Why am I not losing anything?

[TomAllenWife]

I have a stone to lose.
I'm 45 and am noticing that even one cheat meal a week means zero loss

I exercise 4 times per week. 2 body combat, 2 weights sessions, each burning about 300-400 cals.

A typical day looks like:
Fast until 11am
Protein yoghurt
Lunch usually tuna or egg salad
Handful of almonds (no more than 8)
Dinner is something like chilli with cauliflower rice, or fajitas but I'll have lettuce cups

I drink alcohol thurs - Sunday typically which I know isn't great but surely that can't be the only factor that is preventing me from shaping up

I'm seeing all these different ads on FB like V Shred and how women in their 40s shouldn't be doing hours of exercise etc etc but don't know if it's all scams

Can anyone please shed any light on what's going on for me

On your other thread it was shown you are drinking at least 3000 calories in alcohol per week which will affect your weight loss attempts

@crimsonlake

Obviously it is the alcohol, how much do you drink over those 3 nights?

5 pints plus she said on the other thread 🥴

22:02TomAllenWife

I drink A LOT

example:
Thursday; 5 pints of lager
Friday: 2 pints of lager, bottle of red wine, 4 espresso martinis and another lager with a shot
Saturday: no alcohol
Sunday: 500ml red wine & 4 pints lager

I know this is a lot, but I go out a lot and don't want to not drink

(from the other thread)

If that’s the amount you drink. Cutting it out would make a difference I’m sure. That’s a lot of empty calories.

@JustJustWhy

This is is no amount of exercise has ANY affect on weight loss

Absolutely not the case for me.

Nor me.

My friend has offspring who do competitive rowing. Hobby level, though, not Olympic.

They eat vast amounts of food. She has to make sure they have enough calories, I forget the amount but way higher than average intake.

So if this ‘excercise makes no difference ‘ theory is true, why aren’t her kids fat?

Oh OP. It's all the alcohol...that's a LOT of alcohol.

Your 10 pints of lager add up to around 1850 cals
Your red wine consumption is around 1000
Your 4 martinis are about 400 cals.

That's a LOT of calories. And way too much alcohol for your health.

@54321nought
i think you might find that all the science ( including tim spector who i like and very much respect) is speculation at this point

my main point to the original poster was this: take the basics first, are you over eating or drinking too much, if so sort that out before getting into deep science theory. most people don’t cover the basics of knowing what they eat and cutting out alcohol to aid the body’s ability to process fat loss

i’m very aware that there are other factors: i said myself later in my response that my autoimmune disease and early menopause have meant basic calorie theory isn’t working for me so i’m working on other stuff.
your responses were snappy, rude and self satisfied. just because you run marathons and read a bit of science, doesn’t give you the right to be an arse

[quote mummylondon16]@54321nought
i think you might find that all the science ( including tim spector who i like and very much respect) is speculation at this point

my main point to the original poster was this: take the basics first, are you over eating or drinking too much, if so sort that out before getting into deep science theory. most people don’t cover the basics of knowing what they eat and cutting out alcohol to aid the body’s ability to process fat loss

i’m very aware that there are other factors: i said myself later in my response that my autoimmune disease and early menopause have meant basic calorie theory isn’t working for me so i’m working on other stuff.
your responses were snappy, rude and self satisfied. just because you run marathons and read a bit of science, doesn’t give you the right to be an arse[/quote]
It was speculation 10-15 years ago......its not speculation any more.

I'm confused, so if excercise doesn't make you loose weight or a calorie deficit...how do we loose weight the new scientific way? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Is no one mentioning muscle weighs more than fat? So if you're not hugely overweight you can be losing fat but still not budging the scales.

@54321nought

The new evidence doesn't prove that exercise doesn't make you lose weight. It proves that there are other ways that the human body may cater for a calorie deficit. It's very different.

Some bodies will cater for the 90% of the extra energy requirement by using fat, and 10% cutting other functions. Some will be the other way round, and have much more trouble losing weight. What we eat is massively important, because of the carbs/insulin/fat relationship, but you can't just say that exercise doesn't impact weight: The End.

Body fat isn't the unpleasant waste product most of us view it as. It's an enormously useful evolutionary tool for making sure we still have energy to keep our vitals going and to hunt. In times of food deficit, the overweight people would be able to hunt for a greater period of time than you and I, as marathon runners. Some of them would find it more of a struggle to access their fat for energy, but they would all do it.

If you can find some links to this science that says that exercise does not impact weight at all, for anybody, ever, I'd love to see them because frankly I think you've taken the science and run a marathon with it.

Exercise will help with weight loss, as long as you take into account the fact that the calorie deficit you create may not all be catered for by fat loss, and as long as you realise that what you eat makes a difference to that balance. So if you're eating a lot of carbs, you'll be releasing a lot of insulin, the fat storage hormone.

@Bortles

Is no one mentioning muscle weighs more than fat? So if you're not hugely overweight you can be losing fat but still not budging the scales.

We can't build muscle fast enough for this to have an impact, really, unless we're losing fat veeeeerrrrryyyy slowly, which is unlikely if we're building muscle.

The impact of this concept is that weight is lost, but a small percentage less than if we were not building muscle. You can produce 1lb of muscle per week, absolute max, if you have all the right factors at play, ie being a young man, eating tons of protein, massive muscle hypertrophy exercise plan. Most people who want to lose weight don't/can't do this. Growing 1lb of muscle a month is really hard work for most of us, so unless your fat loss is at 1lb per month or less, you would still be losing weight if you were gaining muscle.

@Bortles

Is no one mentioning muscle weighs more than fat? So if you're not hugely overweight you can be losing fat but still not budging the scales.

This is just a hypothesis that people have come up with in the past to explain why exercise does not make you lose weight. It doesn't actually have any effect

@TheSkatesOfCoachBombay

I'm confused, so if excercise doesn't make you loose weight or a calorie deficit...how do we loose weight the new scientific way? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Cut down on insulin spikes and improve bodies sensitivity to insulin.

Cut out sugar and sugar substitutes, ( which also trigger insulin, even though they may have no calories)

Cut down on the NUMBER of times you eat, as each meal causes a spike, so two meals a day is better than 3, and 3 meals a day is better than 3 + snacks. ( the amount you eat at each meal is less important)

Eat more veg ( contains the right types of fat to improve insulin sensitivity- omega 3)

Cut out all bread ESECIALLY white- and other food based on flour, eg pasty, pasta - causes MASSIVE insulin spikes

limit fruit - again, massive insulin spikes.

Cut out honey and fructose - even worse than sucrose

Cut out foods with massive amount of omega 6- which decrease sensitivity to insulin - basically all processed foods and ready meals. Also all margarine and vegetable oils.

Instead use olive oil and butter.

(Fat is much less of a problem than sugar)

It is about resetting the weight that your body is trying to maintain. Obese people have bodies that are fighting against them to maintain a weight that is too high. Until the body resets that and resets to aim for a lower weight, you will not lose.

There is a huge amount of research on this

again I recommend Andrew Jenkinsons "Why we eat ( too much)"

On a personal note, I was obese for 30 years, I am also a marathon runner and a scientist. When I decided to change, I did the research. I was amazed to find everything I though I knew about weight loss was wrong. I used the above rules, and lost 8 stone in 18 months. That was 4 years ago.

Much as I know one person's experience isn't research, this new understanding has been proven again and again, scientifically

I don't think the Andrew Jenkinsons book was available then, or if it was, it wasn't one that I read before hand, but I have read it since, and it sums up everything I learnt.

And yes, there are thousands and thousands of obese marathon runners, and I was one of them for decades.

I don't think the

( on a personal note, I lost

O forgot to mention - the milk in tea and coffee also causes an insulin spike my itself, so if you are having a hot drink between meals, drink it black. Otherwise you can be working really hard to break bad habits, yet still be giving yourself multiple insulin spikes every day

@Bortles

Is no one mentioning muscle weighs more than fat? So if you're not hugely overweight you can be losing fat but still not budging the scales.

Muscle and fat weigh the same, muscle just takes up less space 1lb for 1lb.

@54321nought

I appreciate that you are explaining the science but I'll happily continue to stay slim my own way.

After 40+ years of understanding how my own body works I can 100% guarantee that exercise has a fundamental effect on my weight loss. Maybe there's a science behind it that has not yet been discovered.

I find that when I'm exercising I am not at home eating so that's fewer calories in!

@54321nought

Everything you've said is true, except 'Exercise does not impact weight loss'.

Have you got a link to any papers/lectures that state that? I don't think it's right, and it's a very very misleading thing to post on a thread where people are wondering why weight loss attempts aren't working for them.

I see that you recommend a book, but that's obviously being sold by someone to make money. You can find plenty of books by doctors who recommend exercise for weight loss, too. A book like that is somebody's opinion of the data; it's not the data.

Are there references in it that provide the data that proves that exercise does not impact weight loss at all, and if so, could you post one or two of them so that we can all see this proof that body fat isn't for anything?

Also, what is body fat for, if not to provide energy when there is no food?

@Tibtab

Muscle and fat weigh the same, muscle just takes up less space 1lb for 1lb

This is only relevant if you're measuring how much space your body is taking up (ie dress size/waist measurement/calipers), not if you're measuring by weight.

@54321nought, as a marathon runner and someone who is interested in nutrition, insulin resistance and weight loss, what do you think about MAF training and fat adaptation?

I train at a MAF level, often fasted and I have found it helped considerably with weight loss and have lost 4 stone over the past 3 years. I used this in conjunction with a calorie deficit.

[quote TheFoundations]@54321nought

Everything you've said is true, except 'Exercise does not impact weight loss'.

Have you got a link to any papers/lectures that state that? I don't think it's right, and it's a very very misleading thing to post on a thread where people are wondering why weight loss attempts aren't working for them.

I see that you recommend a book, but that's obviously being sold by someone to make money. You can find plenty of books by doctors who recommend exercise for weight loss, too. A book like that is somebody's opinion of the data; it's not the data.

Are there references in it that provide the data that proves that exercise does not impact weight loss at all, and if so, could you post one or two of them so that we can all see this proof that body fat isn't for anything?

Also, what is body fat for, if not to provide energy when there is no food?[/quote]
The book is the best summary of the data I know, and also lists all the sources.

I agree lots of books are simply "opinions" - this one isn't. It presents the science, explains it and gives the sources. It is written by a bariatric surgeon

Body fat isn't the unpleasant waste product most of us view it as. It's an enormously useful evolutionary tool for making sure we still have energy to keep our vitals going and to hunt. In times of food deficit, the overweight people would be able to hunt for a greater period of time than you and I, as marathon runners. Some of them would find it more of a struggle to access their fat for energy, but they would all do it.

I agree! It is vitally important. I think, partly, as energy storage in terms of short term glycogen storage for the fast twitch muscles, quick bursts of intense energy and longer term fat storage which the slow twitch muscles can access. Otherwise we would have to eat constantly and some people feel like they need to if their bodies are not well used to accessing their fat for energy.

@54321nought

Could you post a link to an article or lecture please? Given that you have the book and most of us don't. It would be fascinating to read the scientific proof that exercise and weight loss are not linked.

Otherwise it's just you, a stranger, giving their opinion on a salesman's opinion of the data, which would explain why it makes no sense.