How am I not losing weight?

[Ifwallscouldtalk]

My meals are

Breakfast - 40g plain porridge with semi skimmed milk, handfuls of berries and a small amount of nuts.

Lunch - chicken salad wholemeal roll or a salmon roll with a muller corner yoghurt

Dinner - Home made meal maybe a pasta dish, spag bol, roast, curry, stir fry, jacket potato. Never a big portion.

Generally no snacks at all unless maybe a piece of toast if I'm especially hungry. Maybe a couple of biscuits at the weekend but definitely not snacking on junk all the time.

Drinks only water or coffee with no sugar.

I'm brisk walking for an hour a day, working out twice a week squats, weights etc.

I only want to lose 4-5 pounds but it's not happening.

There are so many recipes - books and online. Lebanese/middle eastern food is rich in vegetables and delicious.

I eat salads incorporating lots if different vegetables, salad leaves, herbs, plus small amounts of avocado, nuts, lentils and/or chickpeas. I make up batches of salad dressings - Mediterranean, Asian, French - so I don't have to faff around.

My go-to dinners are pan-fried chicken breasts, salmon or prawns, served with at least 2-3 different vegetables. Whatever is in season. I make extra veggies and incorporate them in an omelette the next day.

I generally eat only 2 meals a day: an omelette with salad, or a big salad with boiled eggs, tuna or leftover chicken or salmon, at around 10.30/11. And a protein plus lots of vegetables dinner around 6-7. Snacks consist of fruit or a few teaspoon full of cottage cheese.

HOWEVER, given your age, BMI and weight, I would really urge you to focus on weight training rather than dieting!

@L1R876 I haven't really got a good reason. I just always feel so much better in my clothes and about myself when I'm around 9 stone. I'm not much above it but I also know that it's so easy to creep up to 9 and a half, then 10.

Honestly I see no point, unless you will keep this restricted diet forever, it will all come back. And you have said yourself that you enjoy carbs and get bored of the constant salad/veg.

Maybe focus on toning up instead of a number on the scales? Measuring waist/thigh size is a good indicator of progress.

I think maybe you need to focus on body recomp rather than weight loss. Could you get in the gym and start lifting some weights? You'll see the biggest difference in how you look if you start resistance training. Much much more so than if you lost 4 pounds. Keep your daily steps high, don't drop your calories and just keep consistent. Get lifting in the gym if you can and you'll soon notice differences in your health as well as on the dreaded scales!

Great advice

I would go by measurements and how clothes fit.

Are your jeans feeling tight? Is that what's prompting you to drop the 4 pounds?

There’s a fair amount of carbs and sugar there - remember fruit is sugar. I’d cut right down on your processed carbs (bread, pasta, rice) and have loads more veg. There’s lots of alternatives - there’s a low carb board on MN with recipes and lots of ideas for great alternatives (cabbage, courgetti instead of pasta, cauli instead of rice). Try to have veggie snacks (olives, peppers, cucumber etc) rather than toast and biscuits. Avoid ‘low fat’ wherever possible as it’s usually laden with sugar/sweetener. Increase water so you’re drinking several litres a day - this makes a huge difference. I bet after a couple of weeks that 4lb will be gone.
If you don’t fancy the above Intermittent Fasting works well. Have an 8 hour window where you eat and a 16 hour where you don’t. Most who do IF miss breakfast and eat 11-7pm / 12-8pm kind of times. Whatever method you choice massively increase water/fluids (not juices/smoothies).

@Ifwallscouldtalk keep us updated if you do decide to get that 4 pounds off! Good luck

Ditch the bread and pasta

100% agree

Do you use a heart rate monitor when exercising? Relying on the watch strap sensor alone can be a bit hit and miss. A 500 calorie a day deficit is actually quite a lot and you should notice some weight loss. Also be honest, how hard are you working out at the gym and for how long? Overestimating the work you put in is a very common thing to do.

I'd say have a more protein and veg heavy breakfast. Or try 16:8 intermittent fasting- for example only eat from 12pm-8pm. You could stick to the same lunches and dinners that you have but just add a lot more veg on the side. And up the water intake.

I don't think carbs should be viewed as the enemy, but I think the ration of protein and veg to carbs could be improved.

You don’t need to be counting calories and weighing everything. That’ll drive you insane. Just cut out the bread and pasta, increase veggies - we should be having at least ten different varieties a day (don’t increase fruit you’re doing great there), avoid toast and biscuits. Drink lots of water. You’ll soon lose 4lbs

I am a bit older than you OP and my BMI was 22 when I started my health kick. Still in the middle of the healthy range but felt like it's too much for me.
I hate diets and counting calories so hit the exercise instead, in a big way. I try to do some exercise everyday, be it tennis, running or gym. When in gym, I try to do double sessions so Body Pump+Body Combat, Body Pump + Spinning. I am positively seeing a much leaner shape only after 3 weeks and lost 3 pounds.
With food, I try to make it healthier and avoid the obvious culprits but I far from being strict with myself. I eat lots of watermelon as a meal substitute (because I love it) and try to do the gym in the evening so that I have dinner before it rather than after (and thus avoid late night eating as I am just physically too tired and not feeling hungry).
Good luck with it. Sounds like whatever you are doing is working for you to stay a low weight anyway and remain fit.

Cut all of those carbs (bread, pasta, potato yoghurt, porridge) and you’d lose 4lbs in a week.

@AnnaNims 👍🏻 100% agree.

I’m the same height as you and if l are that then I’d put on weight.

Forget what your Fitbit says about burned calories, it’s always over exaggerated. Also I’d suspect 1500 calories would be maintenance for you so you’re not in a calorie deficit so you won’t loose weight.

I’d switch out your breakfast for something egg based, 40g of porridge plus extras is a lot. Or try intermittent fasting and cut it altogether. Or just have a protein shake (try to avoid whey and go for a vegan one) and coffee.

Get rid of the roll and the fruit corner both of which are very carb heavy. Replace with more protein and leaves in the salad and a piece of fruit if you must really have something sweet but ideally not.

Then dinner should be fine unless you’re really underestimating the amount of food you’re eating.

Swap the late night toast for a boiled egg/apple and peanut butter/carrot sticks and hummus.

All that and I’d be confident you’d shift those stubborn few pounds very quickly.

carbs aren't the enemy though. They are still needed and do provide us with some health benefit. I guess it is good to have a small amount and not eradicate them completely!!

It’s the op’s choice of carbs & sugar though. It’s bread & pasta heavy & very veg light. Op can get plenty of carbs from vegetables. A few tiny adjustments will make a huge difference.

I don't lose weight on 1500 calories a day. I need to drop to 1200 to lose any weight at all.

Omit the wholemeal roll, the pasta the toast and the biscuits . Replace with extra veg salad and fruit.

Just to say I'm certainly not eating toast and biscuits everyday.

I have toast probably once a week and only if I'm very hungry after work, I'm not late night snacking on toast. I have 2 biscuits on a weekend and that's it.

The fruit I'm eating are berries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and a tiny amount of nuts for some protein.

Still I think swapping from a sandwich to a salad or omelette for lunch would definitely make a difference, I just really hate eating that way. I love salad, but on the side of a sandwich sadly.

I'm going to try to switch my breakfast and lunch for carb free for a couple of weeks, well at least bread and pasta free and give up my yoghurt. I don't think I can bear to change my dinner. I know it will be more nutritious and probably filling.

Spinach Omelettes for breakfast and egg/chicken/humous salad for lunch. How does that sound?

I will hopefully update with some weight loss and less bloating.

Ugh, wish me luck.

I'm not a fan of chowing through a massive box of leaves at lunchtime so I do salad without the leaves! I love a plate of cherry tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, feta-stuffed pepper, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, cubes of cheese and salami - you can keep it low cal by having a lot of the fresh veggies and using the nice antipasti stuff as flavour. I don't feel restricted with this as a lunch but I don't get that monotonous feeling I get when I see a heap of lettuce (yes I know there's a million different types, it's all boring, even with dressing on).

@Ifwallscouldtalk if the yogurt is something like Greek yogurt with probiotics then definitely keep eating it. It is very very good for you! If it is muller light, then definitely drop it!