What the actual fuck? This makes no sense, what can I be doing wrong?

[Smithermetimbers]

Ok so I put on weight over the last year through stress and emotional eating. Almost two stone, the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life (even when pregnant) not at all my natural weight.
I gave up drinking alcohol in January (not started back up) plus stepped up on my exercise and really tried to reduce stress and increase sleep. I always drink plenty of water and herbal tea. Nothing happened, in fact I put on a few more pounds. I thought, I just need to be consistent and patient so carried on. Still nothing.
So last Sunday, I went back to intermittent fasting (16:8) which I’ve tried successfully in the past. On top I cut out all added sugar, which I would have said was impossible for me but I have done it, not a single bar or biscuit or sweet thing. I have just allowed myself two portions of fresh fruit a day. I cut out all snacking between meals. My meals have been healthy too- no junk, plenty of protein, loads of veg, otherwise fairly low carb.
I got a fitness watch and have been working out all week, averaging well over 1000 cals each day. It’s been a mix of hiit, cycling, weights, yoga and walking all of which I’ve really enjoyed. I’m also meditating a little and getting more sleep than usual.
So this morning I have weighed myself and put a fucking pound on?!!!! What the actual heck is going on here? Surely the first week of any diet you’d expect to drop a couple of pounds pretty easily? I am mid 40s but not experiencing any peri-menopausal symptoms. What on earth can I do more than this?

You need to understand the science.

Until you get your insulin down you won't access your fat reserves.

Insulin is designed to store fat in your cells.

When you eat carbs you release insulin. The bread, the fruit, the vegetables you are eating are all carbs and you have insulin release every time you eat them.

If you want to access your fat reserves you have to accept that you are going to have to eat as close to zero carb as you can get and also that you will experience hunger. In order to satiate the hunger you would be wise to eat animal fat because it's nutritionally dense and doesn't trigger insulin release. Every time you eat something that triggers insulin you reset the diet to the beginning.

It's shit but we are designed to live through lean times and we store fat for those lean times. Give yourself an artificial lean time. Stop eating carbs and your body needs to run on something so it will mine your fat stores.

New exercise regimes can stress the muscles so they retain more fluid....so you might not see immediate weight loss until they’ve adjusted

Also, a lot of people on low carb / IF do measurements rather than weight. This is because a whole change in composition happens, fat distribution becomes more ‘healthy’ so you’ll lose inches around the waist for example but no actual weight

Take your measurements and use your clothes as a marker

Also what @GelfBride said

You are aiming to get your body into ketosis by fasting and low carb....it can take 2 weeks depending on your history

Until you track your calorie intake you can't say your weight gain Is a mystery....

Jason Fung videos will make it all clear. I've lost 10 kilos by sticking a photo of JF on my fridge and watching his efforts on YouTub

Make sure do don't base your eating calories on your Apple Watch tracker.

Like virtually every other fitness tracker, the Apple Watch doesn't measure calories accurately. Stanford researchers tracked energy expenditure with the Apple Watch along with six other fitness trackers, and they found readings that deviated from their standard by up to 43 percent. Lots of studies online.

I would say, your exercise calories burned numbers are significant inflated unfortunately.

Do you have a scale that measures body fat? It can be helpful in understanding if you are losing weight/gaining muscle, or gaining weight.

I would guess that you're underestimating your calories consumed and overestimating your calries burned by exercise.

I've lost 1 st 3 lbs in the last 4 weeks doing low carb (not strict keto, just avoiding all beige processed carbs and sugar). Weighing and measuring portions and adhering to a 1300 cal limit. I don't eat back any exercise calories, just see them as a bonus instead.

With a few very rare exceptions, weight loss really does just come down to CICO (calories in vs calories out).

I weigh daily, first thing every morning naked

My weight can fluctuate by 4 pounds during that week.

it is all to do with how much sodium in had in last nights dinner, urine, poo, hormones.

if you weight daily and graph it for a month you will see if you have a downward trend

Ok so today I cut out even the tiny bit of Bread/carbs I was allowing myself. I’ve had beetroot salad for “breakfast”, chicken with courgette and carrot salad for lunch then dinner was beef chilli with salad (no rice or anything), then a few blueberries and some plain yoghurt.
V proud of myself for turning down some birthday cake today even when everyone else was having it (it was homemade and looked lovely too).
I haven’t been eating any of my exercise cals. They are a total bonus and I know that it’s almost impossible to calculate calories from food and exercise accurately anyway. I’m just thinking of them as a relative measure. It shows me I am doing lots more exercise than usual and gives me the motivation of a target to reach. I saw on BBC that exercise trackers double the time people spend exercising and the intensity too (compared to no tracker). I’m just doing a bit on the exercise bike now while mumsnetting.

Bloody hell. I've been losing a lot and still have a lot to go and even I wouldn't say no to a birthday cake🙈

A possibility that you're overestimating the calories burnt through exercise. The list you gave seemed mostly either low intensity or short duration.
I also find bread is a killer if I want to lose weight. Rice is for me the easiest carb to eat and lose weight at the same time.

Count and weigh your food.
Cause your time yes deceive you and that's a few hundred extra calories you don't realise you consumed.

Also don't drink your calories.
Starbucks,fruit juices are really high calorie,as is most alcohol

You need a be a bit bloody kinder to yourself. All the working out and restriction is going to end up with you falling off the wagon and gaining more.

Honestly, chill out a bit! It will come off.

@rjacksmiss

You need a be a bit bloody kinder to yourself. All the working out and restriction is going to end up with you falling off the wagon and gaining more.

Honestly, chill out a bit! It will come off.

I agree with this so long as you don't mind losing slowly. I've lost 16lbs in 10 months - so really slow. But I haven't been on a diet at all. I've had cake sometimes and chocolate too, and way too much wine, and far too many bags of crisps (biggest weakness.)

But overall I've stopped snacking, massively upped the exercise and stopped eating stuff I don't absolutely love. I've reduced portion size, upped veg intake and cut out every wasted calorie from 'treat' food that I don't really adore. I swap unhealthy treats for my favourite healthy ones - so berries and low fat greek yoghurt instead of ice creams or pastries.

The advantage of this very slow method is that your body is never shocked into diet mode, and you never feel deprived so you never fall off the wagon. You just gradually reduce portions, don't go back for seconds, cut out snacks and never eat a high calorie food you don't adore.

CICO - Calories in calories out has been proven to not be true. The body isn't subject to the laws of thermodynamics because there are hormones involved. If you ate all you daily caloric needs as carbs, even if you were in caloric deficit, you would not lose weight just develop metabolic syndrome.

Drop sugars, processed foods and starches for a couple of weeks then lose fruit apart from berries, don't eat any starchy veg that lives below ground and if you are still not losing, cut the veg and berries out too. If you feel rough, take electrolytes and eat lots of well salted animal fat. We were not designed to eat so much carb but you have to ease off it slowly.

@GelfBride

CICO - Calories in calories out has been proven to not be true. The body isn't subject to the laws of thermodynamics because there are hormones involved. If you ate all you daily caloric needs as carbs, even if you were in caloric deficit, you would not lose weight just develop metabolic syndrome.

Drop sugars, processed foods and starches for a couple of weeks then lose fruit apart from berries, don't eat any starchy veg that lives below ground and if you are still not losing, cut the veg and berries out too. If you feel rough, take electrolytes and eat lots of well salted animal fat. We were not designed to eat so much carb but you have to ease off it slowly.

That's dangerous advice. Your body needs carbs if you're working out.

calories burnt are usually vastly over estimated.
half an our of intensive cardio (running) only burns about 300ckals.

for 1000 exercise cals would mean more than 2 hours of intensive exercise.

@redcandlelight

calories burnt are usually vastly over estimated. half an our of intensive cardio (running) only burns about 300ckals.

for 1000 exercise cals would mean more than 2 hours of intensive exercise.

but don't be dishartened by that. being active is great for our wellbeing.

@GelfBride

CICO - Calories in calories out has been proven to not be true. The body isn't subject to the laws of thermodynamics because there are hormones involved. If you ate all you daily caloric needs as carbs, even if you were in caloric deficit, you would not lose weight just develop metabolic syndrome.

Drop sugars, processed foods and starches for a couple of weeks then lose fruit apart from berries, don't eat any starchy veg that lives below ground and if you are still not losing, cut the veg and berries out too. If you feel rough, take electrolytes and eat lots of well salted animal fat. We were not designed to eat so much carb but you have to ease off it slowly.

Does one ever poo on this diet?

Portion sizes too big maybe? Always worth taking a trip to the doctor if you’re putting weight on with no obvious reason behind it though

Have you worked out your TDEE using an online calculator? I think you’ll find it much easier if you get that figure, subtract 500 cals from that amount and then count calories to ensure you’re in a calorie deficit. You shouldn’t need to cut out bread or anything else, as long as you’re in a deficit eat what you enjoy and you’re much more likely to stick to it long term.

I’ve lost 1-2lbs consistently since January, doing nowhere near the amount of exercise you’ve mentioned. Is the 1000 calories burned through exercise on top of the calories you burn just breathing/pumping blood around your body etc? If so you’re probably retaining a load of water for muscle repair.

Like others I don’t really take any notice of the calories burned on my Fitbit.

@GelfBride

CICO - Calories in calories out has been proven to not be true. The body isn't subject to the laws of thermodynamics because there are hormones involved. If you ate all you daily caloric needs as carbs, even if you were in caloric deficit, you would not lose weight just develop metabolic syndrome.

Drop sugars, processed foods and starches for a couple of weeks then lose fruit apart from berries, don't eat any starchy veg that lives below ground and if you are still not losing, cut the veg and berries out too. If you feel rough, take electrolytes and eat lots of well salted animal fat. We were not designed to eat so much carb but you have to ease off it slowly.

😳 Well. I wouldn't do that. That just doesn't sound healthy at all. That sounds like eating disorder in making. Sorry. Well salted animal fat made my heart skip a beat. Not in a good way.

And well. Cico obviously works more that "ot doesn't work" otherwise even that diet doctor wouldn't count them, innit.

Humans literally lived off berries and roots if they were either bad hunters or there was lack of prey. And bark which is really carby. (Fun fact). The super processed carb is an issue, not going to lie, but turning to diet of salted fat is just. Wow.

In a small percentage of instances, there can be a medical reason for your challenges with weight loss. Suggest to keep a food journal and weigh/log everything for a month. If you still are maintaining or gaining weight, you need to see a doctor for a health check.

If the doctor gives the ok (thyroid, hormones, etc) may be time for advice from a dietitian.

You just need to wait, there is no rule that says you must lose weight every week or every XX number of days. Your body is probably just adjusting to the changes. Weight loss isn't linear and it takes my body up to about 14 days to accept that yes I really am cutting calories and release some fat and then I usually lose weight every 10 - 14 days but sometimes I will stall for a period of 3-4 weeks. Secondly when you first start exercising your body will hold water around your muscles to protect them and you can hold this water for a few days so could likely be that. You won't have built up that much muscle in this time so it's not likely to be muscle replacing fat at this stage.

Also when you drink alcohol regularly you are dehydrated as alcohol is a diruretic, it is likely that you are now properly hydrated and your body is a couple of lbs heavier because of this. I know after a big night out I used to be a couple of lbs lighter due to water loss.

The danger here is that you cut, cut, cut because you are not seeing results and you will end up cutting down your calories too much which is also not helpful and you will end up feeling deprived.

I am losing weight by eating 1800 calories a day and eating from all food groups.

I would recommend you track calories with MFP and try not to go too low but anything else at this stage I wouldn't bother with, just give it time, it is a lot of changes for your body to suddenly get to grips with.

Plus my weight (and everyone's weight) can go up and down by 2-4lbs day to day, depending on water levels, whether you have been to the loo, what you have eaten the day before etc etc. Your body is made up of 60-70% water and there is no guarantee that the levels are going to stay the same day in day out!