What else should I be doing?

[Ifawl]

I've cut out pasta, bread, potatoes, flour and rice. Not eating any junky/snacky type food. Typical day's food would be:
3 coffees with double cream for breakfast
2.5-3L water
A bowl of natural yoghurt with honey in the evening
And I tend to eat the same thing for lunch and dinner. Last few days were:
Spicy beans and corn on the cob with yoghurt on the side
Beetroot and chickpea curry
Roast cauliflower with kale, pine nuts and feta
Veggies with chick peas and lots of spices
Fried egg, fried garlic tomatoes and halloumi

I've just started trying to do a Joe Wickes HIIT everyday. I'm also breast feeding a 6 month old.

I've gone from 196lbs in Jan (1 month post partum) to 183 lbs and keep bouncing around there. Very frustrating as I need to get to 160lbs ideally.

I'm vegetarian and have a love/hate thing with eggs (currently in the hate phase 😕).

What else should I be doing!?

Double cream -calorific. Do you measure out how much you put in? If you have a tablespoon in each cup that’s fairly high in calories and you could have a sandwich for less.
Honey-still sugar so best avoided.
Do you weigh the halloumi? Weigh out what you would serve yourself as a portion and work out the calories.
How much oil do you use to fry the halloumi & egg?
Do you weigh your portions of curry?

Try weighing and logging what you actually eat on My Fitness Pal or similar app, the 2000 calories total is far too much for many women. Work out your tdee which is the amount of calories to consume to stay at the weight you are now, reduce this amount by 20% to lose weight.
tdeecalculator.net

Thanks for that. Was worried that's what I'd be told! I'm too slap dash in the kitchen so it makes calorie counting quite hard.

Should have been clearer, I'm trying lchf - should I still be calorie counting?

Yes with LCHF or Keri you do need to either calorie count or calculate your macros and stick to them. All weight loss at the end of the day is calories in vs calories out and creating a deficit.

You can use a spray instead of oil. One calorie per spray compared to 80 calories in two teaspoons of oil.

Use semi skimmed milk (or skimmed if you like it) in coffees.

Weighing your portions.

Using mfp.

Do you really need the bowl of yoghurt with honey in the evening? Ignoring the calories, you will release more insulin and as long as insulin is circulating in body, you store and not lose fat.

I love what you eat but I am not exactly sure it fits Low Carb . Chickpeas - I think - are not low carb (even if yummy and super healthy) and honey is definitely not low carb, it has even more carb than plain white sugar. So in the end, you diet is rich in fat and normal in carb, which would explain why all the chemical process that should happen with a LCHF are not happening.

Someone more knowledgeable than me might correct me, but I don't think you are eating low carb. And eating food you do not enjoy such as eggs, is a recipe for failure. If this is something you should do long term, you need something that fits your life and taste.

Since you are already having no breakfast, consider intermittent fasting 18-6 and eat in a 6 hours window. If too hard, try the 16:8 first. You would need to cut the cream in coffee and maybe go for the lightest milk and the minimum amount you can tolerate.

You aren't eating low carb though. Loads of what you're eating is fairly high carb and if you aren't weighing and tracking macros then you're basically just eating lots of fat and protein.

Is there a reason you're doing low carb as a vegetarian? I've tried it and found it impossible without eating shit loads of dairy that is bad for health and weight loss. It's only going to work for weight loss if you do it really properly. Suggest you maybe join the boot camp threads if you want to stick with low carb.

You've got yourself a mix of diets. True LCHF is not just cutting out bread / potato / pasta.

You're mixing high cal high fat foods with carbs and are going to be way over on calories.

I used to eat eg:

Two hard boiled eggs

Piece of cheddar

Huge spinach salad with steak and oily dressing

LC bolognese with a bowl of brocolli

Sorry just seen you are vegetarian and don't like eggs!

It's harder to do but. Not impossible if vegetarian there are some good ideas in the low carb boot camp threads.

Oh crumbs, ok sounds like I've been missing the mark a bit 😕

I used to do intermittent fasting but because I'm breastfeeding thought I couldn't anymore. Maybe I need to bite the bullet and calorie count on mfp. I've done it it once or twice before but just find it so faffy logging everything. But needs must!

Thanks for all the tips.

I've weighed and logged everything everyday this year and although it starts as a faff it honestly does become second nature after a while. It's just part of my routine now. I personally didn't get on with MFP, didn't find it very intuitive. I use Nutracheck which has loads more UK brands and products and it's really easy to log.

I did keto for the first 3 months of this year but I didn't find it particularly sustainable. Now I just limit myself to 1500 calories and they can be made up of anything, I find this much easier to stick too!

I just did the tdee and to maintain I'd need 2,695 so would need 2000 to lose. Should I aim for less as pp said 2000 is too much for most women to lose.

I'll ditch the honey and yoghurt!

I'm losing on 2000 with a TDEE of 2500 so if you're happy with 1lb a week and a very sustainable amount of food then go for it.