Only thing left is to stop eating..

[Eliza667]

Hoping someone can help me shed some light before I lose all motivation. I always used to weight about 7.5-8 stone, 5ft 2 and of a slender build. When I hit my early 20s the weight slowly climbed and back in 2020 I was a couple of lbs short of 11 stone and I decided I had to do something. I started exercising 6 days a week and reduced my food intake to 1000 calories, I dropped down to 8.5 stone over about 6 months and maintained that weight.

I kept up the exercising and eating well but with some snacks as I do have a sweet tooth, weight was stable till last summer when without changing my exercise or food intake I started putting the weight back on and ended up about 9.5 stone by Christmas.

Covid hit in January and I was unable to exercise more than a 30 minute brisk walk per day for a couple of months, I missed exercising, was feeling sorry for myself and eating more sugary foods but despite this my weight was stable.

Now I’ve been exercising again, I’m back to 30 minutes per day, 6 days a week intense cardio on the elliptical (heart rate sits about 170), 2 hours a week of yoga, half an hour every day brisk walking.

My average food for the day is 1000-1200 calories, and is usually:
Breakfast: Activia yoghurt and 150ml fruit juice
Lunch: a vegetable based soup and one small slice of dry, whole grain bread
Dinner: something like chilli, cannelloni, steak, pork tenderloin with salad and one pita, med vegetable paella, once a week I get a kids sized fish and chips and don’t eat all the chips..
Snack: either a mango, a 30g portion of cashew nuts or a 90cal chocolate mousse.
Once a week we will go for a meal out or have a takeaway, and once I week I treat myself to an ice cream sundae. I’ve tried swapping out soup for 2 egg omelettes and I still don’t lose weight.

In the last few weeks I’ve put on weight, the fat % on the scale is going up so it’s not just muscle, I’m up to 9st 11lbs, and I’m so bloated around my hips and waist, I couldn’t even get my walking trousers on today. I’m getting hot flushes (I’m 29), nausea and dizziness when I stand and am constantly hungry with stomach pain if I don’t eat more, but all my recent bloods (thyroid etc) came back normal.

It feels the harder I try the fatter I get…

Has anyone else experienced this?

What’s the length of time between your last intake of anything other than water in the evening and your first intake of anything other than water on the following morning?

It’s usually about 12-13 hours. We try to finish dinner between 6 and 7 pm and then I’ll have a yoghurt and juice at about 7am the next morning. No solid food again till my one slice of bread with soup at between 12 and 1 pm the next day though.

Have you tried charcoal tablets for the bloating? I swear by them. Check about taking them with any meds you might take inc contraceptive pills though. I'd probably go back to the doctors if it's a sudden change I'm 29 too and started suffering with bloating and night sweats after Xmas also other symptoms related to periods etc and it just didn't seem right I was always so uncomfortable currently waiting for a scan which is next week.

Have you had your blood sugars checked when you feel dizzy? I wonder if you're sugars are low and then your body could be storing more due to this. Sorry throwing everything out there!

I wonder why people are so different. I weigh same as OP, don't do much more exercise, & eat twice as much. I mean literally twice as much, I reckon.

@gertrudemortimer I haven’t had my blood sugars checked so might be worth a try, thanks and I’ll read up on charcoal tablets! I’ve got a lot of symptoms that feel hormonal related too (increased emotions etc) so I did wonder if it was hormonal but I’m on the combined pill at the moment so would be weird if hormones were causing havoc? Terrified of early menopause or something though.

@lljkk I know it’s so frustrating, I used to easily eat twice as much while also exercising less. But if I eat more I don’t seem to gain weight any quicker I just don’t lose it either.

Your BMR is probably somewhere between 1200 and 1300 meaning that without even doing anything your body would burn that much. You are eating less than that AND exercising. So either your scales are wrong, you’re eating more than you think, or your body is in starvation mode because you’ve denied yourself calories for so long. Start eating more. You’ll have more energy to move. Try changing your exercise routine. Try running rather than the elliptical, lift weights, try Pilates rather than yoga.

It won't be starvation mode as that has been proved a myth (lots of info on this online).
I think a trip to the GP might be in order just to be on the safe side.

I would suggest so much cardio and restricted eating meant the weight you initially lost was muscle as well as fat. You need muscle to look lean and also muscle burns more energy. Basically you’re doing too much cardio and need to do resistance training/HIIT etc. 30 mins of cardio depending what it is and intensity also doesn’t burn huge amounts of fat.

Thanks everyone. I definitely don’t think it’s starvation as I do eat well some days when we go out for a meal etc, I’m not depriving myself of food for long periods of time. I know 1000 calories sounds really low but for my height and build with a BMR of about 1400 then I’d still only drop about 1/2lb a week without exercise, unfortunately a lot of diets are aimed at people taller than me and I have to eat less even just to maintain my weight.

I do mix up training with core strength training, weights, rowing machine etc too, but elliptical, yoga, and walking are my “staple” exercises that stay consistent then I add in some of the other things and vary it. With the elliptical I vary the workout too, sometimes I go for a sustained HR, sometimes I’ll put the resistance right up and focus on using my arms to move it etc. I do have muscle definition e.g. I have visible biceps and visible definition on my upper abs (although lower abs are covered by this stubborn bloating and fat so who knows what’s under there now!)

Starvation mode has been debunked in healthy people.

It only occurs at a very late stage of anorexia before the body starts consuming the heart.

I would ask GP for blood test checking hormone levels. Also are your ankles swollen as could be water retention with warmer weather.

@caringcarer ooh my ankles have been swollen, I’ve noticed that my socks are digging in and leaving dark red lines where they never used to. But it’s been like that for a few weeks now, if it’s water retention not sure how to fix it?

Get to GP and ask for water tablets. I have Foresimide 20mg. After I take it I need to wee about 3 times in an hour then ankles go down a bit. After that back to normal.

Interesting because I have water retention.

I did try the gp but they wouldn’t give me an appointment. :( The nurse didn’t think it was urgent enough which I suppose is a good thing though it doesn’t feel like it, but agreed to check bloods when I asked.