Am I doing this wrong?

[Thisisbig]

Inspired to start my own thread after derailing another one accidentally with my well meaning advice. Really didn’t mean to upset anyone! Yikes.

lots of people said I was sucked into the diet industry and was Doing it wrong. Calories too low etc. it’s made me feel nervous I really am missing something?

im obese. I’m 5ft 3 and in the obese category. I might just be out of this now with weight loss in recent weeks. A few health issues starting to set in. I’ve tried all fad diets ever! More than once. I’ve been motivated by age and health this time.

this time, as I approach 40 and my health issues getting worse here is what I’m doing

• tracking food on MFP. It’s not totally accurate of course. I don’t weigh food but using it to make me more mindful of what I eat.
• im short and sit At desk. I eat between 1200-1300 a day roughly. Of course sometimes it’s more depending on activity sometimes on lower end. It’s not totally accurate but a good estimate. I tend to look at weekly average than each day. I’m not obsessed with number it’s more of a tool to help me be mindful.
• exercise 3 x week (boxing with pt, bike and strength with weights) 30-45 mins each time
• no food is off limits, no banned foods just more mindful of quantity
• eating way more fruit and veg
• drinking more water (I’m terrible at this usually)
• stopped binge eating family bags of chocolate but still allow myself a few squares if I fancy it.
• I’ve stopped drinking but was never a big drinker anyway. Few glasses of red wine a month usually.

im losing around 1lb a week. During my period week there is often no change. That’s fine. Sometimes it goes up, sometimes it stays same. I weigh twice a week.

typical day:

breakfast: Greek yogurt and fruit
lunch: soup or tuna salad or ryvita and cream Cheese. Plus fruit if I fancy.
dinner: chicken, rice, mixed veg OR tuna salad OR whatever the family are having but I’ll have salad instead of fries or a smaller quantity

snacks: fruit/yogurt/dark choc/ babybel/hummus/bag of baked crisps etc a few of these a day

so have I set myself up for failure here? What would you change?

You’re losing a pound a week
you’re doing a great job
but you likely won’t find it easy to stay on such low Calories long term

I’d suggest joining the Ecmethod they are amazing and will coach you from a place of knowledge and professionalism

If you're not weighing your food then you won't know how much you are actually eating. Estimating isn't accurate.

Working out 3x a week is good but you need to be active the other days too, like walking. Otherwise you won't be burning enough to keep losing.

As long as you're in a calorie deficit then you will lose weight. Eat less, move more. Be consistent.

Definitely weigh your food. What people think a 100g of pasta looks like and what a 100g of pasta actually is are very different.

I guess I just personally think you can’t lose weight without a calorie deficit. to some that is me being sucked in by diet industry.

im not sure how to not be obese without “restricting” calories.

apparently I will fall off the wagon at some point.

Well you're right! You can't lose weight without a calorie deficit. How you go about it is up to you.

If you can live eating that way and enjoy holidays and celebrations and not utterly lose it and eat everything because you’ve restricted so much then all credit to you. But most people can’t do that. It’s a long game and if you lose it slowly and develop habits you can live with long term and still have a life in my experience.
honestly - lookup Emma storey gordon online. She specializes in this stuff.

Sounds fine and 1lb a week is pretty good.

Dont lower your calories any more. Maybe make sure you are moving every hour- get up from your desk and do a little walk even if just up and down the stairs. Add in a brisk walk every lunch time?

If you can, add in a 4th workout a week and make it entirely weights based?

Weight can fluctuate quite a bit from things like hormones, food being digested and extra water retained through extra carbs or salt, plus probably lots of other things. So if you have had a few salty days you might gain weight but it will be water weight and you may have still loss fat and when you stop eating as much salt the scales will drop.

I am also 5ft 3 and would struggle on 1200 calories but if you aren’t weighing your food then you could be out by a lot. I think part of the concern about the calories being so low is that you stick to it as a new diet convert and then it gets harder and you binge or go low in the week and go crazy and the weekends and averaged out you are eating the right amount of calories so stay the same.

I would echo other posters and weigh things and also use a step tracker to make sure you are moving about every day. I have a Fitbit and whilst I know the aren’t 100% accurate I burn a huge amount more calories doing 15k steps a day than I do doing 4k which I can easily do in a desk based job. As you are already doing proper exercise, I would look at things you could do as a family, going for a walk, playing frisbee, cycling, trips out that involve walking, swimming etc

However loosing a pound a week on average is really good that’s 52lb a year and it’s important to remember that the weight didn’t go on in a week and it takes time to come off.

Keep posting or have support elsewhere or both as that really helps. I post on one of the challenge type threads and having other people going through the joys of the loss and the frustrations of the gains and injuries is priceless and posting regularly gives such accountability. I know you said there were discussions on another thread but I haven’t seen that.

Good luck, I know it’s a tough and frustrating journey.

I would swap the soup for veggies. Soup calories are more easily absorbed and more likely to give a blood sugar spike.

If you have rice, make sure it’s either basmati or wild rice as this has a lower glycaemic load.

Its not just about the calories in the food, it’s about what they do to your blood sugar and how easily your body turns them into glucose/body fat. Google for a selection of low glycaemic load foods and try and eat from that wide selection (dark chocolate, good quality ice cream and red wine are all low glycaemic so it’s definitely not a restrictive diet!)

Switch to 90% chocolate.

Finallt, get moving, whatever exercise you can do will help you feel better.

goid luck!

I would get yourself a digital scale, guesstimating is just that, a guess.

It's really easy to be doing yourself out of food (80g of fresh spinach is HUGE), or really damaging your calorie count, (30g of cheese is actually horrifyingly tiny).

It is a pain, but you will get to the point where you are more accurate, I only weigh things that matter more now, like the cheese, or nuts etc.

I personally wouldn't snack multiple times. I prefer to eat a bigger meal and feel contented with that, snacks add up quick and would leave my meals looking sad and small!

I fill my meals with lots of low calorie veg, like if I make lentil bolognaise, I have that over broccoli, my family has pasta, lentils and broccoli, means I have calories for the cheese on top which is better than pasta!

I've lost 34lbs since January calorie counting, did it in the past, 10 years ago and lost more than half my body weight, but 2 children and challenging pregnancy's later, I find myself needing to lost it again.