I only lose weight if I starve myself!!

[Nowanextraone]

Hi everyone, I am 40 years old and have been working hard to lose weight.
I started off on Ozempic but now can't can't hold of it.

Anyway, during the first 6 weeks of ozempic I hardly ate and lost over 1 stone very quickly.

Now I can't get hold of it, I have been using my fitness pal and 100% stuck to my calories and I just don't lose weight. If I go for the odd meal out, I put on 3lbs and then it takes me a week to get it off again, and I just don't ever lose.

I guess its better than gaining it, but seriously, I'm so miserable.

I am 13 stone 13 so still have alot of weight to lose (I'm 5 foot 5). I stick religiously to 1500 calories a day and don't add any extra on for exercise.

I am going away in 6 weeks and really thought I'd be down another stone.

Is it my age?! When I only eat 800/900 calories a day, it falls off me. But that's not sustainable. Mind you, I'd be willing to do it if I have to

Have you had your thyroid checked? That can affect weight loss.

…which is why calorie counting is a totally unsustainable way to lose weight.

I second a thyroid check. I was eight stone before I went on meds that gave me hypothyroidism and was 12 stone within four or six months

Absolutely correct. I can’t believe people still don’t know this.

As a T1 diabetic the quality of your diet does matter.

Try and move away from sugar and ultra processed foods. More vegetables, whole grains rather than white stuff and enough protein. Don't go low fat, it is fuel for your brain. Spend a month improving your diet and only keep half an eye on calories they are up to +/- 20% out.

Don't fast and don't drop your calories to 800/900 you will be ill.

https://www.uptodate.com/contents/type-1-diabetes-and-diet-beyond-the-basics#H1

Read all of it, including the advice for professionals.

You're after a slow and steady change of diet and a slow and steady weight loss.

Now the nosy question, did you take a lot less insulin on Ozempic?

Millions of people myself included found/find it highly sustainable. People go wrong because they guestimate what a portion of something actually is or they don't track the tablespoon of olive oil, the dollop of mayo and the glass of wine they have without thinking.

You can complicate it all you like with blood sugar, glycogen, insulin whatever you want. It's always more calories out than in and it always will be.

What about when people eat high sugar food that causes excess insulin to be released and the sugar gets turned to fat? Surely that's worse than eating a chicken breast that doesn't cause this.
I don't think I've explained that well but I was under the impression that newer research shows that not all food is processed by the body in the same way do some foods are more likely to cause you to get fat than others.

Hi, sorry to butt in but I’m in a similar situation (minus the diabetes!)
@LMNT you mentioned 100cal of cheese being different to 100cal of rice cake…. Does that mean cheese is ok? I’ve cut white carbs (pasta maybe once in 3 weeks, bread less than once a month, no rice or cereal), do eat lots of eggs, some fish, chicken, cottage cheese (trying to avoid hard cheese), occasional red meat, lots of salad and veg, jacket potato once a week or so, olives, olive oil, occasional bacon as an ingredient, couscous every couple of weeks, some fruit, a couple of squares of chocolate once a week, 2 glasses of wine at the weekend (🙈), black coffee, green tea, grapefruit juice….is there anything I need to add/ take away?
I’m hovering around 1200 calories a day (and yes, that’s accurate) but losing only 1lb a week.
Also, you mentioned timing of meals. I tend to eat at 12 and 7, or 3 and 9. How does that affect things?

You've got the gist of it @LadyBird1973 if I eat 100 cals of almonds, some will come out in my poo and some will keep my digestive tract busy. 100 cals of marzipan will up my blood sugar and get used or stored.

Add in that calorie labels can be out by 20%, genetics and gut biome and calories are a rough guide but not the holy grail. Better to eat nutritious fuel and tweak portion sizes as necessary. There is so much recent research on this, world wide, especially South America they are years ahead of us.

Protein stabilises sugar levels. As does leafy and green veg. The issue is though, that if you eat too much protein, it causes you to visit the toilet more often!!!

@Vegetus we are prompted to eat by hunger though. You are missing this large part of the equation. Eating refined carbs just makes us hungry which makes it hard to keep going. Sustainable weight loss involves choosing the right foods. Maybe you are doing that too, but minimising it's significance.

I would suggest 16:8 fasting and sticking to 1200 kcals in your eating time. Make it easy, I use fresh soups from the supermarket (usually about 150 cals) for lunch and then a normal family meal and a hot chocolate afterwards.

I am 70, I have lost 10 lbs in about 12 weeks, with lowish carb but not hungry diet. But mostly by walking - 10,000 steps a day to maintain weight, 15,000 to lose weight. I am semi retired so have the time. You can do it, but its boring as fuck - podcasts help and it feels great to not be as fat.

Also, try the Zoe App - I hear good things about it.

100% this. Unless you're sat on your bum all day and not moving you'd lose weight on 1,500 cals a day. In fact even if you WERE completely sedentary you'd lose weight gradually at that amount.

You're probably missing things out like sauces, drinks, maybe milk in cereal. Probably underestimating portions. Honestly, your body doesn't work differently to everyone else's - it's almost certainly down to human error. (I speak from bitter experience, by the way!)

Thank you so much @spinachspinachmorespinach
I will do this

Thank you!!
Yes, about 1/3 less and my blood sugars were so stable. I'm so gutted I can't get it

Vegans get plenty of protein! We don’t need to eat animals to get a sufficient amount of protein !

Yes 100% I must be going wrong somewhere. I'm going to religiously record everything

People go wrong because they guestimate what a portion of something actually is or they don't track the tablespoon of olive oil, the dollop of mayo and the glass of wine they have without thinking.

Sounds joyful.

Read @Itisyourturntowashthebath ’s post above. It explains it really well.

You don’t say how long you have been trying to lose weight since you stopped ozempic. You can’t compare the first month of a diet and it’s dramatic loss (water mostly) to the rest of the weight loss regime as that first weight drops off very fast but isn’t sustainable to keep losing a stone a month/6 weeks, you would be losing 3-5lbs a month in a slow and gradual way. Do you drink a lot of water too? I think it’s likely the quality of your diet that’s causing you problems

Not everybody underestimates the calories in their food. That blanket statement is trotted out regularly but I for one approached it like a scientist and I wouldn't assume that other people would be incapable of being as accurate as I was.

I have a variety of measuring jars, jugs, ladles, scoops and I use a digital weighing scale. I also had a habit of multiplying the DECLARED calories of anything in a wrapper by 1.15 food manufacturers are allowed to be 'out' by 10% so I assumed that if it was something like biscuits or crackers or crisps, that they'd have capitalised on that window of error that they were legally allowed.

So. No. Not everybody underestimates. In fact, I believe that that was part of the reason I ceased to lose weight on 1200 because all along, every diet I had gone on over the years, I had been restricting quite extremely. I had trained my metabolism to get by on genuinely low amounts.

So it stopped working and I had to eat real foods to the point of satiety. COCO used to work for me until the moment it didn't. Then I had to go back to the drawing board.

So let me guess this right, you're saying calorie counting doesn't work for you because you screwed up your metabolism by eating too little?

Well, it took about 30 years to get to that point, but yes. Obviously when I say it took 30 years, you will guess I'm 50 ish so menopause did seem to affect my ability to lose weight through calorie restriction.

Calorie restriction always worked well, and fairly quickly for me so we'll that I was a little complacent if I put on weight. I just knew I'd lose it again.

Until. The diet I went on at the end of last year. I did not lose any weight. So I did a lot of research and increased my calories slowly. Then I approached the Wright loss aspect through walking a few 36 hour fasts, a few periods of eating v little every second day.

It's a slow process but health and real food is the focus now.

Perfect moderation is harder than abstinence/letting go. I was on and off the COCO wagon for years.

I guess my age has forced me to approach things differently.
I'm not saying COCO never works, I. Saying it can stop working.

Now I have a variety of approaches that don't mess with my metabolism.

It's not impossible to lose weight in menopause but it can be necessary to reset hormones as there is some sort of perfect storm that does not help. I went 30 years yo yo dieting but menopause had made the insulin resistance catch up with me. Im half way through my year to health, through moderation. I want to see what my weight is at the end of a year of "perfect moderation" (eating healthyvreal foids to satiety)
It is working so far but far slower than the diets I used to go on. Many times I lost 16lbs in 12 weeks, so I experienced that quick transformation feeling. But not this time.