Please help I need to know why I am not loosing weight

[Sp3849]

I was hoping somebody here may be able to advise me on where the hell I am going wrong?
Since changing my line of work from being in my feet all day to a desk job I have struggled with my weight. In a year I had put in 2 and a half stone and I feel gross. So in September I thought I need to sort myself out. I have arthritis quite bad and the extra pounds is not helping at all and I am a 36 year old woman 5ft 3 and currently 12st 8 and It is really knocking my confidence.
So I started slimming world ( which had worked years previously) I stuck to it and followed it religiously after a month and only loosing 2 pound I thought okay it's not for me. I have never really been able to eat carbs It bloats me terribly and I put on weight quickly if I do and it tends to really tamper with weight loss efforts. I thought maybe a different diet would better suit.
So I tried my own method of staying under 1200 calories a day limiting carbs and ensuring I reach my 10,000 steps a day. Which when you are sat on your but from 8am til 6pm is hard. But I have managed it. 10 weeks on and all I have lost is 3 pound! I am tracking everything I eat in my fitness pal and I am weighing it so I know portions are correct. I am so frustrated I have started fasting this week 18hours out of 24 and eating between 1pm and 7pm and only consuming 1000 calories I have not lost a thing!
I am mostly eating porridge fruit veg eggs and lean meat. I was having a treat day once a week and having a takeaway but stopped that before Christmas.
Am I being unreasonable? I haven't dieted in years and when I did need to shed a few pounds they always came off so easily!
Any advice is welcome I am at a loss! I have just ordered an exercise bike to do half hour before bed. I have no time to go to the gym I work full time have two children and my husband works away. It's really getting me down. I have never been this big I am ashamed.
Has anyone tried anything that helped? I would be happy with loosing a pound or two a week.

@soupfiend maybe it's got better . I used it years ago and found it wasn't .

Nutra check although guy not free has a scanner and it's easier ( maybe quicker ) to use and therefore I have found it more effective .

It's madness to me how people often spend years accumulating the fat and then want it all gone in weeks.

Oh I missed the information about the treat day and takeaways

Yes, it will wipe out any work done which is why you're just losing this amount

Your maintenance is only 1751 cals, so if you stuck to 1200 in the week and then have a weekend which goes over the 1700, you even it out, or just below your maintenance perhaps.

Chronometer is the best app I've found, it's way more straight forward to use compared to MFP. Gives a detailed view of every micronutrient as well which is handy to see where you might need to supplementation of certain vitamins.

I think MFP has a scanner, I think I used it on my phone once but I tend to do it in the laptop at the end of the day to see clearly what is input. Plus I have all my recipes stored.

Its as accurate as people want it to be, I ensure that the item I put onto my log, corresponds to the thing Ive eaten and the amount Ive eaten

Excess weight is never going to go as quickly as it went on. Slow and steady is the healthiest way to lose and the most sustainable.

That said, a lot of people who come along and say they're eating 1200 calories a day and aren't losing weight, often aren't tracking accurately....

Either they aren't logging everything, so additional calories aren't being accounted for (my husband is a great example of this - will religiously log his meals and drinks but doesn't count eating the kids left over nuggets, or the chunk of cheese he ate whilst grating it for dinner, or the couple of biscuits he had in the staff room at work...)

Or they're guesstimating, which can soon up to quite a difference if you're doing it by eye rather than using a set of scales to weigh everything.

Would you be willing to share a few screen shots of your food diary?

There could be many reasons definitelyget a blood test with the dr.

If your calories are too low though your body can go into starvation mode which means it will retain calories. Would say 1000 calories only is too low so best to go back to 1200ish.
Also take our your cheats night and finish eating by 7/8ish.

Your digestive system slows down in the evening/overnight so eating earlier will help. Try 16 hour fasts rather then 18 to start with so that your then not starving and overloading subconsciously.

Remember booze has calories even a gin and tonic!

Starvation mode isn't real and nutrient timing doesn't matter unless you're a competitive athlete.

What isn’t correct here? The fact salt retains water? That the food I mentioned are in fact thyroid blockers if you have problems with an under active thyroid? That if you eat rubbish you will feel like rubbish? I can assure you I am talking through experience here.

I believe you OP, because it sounds exactly like me. I posted about it under another user name and every one told me I was lying and obviously eating more, or under eating.

I also sit down working 10 hours a day. I cycle at least twice a week for 20 miles a time. To lose weight I literally have to hardly eat anything, I mean under 500 calories a day which is impossible and unhealthy so I don't do it. My husband and children comment about how little I eat. 1 slice of toast and a half portion of dinner a day and I maintain my weight. Any more and I put it on.

It's baffling to me and people who spend time with me but I suppose if it's just my metabolism nowadays.

Depends what you read on starvation mode but early dinner most definitely!

It's been shown to help digestion, stabilise blood sugars, aid sleep and help with weight management to name but a few!

https://www.thehealthy.com/nutrition/healthiest-time-to-eat-dinner-says-new-study/

I am a similar size as OP and like the poster above have to to live on lettuce and dust to lose half a pound a month. My recommended calories to lose are 1251. It is so difficult to live like that. I am a other who walks to work then sits on bottom all day. To tired and too late to do much in the evening as well as cook etc.

Agreed @Vegetus no such thing as starvation mode. As my PT told me when I whinged: There were no fat people in concentration camps 🤷🏼‍♀️Stark

You say you were having a treat day. Was that a coffee and a cake with a friend or, coffee and cake for breakfast with takeaways for lunch and dinner? That could have been ruining your deficit

@Sunshinealways8 I think it’s the part about your body “getting rid of what you’ve eaten”. And that it does that, whatever that means, at those very specific times.

I tend to view calories over the course of a week rather than looking at it day by day; I think that can be helpful sometimes in seeing the overall pattern and working out where you're going wrong. So if you're on 1,200 calories a day, that's 8,400 a week. A takeaway can easily be 1000 calories+ depending on what it is (eg half a medium dominos pizza is usually about 1,000, add on some garlic bread and it's more like 1,600). So if you take that off your 8,400, you're actually left with something more like 1,000 calories a day. Other treats during the week will also reduce the number of calories left for daily meals etc.

Which is not to say, of course, that you should give up the takeaways and treats because they make life enjoyable but it's important to be realistic if you're hoping to lose weight.

@FreezyFord yes, stark, but true. Yet so many people on threads like these can't lose weight despite living on fresh air alone. It's very odd.

I lost most of my excess weight via another method, but when I stalled I calorie counted for the first time and was really shocked by some things. In fact, I started a thread on it which I'll try and find.

One major shock was the calories in oil. Just one extra large splash can take you out of the losing zone in terms of calories.

Also some snacks that I had thought OK were way more calorific than I'd expected. Olives, oatcakes and hummus, for example. The added milk in tea and coffee can also add up over the course of a day if you have many cups, and don't even mention latté!

It's probably worth getting blood tests but do be sure to log every last thing when you calorie count.

The simple answer OP is that you are eating more than you think.

If you weigh and log everything meticulously on my fitness pal or similar you will see some trends and inevitably have a few unpleasant surprises! You do need to log everything though, the oil you cook with, the leftovers off the kids plates, everything.

Stick with the fasting. It takes a few weeks to have an impact, but it does work.

Its also worth making sure you check what my fitness pal says is the calories for something - there seem to be a number of people who have submitted data who seem to think that foods contains way fewer calories than they do, leaving anyone else relying on that data to speed up entry using very incorrect data.

Definitely scan the bar code of things on mfp and don't use what others have inputted. Check the item's nutritional label too to see that it matches what the barcode says.

Also worth considering whether you might be pregnant at all?

Are you on medication at all for anything? I found opioid painkillers made it hard to lose weight because they keep you constipated and fill you with empty gas. I looked ready to give birth at times😂. I changed my diet to vegan and use castor oil on my stomach, legs and breast area. This has practically cured my stretch marks, got rid of my lumpy boobs and toned up my legs . My stomach has never looked so good in 30 years. Also if you are diabetic and on insulin it’s really hard to lose weight too. I switched my salt to low sodium salt(green salt or Bonsalt) and found the weight just fell off even without exercise. But I incorporate a small exercise regime into my daily routine and try and move as much as I can. I have serious medical conditions that limit what I can do but have already reversed some of these just by taking supplements and learning about herbs, plants and oils. I wish you all the best on your journey. 🙏x

Ok thinking about it I suppose the weekly takeaway would add alot of calories on. I did very much let go and I never counted the calories of that meal 😳 I could get away with it when I was younger but obviously not anymore. Some very helpful information and food for thought. I am going to stick with it and keep away from takeaways. Put my calories up a little. Drink way more water. I don't drink alcohol at all, mostly alot of black coffee and the occasional cup of tea and My one thing I do confess to drinking is a small bottle of coke zero of an afternoon. I thought with no calories it would be ok but reading about it I guess maybe not.
I have a gusto delivered weekly and have one of thier recipes for an evening meal I find with working it's easier to cook healthier without having to think to much about it. Failing that I have soup or veg and chicken/salmon.
My lunch is always a salad, soup or fruit. Obviously now I am fasting I don't eat breakfast but before I would have fruit porridge or an Alpen bar.
If I am starving on the afternoon I snack on fruit. Mostly berries apples or an orange.