Feeling really discouraged

[GorgeousLadyofWrestling]

Since Christmas I’ve cut out sugar, low-ish carbing (so no bread, pasta, rice, potatoes etc) and have been averaging around 1100/1200 calories a day.

I tend to have two meals a day and have managed to kick the eating in the evening habit - so I’ll have dinner around 7 and then nothing else until lunch the next day.

An example day might be a 3 egg cheese omelette with some air fried cauliflower on the side. Works out around 450/500 calories.

Dinner - roast chicken with broccoli, cauliflower, kale, sweetcorn and gravy.

I didn’t weigh myself when I started (emotional reasons) but have been the last few weeks. I have been losing about a kg a week, which was my goal so since I have been weighing myself, I have lost 3 kg.

Weighed myself today and I’ve not only NOT lost, I’ve gone up 40g. Last week I was 89.7 and today I am 90.1. I was hoping to see 88 something.

It’s so demoralising. Everyone said, oh the weight fell off me when I low carbed - why is it so hard?

Are you weighing your portions and accurately tracking calories? The ‘around 450/500 calories’ makes me think not, as it shouldn’t be a guesstimate really.
40g is nothing and could just be water from eating a little extra salt the day before or the need for a bowel movement! Once you have slowly lost fat, it doesn’t just ping back on in a couple of days, it will be water or the food in your digestive system or something.
Don’t lose heart, consistency is key.

Thank you!

no not weighing everything out - eyeballing amounts. I have a friend who didn’t calorie count when she low carbed so I am slightly confused between the rhetorics - low carb and don’t calorie count, or calorie count and end up low carbing because its easier to make the most of calories without carbs.

If you aren’t weighing and tracking you could be eating far more calories than you realise tbh, especially if you eyeball cheese to go in your omelettes, it’s caloric, even if you are low carbing.

This could have been me this time last year. I felt like THIS ISN'T WORKING. But I also thought, I can't keep this up all year and not lose weight?? can I?? I read something online which said to view a plateau as practicing maintenance, and that helped, so I upped cals to what I perceived to be maintenance level (1400) and switched my mindset to ''practicing maintenance'', like, this is me forever, and it will happen so I don't need to be obsessive.

I stopped comparing myself to what I weighed last week and compared myself to what I weighed three weeks ago. That was less demoralising as I nearly almost weighed a bit less than I did 3 weeks ago. That method kept me on track. Expecting less but keeping on going.

I lost 9 kilos between jan and sep of 2023, can't seem to lose more atm. So, I'm just focusing on health atm.

Will definitely start weighing out the cheese, thank you!

Weight does spike sometimes. Hormonal at TOTM, or water retention if you have an infection or drank alcohol. I also notice that my weight goes up after a heavy workout. Apparently that's the body storing water around the temporarily damaged muscles until they mend stronger.

You're practising good habits towards weight loss, and long term they will work. Don't judge your success on a single day but on the overall trend.
A kg a week is a really good steady loss.

But as PP said, not weighing can slow a low-carb diet. If you cook an omelette in butter, just 20g is 140 cals. Add 3 eggs - another 210-250, then cheese - 50-60 grams of cheddar is about 230 - that's 600 or more calories just for an omelette which traditionally we might think of as a light supper.

So do you still calorie count with low carb? Everyone always seems to say so airily “oh I don’t need to calorie count with low carb, the weight just falls of me…”

I might cut the cheese out of the omelette altogether.

@AmaryllisChorus you’re so right about setting up better habits. I’m 43 and just so sick of being overweight. I had many, many bad habits - lots of junk in the evening and starving myself in the day. I’ve not had any junk - chocolate, sweets, biscuits, crisps, popcorn, cakes, breaded goods - in 3 months and I’m not really missing them either. Which is to be celebrated.

I suppose I just expected the weight to go quickly but I guess that’s not realistic.

If you're only weighing once a week, and its only one 'blip' upwards, don't worry.
My weight this morning was 500g less than yesterday but I don't think i've lost that as fat overnight. More that I know it was high the day before as we had a bought in meal and that would have been higher salt so I was retaining water.

But I weigh daily and have a fairly good handle on which foods will do this.

3kg in a few weeks is a brilliant loss. Don't get upset about a little gain - a bit of fluctuation is perfectly normal, weight loss isn't always linear. Carry on as you are and you'll see a loss next week.

Your body is made up of mainly water, you can’t guarantee water levels will be the same every day, of course you’ll go up and down daily as water weight changes. A 40g increase is a few mls of water more in your body from yesterday probably. Just keep going and it’ll come off, 1 kg a week is a lot and sometimes your body just needs to catch up a bit before you have another whoosh of weight loss.

I would say this method isn't working for you so you need to calorie count.
Assuming you're eating 1200 calories a day, yet you're putting on weight at 89kg would indicate that you're not eating 1200 a day.
A mini butter portion is 53 calories. Milk in tea and coffee is calories etc.

I need 1700 to maintain. I weigh 64kg (I do a few gym classes a week too)

I think you’re right - I was labouring quite intensively under the illusion that low carb meant not having to calorie count but clearly it’s not working.

I count all my cups of tea but haven’t been very strict about amounts of cheese.

Exercise wise I do 30 mins of kettlebells (16kg) 4 times a week and cycling.

If you are low carbing for weight loss, you should not fear fat, but the advice is often not to add fat. Experts such as Dr Stephen Finney say, tet your body get the fat from burning its own stores.

Dr Eric Westman also tells people, "no nuts!".

Your progress can also sometimes be hindered by under eating - see comment about thinking of it as maintenance (above). You could research a bit about that and see if it helps you.

Well done on your loss so far - and for sticking with it.

@Striving4Better so is it that in order to be a fat burner, with low carbing, the majority of your intake should be healthy fats, then protein and lastly carbs?

MFP has my micros at:

Carbs - 30%
Fat - 37%
Protein - 33%

Yesterday after this thread, I weighed out butter (10g) and cheese (55g) for the omelette, and measured out how much chicken I had (105g), and measured gravy out (1 cup) and all veg.

Including all the lovely teas I had, that came to 925 calories. I think that I was probably having too much cheese and butter but having properly measured them out yesterday and today, they’re not vastly reduced.

I have OCD and tend to stick to the same lunch every day (until a new obsession kicks in) but evening meal is more varied. Now I know that measured out meal is 421 cals.

This evening it will be one burger patty, and air fried kale, broccoli and cauliflower. That needs a bit of olive oil but I’ll measure it out for precision.

I drink quite a lot of tea with skimmed milk, no sugar. All that tea amounts to 105 cals.

I low carb and I eat lots of fat, don't count, and still lose. The things that seem to hurt me are:

Milk and cream (watch the tea)
Nuts (too easy to overeat)
Not exercising (you have to get your body to burn the fat)
Fake food (most of the 'keto' things are anything but)
Carb creep ('just a bit' of ketchup and all that)

LCHF should make your appetite reduce so you end up eating fewer calories without counting. If it doesn't work that way for you, it doesn't.

@GorgeousLadyofWrestling

Some people do have issues with dairy blocking weight loss, so you could look at that.

Honestly, I wouldn't be counting your macros like that. Just eat low carb, eat good protein, don't fear the fat, but don't add fat either (ie, no bullet-proof coffee (butter in coffee). You could also look at the amount of veggies you eat. One handful of green, above-the-ground veggies is generally the advice for weight loss.

If you reduce carbs, your body will not be relying on glucose for energy and will, instead, burn fat. When you start, you can add fat to get you going, but if your aim is to lose weight, don't add extra (or not too much extra - I like a knob of butter on vegetables).

Dr Eric Westman offers good advice for people on this way of eating. You could get hold of his "page 4" (the handout he gives to patients) or he has a string of YouTube videos (a bit cringey, as he's a doctor, not a YouTube star, but still).