Ten days - lost 0.2 lbs - advice please

[NorthernDancer]

Where am I going wrong? I have about 2 stone to lose. This is my regime:

Walk 4.5 miles a day - minimum
Weekly Pilates class
Varied diet - good portion control
No snacking
No alcohol
No added sugar
No caffeine
5 a day - minimum
12 - 14 hour fast in every 24 hours

My GP is unhappy with my weight, although the dietitian attached to the surgery has no issues with what it how much I am eating, so I started this on New Year's Day, basically tightening up how I live anyway.

My starting weight was 157 lbs. This morning, ten days later, I weighed in at 156.8 lbs.

Where am I going wrong? Any advice would be welcome.

Just keep going, 10 days isn’t enough to have made a massive impact.

If after 4 weeks you haven’t lost any weight, you’ll need to eat less calories.

Try again for 4 weeks. It really is that simple.

This. Your body tries very hard to maintain the status quo with weight so you have to convince it you mean it and carry on.

What Thursdays said. Things like if you are retaining water due to hormones or salty food or higher carb food or if need a poo etc etc affect day to day weight so it’s not an accurate reflection of fat loss over such a short time. You need to look at the trend over several weeks.

Most likely you are eating too many calories. That's the truth of it unfortunately. I used to lose FA on diets, or I would lose a small amount only, and I would blame various physiological processes in my body.

It was only going on WLIs that showed me how little I actually need to eat to lose weight. Now I know all those times I tried and failed I was still eating way too much. There was nothing wrong with my body, and it wasn't fighting me.

Calculate TDEE, eat plenty below, do calorie countimg and be mega strict. Weigh/measure everything.

I am 5ft 3 and need to stay under 1500 calories a day to lose. That's not a lot of food at all.

All your habits sound great but are you in a calorie deficit? You need to track

Varied diet - good portion control

If weight loss still eludes you. You probably need to take another look at this. You either need to eat less over all or change the fat/ carb / protein ratio. If you don't feel that is an option then you need to add more exercise, some weights or walking with a weighted vest if you don't have extra time.

How tall are you, and what age? Have you calculated how many calories you need per day to be in a calorie deficit? (Ignoring the exercise)

As others have said, the only thing that matters is being in a calorie deficit. You need to know your TDEE and exactly how many calories you're eating every day. You need to weigh and measure everything you put in your mouth and it needs to be less than the energy you're using.

Use the TDEE calculator to work out how many calories you need a day based on your age, height and weight. Even if you don’t want to track calories it will give you an idea of what you can eat in a day.

Also look at your portion sizes for carbs. If you aren’t eating any sugar or alcohol that must be the food group that’s being over consumed.

Yeah like others have said you’re probably eating too much. You have to weigh everything until you know what quantities amount to what calories. I’m 5’1 and pretty active - I’m eating 1300 calories a day to lose weight.

it’s tedious and annoying but seems to be the only thing that works for me. I’ve got a stone to lose.

Gah. Like a pp it’s only since being on WLI that I can see and really understand quite how little food I need to consume to keep maintaining a healthy body weight.
if I ate 2,000 calories a day I’d be putting on weight (is 2,000 the recommended daily allowance for women?) in a very speedy manner indeed. Partly because I have insulin resistant PCOS.

To help reduce calories try stretching your fast to lunchtime then you automatically drop a meal. However, I did this for a year and did lose but eventually the weight came back. I must have eaten more in my other two meals but I was hungry!!!!

Yeah 2000 is recommend for women but I would say for most that is too high. My maintenance TDEE is just over 2000 and I walk 20k a day, lift heavy several times a week and do a few cardio sessions. I'm 5'6. Without all the activity its around 1500

I’m 5ft 5 and my sedentary TDEE is around 1400. 2000 is way too much for an average woman.

Lift weights.
Increase protein.
If you do a 12-14 hour fast, make sure you are stopping eating by 4 hours before bed, and eating a meal (even if small) with carbs and protein when you get up.

Think of body recomposition rather than losing weight. If you just cut calories to lose weight, you’ll also lose muscle and this is really unhealthy as you age especially for bone strength.

Check out Dr Stacy Sims.

Calorie counting is a must and don’t eat your exercise calories. As others have said, you need a TDEE calculator and something like my fitness pal to track absolutely eveything you eat including coffee, oils, butters, herbs seasons etc.

Don't forget calories in beverages and other drinks. You are doing a lot of walking which is great but are you walking hard enough to be slightly breathless ? Not for all of the walk but try short bursts of walking faster/ uphill for you to become slightly breathless.
Well Done for your efforts

You don't mention how many calories you consume. You can do all the things you mention and not lose weight if you aren't in a calorie deficit. Also be careful because a lot of smart watches etc overestimate calories burned when exercising so I never factor my exercise calories burned into the calorie deficit equation. Obviously different if you are exercising to the extreme, my son used to burn 3000 a day when he was a competitive swimmer for example.

4.5 miles a day is about 10000 steps which is baseline minimum. Unless OP means she's doing additional walks of 4.5 miles on top of her normal daily activity.

As everyone above has said, you need to track calories and workout your TDEE ie how many calories you need to cap yourself at to be in deficit. Even tracking calories for a day or two will help you see if you are in deficit

I would also start building up the exercise. Add another mile a day and resistance session a week for next two weeks.

As others have said, protein and resistance training is really important to avoid losing muscle

I presumed OP meant 4.5 miles walking in addition to her 10,000 steps daily.

Thought I'd come and update. TDEE to lose weight at 1lb a week came out at a tad over 1500 calories per day.

Since I last posted I have further cleaned up my diet to remove as much upf as possible and upped the exercise. Ironically, my appetite has improved, but the downside is that I am now permanently hungry.

I had hope. At the end of last week I had managed to lose about 2.5lbs since 1 January. I thought things were finally moving in the right direction.

This morning I weigh the same as I did on 1 January.

I now have two months before I see the GP again and get harangued again about being overweight and now I'm out of ideas.

If you’re not losing you’re eating to maintenance op. So either underestimating your cals consumed or over estimating your tdee, likely both.

so now you know what you currently consume means you maintain, so to lose 1lb a week you need to eat 500 cals less a day than now. Thays averaged over a week.