done and get on with life without be overweight after 23 years! I’m working so hard too although I love it and a happy side effect is no medication needed for high blood pressure and my back pain is gone. I guess I just need to be thankful I’m still going in the right direction.

Puds the 1200 calories is if I have a pud! Which is not often. Evening meal is around 600/700 calories then wine. I have a key for the gym which records all my calories burnt from cardio and weights. I have started walking to and from there as well (around 6 miles) a few times a week so I’d be burning over 1000 calories on those days. I can’t understand why that’s not being reflected in my weight loss.

It’d be really hard to cut calories any more Bluntness. I’d rather up the exercise again as I can’t sustain a VLC diet. I’ve tried liquid diets, fad diets, fasting and I know I can’t keep it up. That’s why i increased the exercise, hoping to get to where I want to be faster then I can cut down to 3 times a week in the gym for maintenance.

Thanks for replies .

To be fair, you’re consuming about two thousand calories a day if not more. It would be quite easy to reduce that. Stop with the peanut butter for example. It’s really calorific.

Don't eat your exercise calories. Chances are you're eating more than you are logging and you aren't burning as much as you think (it would be a solid hour of really hard and constant working out to burn 800 calories). Losing weight is 90% what you eat, not exercise, and you are eating far too much. That afternoon snack would be the first thing to go for me. I have a two egg omelette with some ham, salad and a piece of toast. I eat early, around 12, and I'm not hungry until tea time at six.
Cut out alcohol every day too, it just makes your body hold on to water and it's empty calories.
All that said, you've still managed to lose nearly a pound a week, which is nothing to be sniffed at. But if you have three stone left to go, I would expect it to come off quicker than that if you are accurately calorie counting.

I’d be getting rid of the wine. Empty calories. Maybe a glass once or twice a week but not every night. You definitely have to work a lot harder the more weight you loose. I have 5lbs left to loose and it’s taking me months whereas with the initial weight loss I saw loss every time I weighed myself!

I also use protein shakes to fill up, 95 calories per shake up to 3 times a day so no snacks and easier to track than other snacks.

Anyone suggest where I’m going wrong?

^

Ditch the peanut butter. Have cottage cheese instead. I'd also skip the banana at breakfast too.

2 egg omelette, half tin baked beans, grated cheese Or omelette with peppers, mushrooms and cheese. Black coffee
^^

This is good. But, beans are mega high in sugar. I guess the cheese is cheddar/full fat?

Instead, have your omelet with veg and a bowl of soup - preferably that's homemade with lentils /pulses and veg.

I have a small glass or red wine most evenings and will have a small dessert like ice cream over the weekend.

^^

Not to split feathers with you, but is the weekend dessert actually small? I'm not contradicting what you say, but a quick dessert at weekend could be 800 cals, which can easily inhibit weight loss.

I know it's tough op but you've done super well so far! Congrats!

First of all that sounds like a good rate to lose at - sustainable and healthy. Well done. I don’t think you are going wrong, to be honest.

If you do want to painlessly cut a few calories, my suggestions would be perhaps to reduce the wine to weekends, or try subbing alcohol-free a couple of days a week. M&S brand is surprisingly good. Maybe try something else, like one of the naturally light Fever Tree drinks, or a posh mineral water. I would consider moving your breakfast apple to snack time or as pudding for lunch. Maybe try losing the rice cakes (they’re not very nutritious) or having a few nuts instead. I probably wouldn’t have rice with my chilli but I might put a little cheese on instead, or have more veg with it.

I think peanut butter is fine but it’s easy to underestimate the quantity so definitely be strict on that. Yogurt is similar for me, I can easily give myself too big a helping. Same with your grated cheese at lunch.

Re puddings, you could try buying the packs of individual Haagen Dazs ice cream - a real treat, but portion controlled. If you want fewer calories, have plain yogurt as a pudding with a tsp of honey or a few raisins, or stew some apples with a little honey and eat your apples this way. M&S individual raspberry jelly is divine and low calorie, but comes in individual plastic pots and is expensive. All the above contain ‘real’ ingredients and are somewhat nutritious. Just a few suggestions to help you keep puddings in your diet!

But overall I agree with Bette, it’s a lifestyle, not a quick fix. It’s important to eat real food, keep it seasonal and interesting, and give yourself some healthy treats along the way.

I plugged your meals into MyFitnessPal - obviously guessing at amounts but it’s 1500 cals. I wouldn’t eat back exercise calories either- I’d save them to be your buffer for weekend puds etc.

I lose 1lb a week on 1500 cals a day (plus exercise and not eating them back and a treat or two at weekends). It is slow and steady. 7lbs over 2 months is only a pound short of that. Sounds like your current regime is doing what it should.

Photos attached from MFP in car you’re interested!

Sounds like lots of food/calories to me! I will take 100-200 calories extra after A LOT of exercise but mostly I don't deduct anything. You just need a protein hit to recover. I would gain Weight eating that. Sounds healthy and great for maintenance but not adequate for weight loss.

There are some quick swaps like switching peanut butter to PB powder. Switching high fat to reduced fat cheese. You need to meet your protein for the day (too much or too little is not good for you) so either you reduce fat or you reduce carbs. Low carb is more drastic in that the basic composition of your meals changes, whereas low fat will look and taste similar but just be the kind of subs I mentioned. I have done both and find low carb means the quickest results but makes me miserable, and reducing fat takes longer.

All of that said I am generally a fairly slow loser. I am happy with 2 stone in a year, which works out as roughly 7lbs a quarter so you are doing better than me and I'd be happy. When I have lost faster I just feel hungry, miserable, unhappy, deprived and end up falling off the wagon.

Calorie cutting diets stop working eventually. The body just adapts to the energy you are giving it

I’d try a new approach. My first thought on seeing what you eat is that you eat too regularly. The 16/8 diet would definitely be worthwhile looking at. Fasting between meals is incredibly powerful for losing weight and you’ll find you aren’t so calorie obsessed.

Calorie cutting diets stop working eventually. The body just adapts to the energy you are giving it

This is absolutely and utterly untrue. If you eat less than you expend then you loose weight. The size of the deficit dictates how quickly.

Even with the vastly misunderstood starvation mode, which actually was carried out on people actually starving themselves, literally nil by mouth, even though the metabolism slowed the body still lost weight at the expected rate. There was no impact on weight loss.

Op, you are not cutting calories as such, I’m not sure how someone worked out you’re on 1500 when you’ve not said how much cheese and peanut butter etc but you’re on at least 2000 a day I think. At least. So you’re loosing it through exercise.

The question is, is the level of exercise sustainable for you, because if you don’t reduce, them you need to do nearly this exercise for ever more to maintain your weight. Is this what you really want?

I’m afraid you are wrong @Bluntness100

The body is not like a combustion engine of energy in energy out, it is much more sophisticated and constantly telling people to just cut calories is irresponsible.

And works sustainably for very few people

I would ditch the peanut butter and the morning fruit swap it for veg .low carb also speeds things up when I want to lose weight I eventually need to go down to 1000 Cal's which I'm not recommending as im always really Hungry but it's the only way I can drop weight .

The wine in the week has got to go.

I wouldn’t worry about the scales if I’m honest I’m 14st7 and have been on calorie deficit and weight training plus HITT 4 times per week I was 15st beforehand so not much lost but my body composition has changed massively it’s not all about scales go by measurements and clothes you’ve more than likely lost fat gained muscle mass so don’t be so hard on yourself x

I’d suggest actually logging your food every day for a week (including the days you have dessert, and including all wine) and getting a more accurate idea of how many calories you’re eating, rather than assuming your exercise has cancelled out breakfast and lunch.
There’s no way of us knowing how much yoghurt, how much cheese etc.
Also, don’t rely too much on what you think you’re burning at the gym. The most accurate way would be weighing out food and then not eating back your exercise calories.

I’d suggest ditching the wine & peanut butter for a week.

I’d also add a lot more veggies to your meals, chopped salads with lemon juice. Try getting 30 different plant foods in a week - that helps with the vegetables intake

7lb in 2 months is 3 stone in a year. That seems like a really sensible steady way to achieve an incredible goal in a reasonable period of time, unless someone is so morbidly obese that they need to lose more than that more quickly for health reasons.

Up your protein 1g for every pound of body weight

Use myfitnesspal. Aim for 1800 calories

I agree with however said you might need to cut out some of the treats
Wine like every 3 days? And not daily peanut butter? Then see if that makes a difference