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.

My slightly drastic but completely foolproof plan. You're going to meal plan for three days worth of food. Make sure meals are varied. You don't need to have three different breakfasts, but everything else must be varied.No cakes, crisps, sweets, pastry even within calories. Two slices bread max, maximum twice per week. Otherwise no bread (bloating). Go as protein rich as you can. Lean beef, chicken, tuna. Understand that this is not for taste, this is boot camp. No sauces!!! (Fine generally but you're trying to identify if you're counting your intake properly). Aim for 1350-1450 calories per day (for you).

Most important part: EVERYTHING must be in a pre portion controlled packet. Eg pots of 200g face yoghurt. Slices of precut bread with labelled per slice. Medium eggs etc. No sauces, spread, marg etc for two weeks. If you buy something that does two portions, not a problem because if you eat too much on day 1, you get less on day two. Count sugar free drinks in per calories and make sure to include tea milk.

Now, eat that in whatever rotation takes your fancy for two weeks. Now you are very sure about your calories/portion size, you will be much more able to see where the problem is. My strong sense is that you're kidding yourself about calories.

Good luck.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Legally calories on prepacked (even single item) foods can be wrong by up to 20% and it's not a problem to the manufacturer. Even if it was more wrong than 20% but explainable, no retailer would take it off the shelf. Trading standards are the organisation who legislate for food labelling in the UK and to say they're weak is understating it.

For those relying on calorie counts for takeaways, they tend to be even more inaccurate.

I'm not saying "don't use calories" if that's what you want to do and not even going into some of the concerns around calories actually used in your body (because that's a different topic) but just sharing as if you really think you're eating, say 1500 calories, you could easily be eating 1800 just due to entirely legal variability / inaccuracy on the packets.

That does sound a bit drastic, but I understand what you are saying.

I am already not eating crisps, cake biscuits, sweets, etc., nor do I eat dairy or drink soda. I drink mostly either redbush or herbal tea with no milk of any sort. Dumping the dairy and then following that by dumping as much UPF as possible has resolved the bloating issues that have troubled me all my life.

With the aid of my trusty calorie counter , I have just totted up my calories for yesterday , which came to 1100. I don't expect today to be much different.

I'd still take my chances over the OP, who, gently saying this, feels that they are calorie counting and not losing weight at a deficit for months.

Still here. Still trying and failing. Last week we were away for 5 days. Lots of walking (25 -30K steps a day) two meals a day, no snacks, no alcohol. DH, who is on steroids as well as other medication, lost 4lbs. I gained 1.5lbs. Currently 157.2 lbs.

I will be seeing the GP at the beginning of July.

It could very well be water from inflammation in your legs. 30000 steps a day is a lot and your body is repairing itself.
Then, what did you eat? Salty stuff might retain water again.
For the next 7 days, don’t do any exercise, focus on the food component.

What were the two meals a day, do you know how many calories?
If you eat out at a out twice a day you could easily be taking in 3000 calories depending on the meals

Sounds like GP a good idea

No idea what the calories were. One meal was 80g of pasta (uncooked weight) with home made tomato sauce (all veg, no oil) and half a can of tuna in water. Another was 2 slices of Spam with a fried egg (no oil) and 100g of baked beans. Snacks and breakfast were fruit. We did have seafood linguine for lunch one day, but I couldn't eat all of mine and DH ate all the salad.

Back on plan since we got back. Weight is up and down between 156 and 160 lbs with seemingly no pattern. Two and a half years ago I was fighting to keep it below 140 lbs.