I'm not losing weight

[cactusisblooming]

I'm 5"4 and now 92kg which makes my BMI around 30. We had COVID recently and I couldn't eat a thing, was just drinking water and lost about 6lb in 2 weeks. I thought it was a good time to lose weight as my weight has been creeping up over the last few years. I don't lose weight easily, I've tried every diet under the sun and I'm now on about 1000 calories per day, but haven't lost any weight in the last 2 weeks I actually feel better health wise but do have bad constipation despite eating lots of lettuce, so will continue to eat low calorie rather than - - pig out-- go back to how I was.
Any words of advice? I honestly feel like I should be losing several pounds per week the way I'm eating.

Also meant to ask about taking fat binding tablets such as ALLI with dinner, if this might kick start things?

Fat binders and low calorie diets are only a temporary solution.
If you struggle by yourself WW or Slimming world. They teach you to rethink how you see food.

Thanks ieat. I'm loosely basing my diet around SW, so two thirds of my dinner plate is free/speed food and the other third is lean protein. I have a skyr yoghurt for breakfast and a fruit/water smoothie at lunch. I usually consume a lot of sugar in the form of cake/chocolate/beverages which I have totally cut out, so thought the weight would be falling off.

Do you do any exercise?

I think you may need to be patient and keep doing what you're doing but stay away from the scales. You may see a difference in waist measurement and your clothes first. If you are 40+ you could be insulin resistant, or sensitive to cortisol (stress hormone). I saw a video by a doctor which claimed that hormone imbalance inhibits weightloss. So, it could be a range of reasons, but if you keep you going you are bound to succeed. Intermittent fasting and low carb are also worth looking at.

No exercise admittedly fellrunner recently, my chest hasn't been great since COVID but I do plan on starting to walk daily. My bladder control or lack of prevents me from doing any type of high impact aerobic type exercise.

I'm all for weight loss, but assuming that you're still recovering from this terrible virus, maybe now isn't the best time? Up to you of course but maybe its better to focus on healthy food as much as possible without anything like calorie counting.

If you lost 6lb in two weeks when you had Covid, you know that you are capable of losing a lot if weight in a very short time . And yes, 3lb a week is a lot.

I'd question if you're really eating 1000 cals a day? The way you say you're "loosely" doing SW and are eating "free" food makes me think you're eating far more calories than you imagine. Because, as you know from your Covid experience, when you eat fewer calories than you burn, your body loses weight quickly.

zzizz I feel so much better now, I really wouldn't push myself if I thought I wasn't well.
fell I literally wasn't eating anything, just drinking water. I'm tracking what I eat so I'm quite confident I'm not inadvertently going over. I have been reading about weight loss plateau and think that as I was on practically zero calories for 2 weeks that now I am actually eating that is why I'm not losing anything. I'll persevere for another few weeks and try to step away from daily weigh-ins.

Stop the smoothie for lunch. Have home made soup instead or some lean protein and salad or vegetables.

grinny that would mean more calories though? The smoothie (celery, apple, carrot and ginger) doesn't exceed 150 calories.

@cactusisblooming

Also meant to ask about taking fat binding tablets such as ALLI with dinner, if this might kick start things?

my understanding is that the fat binding pills lock the fat in your food, not inside your body so when eating a high fat meal, the fat will stay in your gut and often leak through your butthole.

What are you eating? Can you give us an example of your meal over a couple of days? And what are you drinking?
Have you tried logging every morsel and sip in cronometer.com (you need an account but it is free)

Typical day:

7am: Coffee with small amount of semi skimmed milk

11am: Skyr yoghurt, apple

1pm: Fruit and veg smoothie

4pm: Either smoked salmon or chicken breast with two thirds of plate steamed veg or salad (w/o dressing)

7pm Fruit

Throughout the day I drink either black, green or herbal tea and if hungry snack on celery sticks, apples or carrots.

cactus it’s not satisfying though and it causes a spike in your blood sugar. Eating the celery, carrot and apple would be more satisfying to your appetite and won’t spike your blood sugar.

Way too much fruit I would say. Have fruit only once a day, and maybe try to pick berries even frozen.
The time distribution is also odd. Could you have a 12pm lunch and 6 pm dinner instead? Is it your feeding window? Problem is you are eating very frequently because presumably you must be hungry and you don't specify how often you snack on apples (plural? more than one? in addition to the other fruit?)
Instead of opening your window with fruit, what about this green smoothie. I have it often but without the fruit. Impossible to feel hungry, and it could be your go-to when hungry in between meals/ But is it hunger or just the habit?
Moringa tea is also a good herbal in between.

Could a
11pm green smoothie
2 pm lunch with your fish, chicken but also cucumber-tomato salad with a bit of tuna or boiled egg.
6 pm dinner with minestrone or other diced veggies soups and a bit of nutritional yeast

Try to avoid snacking as eating all day long only makes your hungrier

Get doing your pelvic floor exercises! I have been doing mine 3 times a day for two weeks and I am already seeing an improvement. Apparently it takes 12 weeks to really make a difference. The improvement I'm seeing is being able to hold the move for longer! Seriously, don't give in to the Tena

Are you weighing your food? Its very easy to way overestimate when guestimating quantities. I had been doing this and wasnt losing. Got the scales out and realised i was eating too much. You can overeat 'good' food as well.

Since weighing ive been losing a steady 1-2lbs a week.

If that's honestly all you're eating (and I spent years being overweight and kidding myself about my true food intake, so no judgement here) then you must be extremely sedentary not to be losing weight. The daily walk you mention would be a good start to try and get moving.

The other thing that jumps out at me is the sheer amount you're eating. Ok, it's healthy and low-calorie food but it's snack, snacks, snack, all day long.

fell does it matter how much I eat if it is within the specified calorie limit? I'm usually a grazer and having chocolate and cake in between meals so 3 meals a day and absolutely nothing in between would be really difficult for me at this early stage.

Northern I had a 3rd degree tear years ago and had to have physio, which helped me to find my pelvic floor again. I think I really need to get another referral, but will try yo do the exercises in the meantime.

So are you exercising? You need to throw some form of exercising too. I lost 3st in 2018 by throwing in at least 1hrs exercise a day. It increases your metabolism and burns fat.

Ditch the fruit and eat more protein. You'd be surprised how much less you want to snack without the blood sugar spikes and the protein will keep you feeling full for longer.

If you want something that keeps you feeling full for longer, there's only about 180 calories in 50g of porridge if you make it with water. I have it for breakfast and I'm rarely hungry again until early afternoon.

I think you are restricting too much, I ran your TDEE which I've attached, you need to be having about 500 calories less than maintenance a day to lose 1lb a week so should be eating between 1400 and 1500 calories.

Your current diet is quite heavy in fruit which will be spiking your sugar levels too which won't help. It's also low in protein and fat, you need fat and both protein and fat will help you feel full.

You must be feeling hungry too and you're still recovering from an illness so your body needs food to fuel it.

Your food diary with some suggestions:

7am: Coffee with small amount of semi skimmed milk

11am: Skyr yoghurt, apple - try switching the apple for berries, nuts or seeds in the yoghurt.

1pm: Fruit and veg smoothie - steamed veg with a knob of real butter and some protein, or soup would still be low cal but less sugar.

4pm: Either smoked salmon or chicken breast with two thirds of plate steamed veg or salad (w/o dressing) - you need some fat - avocado, olive oil, nut butters.

7pm Fruit - switch to veg or dairy snack

Throughout the day I drink either black, green or herbal tea and if hungry snack on celery sticks, apples or carrots.

Healthy low calories, filling snacks:

• veg
• boiled egg
• beef jerky
• nuts (30g serving)
• seeds
• cheese string/babybel

I agree with a lot of posters about the sugar. It’s hard to calorie count accurately, most people significantly underestimate.

I’m afraid your BMI is quite a bit more than 30 (sorry I’m around your height so the numbers are familiar to me) so well done for trying to lose weight, it’s really important for your health. When I started to cut calories, I didn’t lose anything at all for about a month and then it very slowly started to come off. I’m over 40 though so the metabolism isn’t what it once was!

Download the active 10 app and aim to do as much brisk walking as you can. I understand about the pelvic floor issues - I had a 4th degree tear with my first child and it’s never gone properly back to how it was and I also have chronic health issues which mean I leak when I cough - which is a lot as I have asthma! But I bung on a tena lady pad and some black jogging trousers so nothing shows anyway and off I go. (I’m 40 by the way so quite young to be having to worry about this stuff)!

If you physically can walk - and I know not everyone can - it’s an important part of keeping fit and active and if you’re constipated it will help with that too.