What to do when weight loss slows down?

[shephardspieontoast]

I only had a stone to loose, lost 7 pounds very easily but the last 7lb just won't shift.

My normal day I fast from 7pm at night to 12pm the next day

Lunch is a yoghurt 150 calories
Raspberries 150 calories
Maybe a banana as an afternoon snack
Tea is a weight watchers ready meal at around 350 calories
3 bottles of flavoured water at 5 calories each so 15 calories

Total calories: 665

I could cut the banana but that doesn't seem like a lot of food without it. Can anyone give me some tips?

I would think your metabolism is shot.
your body needs 1000+ calories just to function.
have a higher cal eating day and then see if you can kick start back into weight loss mode

Please stop starving yourself. Under 700 calories is dangerous. Just eat.

I would eat a homemade meal based on lean protein and fresh vegetables for tea rather than a diet ready meal, and in general eat a proper lunch rather than having a yoghurt. You are already eating less than the bare minimum.

More calories in the form of lean protein.

That’s really not a lot, you must be starving, at least I would be.
If I’m honest, I’d focus on whole foods and less of the ready meals and flavoured water. They might be higher in calories but I think you need more and certainly more protein and vegetables for fibre.
It’s difficult when you’re trying to lose but I try to remember that my body needs nourished not punished.

Thank you everyone, that's helpful!

I know it seems little but I do put on weight quickly if I eat over 1400/1500 calories a day usually. I will try adding in more protein

Just to add I try the ready meals for tea just because it's easy to know how many calories I'm consuming. I find it more difficult to track home cooked food.

You're not eating anywhere near enough. If your body gets used to so few calories it'll be even harder to lose weight as you'll damage your metabolism. Calculate your TDEE and then shave a few calories off of that.

I've actually found that having an occasional "munchy" day really helps with my weight loss, I came on my period last week and ate the world over the weekend. Stepped on the scales Monday thinking I'd have gained a load and actually lost 2lb despite the bloating 🤷‍♀️

Sounds completely miserable to try to exist on 665 calories. I would move to 1200, at least, and see how you get on.

You could try planning a week's worth of meals for tea that involve lean protein and some vegetables - calculating the calories is a bit annoying but it's not overly difficult. You can use one of the many tracking apps to help, you could get ready prepped veg if that helps too. It doesn't have to be complicated cooking, just things like grilled/steamed white fish, chicken, turkey, lean red meat etc etc assuming you aren't vegetarian.

You could also make a batch of soup at the weekend, red lentil & root veg soup is easy to make, you can add chicken if you eat it. Working out the calories takes a little bit of time, but isn't difficult, and then you just portion it up.

Keep the yoghurt and raspberries, as a snack or as part of lunch or tea.

Hi OP look at the Fast 800 Keto. Focus is on lean protein, some healthy fats and lots of vegetables. You dont need to over complicate dinner. A couple of baked chicken thighs with some veg is easy to track and more nutritious than a ready meal

You’re not eating enough. On 650 calories a day your body will be in starvation mode. Minimum calories an adult should eat is 1200 when dieting. I lose weight pretty consistently on that amount

Are you truly only eating that every day or are you doing the thing everyone pretends they aren’t where they eat this many calories 5 days of the week then go wild and consume 10000 over the weekend?

Agree you're not eating enough to lose weight. But also, nutritionally your diet doesn't look great.
Try full fat yoghurt for breakfast (not fat free/low sugar types)
High protein salad for lunch (fresh ingredients)
Protein and veg tea but homemade not ready meals. Chicken, salmon, with veg.

Ditch the flavoured water as it's more additives messing with your body.

You will be under 1200 calories on that but much better nutrition and it's sustainable.

You need digital scales to properly track a homemade meal.
Then it’s easy.
Also agree you’re not eating enough at all.
How many steps do you get? Diet more important but I’d go to 1200 cals and 10k steps with weight training. Eating proper whole foods. Not UPF.

Weight is so much slower together off ,the nearer to target you are
I've lost 8 stone and the weight loss has massively slowed down ..so I cut my calories and cut my calories,untill I started feeling faint ,yet still didn't loose weight .
I still gave a fair bit more to loose as well ...but I'm having to accept a much slower rate of loss ..and I'm having to increase my calories, because whatever I do ..I need to do long term to keep the weight off
You won't be able to keep to 600 calories long term ,so the weight will go back on

I also tend to eat lunch, and dinner and not really snack. If I do snack it’s fruit, or peanut butter or something in the evening. I don’t calorie count but make sure my meals count, some examples are:
porridge, oat milk, flax seed, peanut butter, banana and blueberries
. fried tofu with soy sauce and nutritional yeast, some fried veg, half a pack of micro rice, hummus
. sweet potato, tofu, roast veg and harissa paste, hummus
. bean chilli in the slow cooker - a few cans of beans, tinned toms, Tom pure, stock, spices - sometimes with rice or potato, sometimes without

I try to eat as clean as I can, but different times of the month I need different things.
I also take vitamins, and I exercise - weights are particularly useful for boosting your metabolism

my weight loss has been very slow, but consistent, averaging about 2 or 3 pounds a month. But I know this way I can maintain it. I’d like to lose another 6 pounds ideally, but what I’m doing works well for my lifestyle, I feel much better and I don’t want to eat less so we will see if that happens or not.

you have to fuel your body and brain with real food. No low fat diet crap. Starving yourself is setting yourself up to fail. And real food kills the food noise

I am not an expert but what I noticed for myself is that if I was continuously dieting I wouldn't loose weight. So what I did and lost 17kg after having my babies was:

• For 4 months, low fat diet with no carbs, no alcohol, no fried food or no added sugar for 6 days of the week. And then 1 day of the week eating normally having bread, pasta, chocolate, wine etc. I lost 10kgs
• Then I took 4 months of eating normally without overdoing to it to ensure my body realises that I want to maintain these kgs and not gain them fast.
• Then I am now in the 3rd month of being back to my original diet (I described above) and down 7kgs more.

All that plus a daily min 10k steps.

I am planning two loose hopefully 2-3kgs more and that’s it. And then maintenance from then onwards. Good luck in your journey!

My tip is.. you are eating way too little and your body responds by not shifting the weight. I would say 800 calories is the minimum you should eat ideally around 1200 including lots of lean protein and cutting carbs

Not to mention a ready meal is processed and not healthy

I used a TDEE calculator ( online) to work out how many calories I needed to eat to lose weight based on age, gender, height, current weight and activity level. It gave me two readings of calories I needed to lose either 0.25kg or 0.5 kg a week. Currently for me the calories were very generous but they are reducing slightly as I input my new weight.

Have a look, it will help you understand how much you can eat.

500 off your TDEE should work

Why don’t you try the 5:2 diet rather that eating little calories every day try that instead.

You’re eating way too little. Your metabolism is probably shot. You need to eat at LEAST 1200 calories a day. I’m 5ft 3 and eat around 1500-1700 a day and have lost over 3 and half stone since Feb. I also exercise daily and try to burn around 200-300 calories from the exercise. So maybe try upping your intake and adding exercise to help?

An adult human can't eat that little and not lose weight. I feel like you're either lying to us or to yourself.

What do you weigh and how tall are you?