Calling anyone that has ever successfully lost weight?

[polka6]

By successfully I mean 1) more than just a couple of pounds and 2) managed to keep it off.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I have tried exercising (weights and cardio), fasting (down to one meal a day), low calorie etc nothing seems to work.'

I am naturally small (short and small frame) but have grown a fat lower tummy and chunky thighs/bum. My arms/shoulders are skinny.

I had hovered around 56-7kg for years and suddenly have now hit 60kg. I dont care about the numbers btw I care about my health and physique. I feel embarrassed to wear dresses due to a big tummy bulge and jeans are a struggle to get on.

I feel like this is a turning point and I'd like to nip it in the bud before I continue down this path. Any changes I make don't seem to make any difference.
I have gradually gained perhaps 1kg/year for a decade or so until the recent 3-4kg.

Any advice?!
I work long/antisocial hours and have a fair amount of personal responsibilities meaning I don't have too much time (e.g I couldnt dedicate my life to the gym/fitness or spend hours getting my step count up etc).

I also just always seem to feel hungry if I cut the dietary intake down too much. At the moment I have coffee for breakfast (no sugar, splash of milk), a hot meal for lunch at work (often no "carbs" e.g chicken and veg or a sandwich) and a meal like pasta with lots of veg for dinner. I try to limit my portions. There is 0 snacking. I don't bother buying chocolate/crisps etc to even have the temptation at home. Sometimes 1-3 drinks on a weekend, often 0. Never smoked.

Where am I going wrong?!

But how many calories are you consuming? And how many are you burning
i would be starving on your diet
depending how much you move and how much pasta you eat it would be very easy to eat too many calories like this in your one ‘real’ meal a day.
It’s likely you’re hungry all day only to eat too much anyway at the end of the day

can you switch to protein at lunch like eggs
eat something for breakfast
lose the alcohol
and you your activity during the day - take the stairs instead of the lift. Park a bit further away. Walk around on your break if you get one instead of sitting down.

How tall are you and how old are you?

Weight watchers worked for me and doing it correctly ie not going over my daily points and filling up on fruit and veg. I lost 4 stone 3 years ago and still kept it off. I've changed my mindset with ww. Also I gave up alcohol so that's helped massively.

Download My Fitness Pal, let it tell you how many calories to consume, input everything you eat/drink and stick to it religiously. Failproof, in my experience.

thanks @Shedcity.

I normally used to have 3 meals a day (small amount of porridge with fruit for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and some more substantial for dinner like pasta or rice&curry or meat &veg). Never been much of a snacker but decent portions for 3 main meals. I have on and off exercised.

The reason for coffee only now is due to all the intermittent fasting rage and supposed medical evidence behind having all your meals within a small window to reduce insulin levels which is said to have a number of health benefits. So I did this and went as far as one meal a day (OMAD diet). I have an intense job and this wasn’t sustainable so decided to have 2 meals a day - lunch and dinner, apparently black coffee doesn’t break the fast so I’ve incorporated that in as breakfast.

I don’t really drink alcohol. Only when I go out but at the moment I have too much work to have time for a social life. I’d occasionally have a glass of wine at home with DH on the weekend, which I have already cut out.

i don’t think I eat too much for my 1 meal a day. Tonight I had a chicken & rice meal pot from m&s which was about 400 calories. Last night I had a pasta dish but the pasta was made of lentils.

my work at the moment is very sedentary, almost entire desk based. I already do park as far as possible and take the stairs. This isn’t physically tasking for me though. I think I do avoid things that are physically tasking (eg running).

@BanjoVio how would my fitness pal work for home cooked meals ? Or the work canteen meals which today was poached salmon and mixed veg (no chips/ rice etc) I can’t weigh what I had or know how it was made

to reduce weight ,you are not suppose to eat less, but eat all foods that are important to your body and minimise sugars.

If you really eat less, you can't reduce weight.

Avoid carbs, sugars and milk(should be fine with cheese etc)

Eat carbs, sugars and milk as much you want all in one day a week. lots of fruit, veg and pulses contain carbs and sugars ,so That will suffice during weekdays and the deficit if any would be covered by your one day when you eat them all,

I fallowed this lost a lot in less than a year. I still fallow this not that strictly. So stayed little more or less to my lowest achieved so far.

regarding exercise, I only did school trips ( 30 min bike ride to go and same to come back). and few more trips here and there. Technically this should be sufficient for anyone i.e any for 30 min to 1 hour .

I eat meat, eggs, veg, fruits and legumes. might eat same for breakfast ,lunch and dinner. eat snacks.

Hi
I did Joe wicks 90 day plan. It cost about £50 and you have to send measurements before hand. You then get recipes tailored to you to make (the food is amazing) and around half an hours worth of exercise to do 5 days a week (although I'm more relaxed with it now).Its all HIT workouts which I don't enjoy but maintains and looses weight quickly. Over 3 months I went from a since 14 to a size 8 which I've maintained.
Your meals sound quite heavy, from my experience its not the quantity that matters so much its the type of food you're eating.

You don’t need to weigh everything. You just put in, “poached salmon homemade” and you might get more than one result but you can make a sensible judgement based on the size. If it was on the big side, go for the higher calorie result; if it was smaller go for the lower result. You can also put in “mixed vegetables”. You can also just put in where it’s from or the brand, e.g. “McCain hash browns” will give a different result from “Wetherspoons hash browns”.

Are you very petite? My first thought is that your diet looks like 1000 calories a day from what you describe. That’s so low!

i am 5‘4 and dropped and maintained from 69kg to 63kg and have maintained for years (I used to weigh 59kg but now In my 40s I am very muscular and am a toned size 10). To do this I had a dexa scan to check composition then just reduced weight. During loss never ate more than 1600. now eat around 2200 Cals per day, I just try to eat balanced meals and weight has been ultra stable. Could you check out muscle mass with DEXA? Wonder if you are eating enough and if your lean mass is therefore too low.

Hi everyone. To answer a few of your Qs.. I am 31 and 5'2.
I have always been rather slight during my teenage years and early 20s. I think "normal" for me is probably a BMI thats on the lower end of healthy. I have never been underweight but BMI of 19-21 is probably right for me (normal range 18.5-25). At the moment I am about 24 so technically still in the "healthy" green zone but I know its not for me. I have never had a flat stomach for atleast a decade but this bulge and back rolls are not "healthy". I could kid myself into believing I am but I know it really isn't (which is how I crept up from 21 to 24 BMI).

I have previously had a more active lifestyle but just can't at the moment due to a demanding fairly sedentary job and personal commitments outside of that. There aren't enough hours in the day to incorporate regular exercise like
I used to. I also used to eat what I want when I want until the past few years (coincidentally also when I have started gaining the pounds).

I am the opposite of "big boned" / broad shouldered etc, I have a narrow petite build so any weight gain shows, I dress well enough to disguise this (i.e flowy dresses that synch in at the waist but floaty around the bigger tum/bum/legs or thick jeans that hold everything in) this was easier to get away with when I perhaps only carried 2-3kg extra but I think I have a fair bit more than that to lose now.

I have started logging my calories in and so far I have consumed 800 calories yesterday and 850 calories today. Sure I will lose weight if I keep at this?! I would love to be able to dedicate time to exercise and I will try to at least do it once a week perhaps on the weekend when I may be able to squeeze it in more so than week days (my commute at the moment is also very long).

I had a 400cal dinner and currently lying in bed feeling hungry ☹️ Why can’t my body burn the excess fat rather than keep me awake feeling hungry…

What was it? Not all 400 calories are equal.

Because your body is telling you you need more food.you can't have less than you need and expect it to take it.it will fight back.
Diets don't work.95% Don't! And a percentage of them actually gain back more.
You will fast.your body won't last.
Diets are not sustainable.misery making.shamd creating and you will binge because your body is a clever thing and won't let you restrict it for long.or you will get ill.
What would happen if you actually ate what your body needed and wanted.how long since you've listened to titr body and not restricted.labelled foods good and bad.compensated.fasted.felt guilty?
How long since you let diet culture rule your life and tell you your body was bad.

I lost 1.5 stone on slimming world, needed that weekly weigh in in front of others. Then gave it up up got Fitbit, 10k steps daily minimum, and make sure I use my nutracheck calorie counting app every day. 2.5 stone and have maintained for a year. Good luck 🤞🏻

Well after many years I have found what works for me.
Coffee and tea in the morning.
Protein and veg for lunch. (Cold chicken with as much as half a sliced cauliflower roasted with a sprinkle of cheese.) No added sugar fruit or plain yoghurt.
Cheese or ham or tuna toastie for tea with crisps and a glass of wine.
No strenuous exercise- it just makes me hungry. Walking and occasional light weights.
Not sitting all evening in front of the tv

I think I do avoid things that are physically tasking

There you go then.

You said you did weights and cardio, but that could mean anything from lifting your body weight/running marathons to walking 10 minutes a day with 1kg weights strapped to your wrists. Did you work yourself hard?

Your body has a million jobs to do, for which it needs calories. If you cut back, it could decide to use fat instead. But that's its last resort; our bodies want to keep fat, it's our energy savings account. It's what will stop us from dying if we lose access to food. It's an evolutionary stroke of genius. That's why you can't use the fat. Your body will be compensating for the lack of calories by cutting services elsewhere. Hormones a bit out of whack? Feeling a bit chilly? Skin/hair/nails not looking as radiant as before? Bit moody? Digestion a bit off? All these mechanisms need calories to run well.

Those who think eating less kcal automatically means fat will be burned are missing so much of the complexity of the human body. It really can just make you feel shit, and not touch the fat at all.

Exercise, @polka6 . Do what your body had evolved to do: work, physically, and eat to fuel the work.

Feeling hungry after exercise is a good thing. Eating isn't a sin. The beautiful toned slim people come out of the gym and eat like horses. They're not eating Pringles and chocolate brownies, but they're eating lovely big portions.

You need calories to maintain muscle. Muscle burns lots of calories, so more muscle means you have to eat more per day to maintain it. Not doing strenuous exercise means you keep your body lacking in muscle tone, and therefore demanding a lower kcal requirement. Not a problem if you're happy with no tone, but you could be eating a lot more and have much stronger bones through and beyond menopause if you lifted some weight. You're essentially training your body to be weedy and fragile. But if 'not overweight' is all you want, then good for you, you've found the easy way.

@Watchkeys
My body has good tone with light weights and I have a flat stomach.
Moderate exercise and moderate eating as with past generations.

I am the same height as you and 60 kg. I am not as slight as you describe yourself and do a lot of exercise, so look slim and toned. I think it’s the exercise which is missing for you. It would tone you up. I lost 2 stones last year and did it by cutting calories as well as doing more exercise. It was the two things in combination with worked for me.

I've done slimming world and lost just over a stone so far.

Loads of snacking but all healthy stuff and that seems to work for me. Always have a box of raw veg and fruit on the go and dip in all through the day.

And an hour in the garden can be surprisingly good all round exercise!

I think you are eating so few calories you metabolism has slowed down.

Mostly when people say this it’s bullshit, but under 1000 calories it can happen.

Join My Fitness Pal, you put in your details, it tells you how many calories to eat and then you logs them. You just estimate canteen meals, it works fine.

If you don’t want to eat breakfast then grand but you need to eat protein and fibre at lunch and dinner.

The way you are eating is not sustainable, and I honestly think if you carry on like this you will end up gaining more weight when you inevitably get fed up with it.

I don’t quite understand why you are doing extreme dieting when you just have a bit of weight to loose. I mean this kindly OP but get a grip on yourself and start eating sensibly. Exercise is good but for now just work up to walking 45 mins a day.

Yes, that works if you're not trying to change from being overweight with minimal physical effort. Glad to hear it's going well for you.