Sensible eating and no weight loss for a month - what am i doing wrong?

[toucancancan]

I'm really trying to lose weight sensibly without dieting, and have lost 5 pounds since christmas. However my weight has plateaued for the last month and i'm feeling despondant. Can anyone advise on what i'm doing wrong and give me any tips? I can't understand why i'm not losing more weight? Am i right in thinking veg is calorie free and i can fill up on it?

Brekkie - a big bowl of shreddies
Snack two carrots

Lunch - 4 rice cakes with a thin layer of cream cheese, a dessert spoon of lowfat coleslaw and half a slice of ham on each

Snacks banana or two carrots

Dinner - consists of loads of slightly boiled veg and grilled chicken, or a stir fry with brown rice/ wholewheat pasta with loads of veg

I've cut out crisps/chocolate/cakes/biscuits etc all bread/ chips, and white rice and pasta has been replaced by wholewheat versions.

portion sizes?

do you need to lose more weight?

I gained 20 pounds when pregnant, so would like to get at least within a couple of pounds of my pre-pregnancy weight.

My shreddies come to the top of the bowl.

As for the dinner, i try to have a small portion of pasta/rice and really overdo all the veggies to fill me up.

Uhmm, am I the only one that thinks this looks like a crash diet. If I only ate this my body would go into starvation mode and hang onto every ounce.

Veggies aren't calorie free, they can have plenty of carbs - potatoes, parsnips, beans, peas - but are usually fat free and have plenty of fibre so are healthy.

You don't mention exercise. Now it's finally warming up, walking fast round the block would probably lose more calories than trying to cut back further.

3 things to look at - are you drinking enough water? You should aim for at least 2 litres a day - helps with weight loss

• are you exercising portion control? Try mixing up your diet if you eat similar things day in day out- maybe bigger meal at breakfast, small snacks for lunch and mid afternoon and something v light for dinner?
• what exercise are you doing? Make sure you shock your body by exercising - and trying new exercises - to up the calorie burn.

Kathyjelly - this is actually what i enjoy eating!! Which is why i thought losing weight would be a breeze.

However, i'm ummmm not exercising as such, but i wear a pedometer and since Christmas make sure i always do 10,000 steps a day. I guess i should buy an exercise DVD. Or is it worth going swimming twice a week?

Also, i'm guilty of not drinking much at all. So will up my water intake.

You're not eating enough.. check out the calories in the carbs too - a big bowl of shreddies could have many more calories than you think.

Make sure you're getting enough protein as veg won't really fill you up that much (except potatoes which are pretty calorific)

Something like 3 x scrambled eggs on 1 slice of wholegrain toast is a really good breakfast, about 400 calories (prob not much more than your bowl of shreddies) and will fill you up for ages.

Bananas are about 150 calories too, so something like an apple may

OK. As long as you're not starving yourself.

I'd walk for 15 minutes every evening then. My GP reckons it's the best way to get a flat tummy back and it seems to have worked. Is there a park nearby?

Thanks, will try the scrambled eggs - sounds lovely!

p.s. I'm usually a size 8-10 so don't generally eat huge amounts anyway.

I echo what the other's said about exercise. Yes, get an exercise DVD. You can get them really cheap from ebay. I got the Nell McAndrew, Cardio, Core and Stretch for about 2 quid. It's quite tedious now I've done it about 30 times but it really works.

Re: Veg, certain veggies are lower cal than others so do a bit of research.

I am trying to fill up on 'negative calorie' foods at the moment, so celery, strawberries and apples are apparently really good snacks. Apparently, one burns off more calories digesting them than they contain. I'll let you know if this is true in a few weeks. I'm getting through bags of Granny Smith's at the moment.

Thanks all for your help. I'll let you know how I get on.

Try weighing your portions, especially with breakfast cereals. Turned out that what I thought was a healthy Bran Flakes breakfast was actually nearly 500 calories all in.

Thanks for spurring me on to buy an exercise dvd. I've been doing one for a month now and have started to loose another pound a week

What kind of milk are you having on your cereal ?? I've started using the purple top from Asda which is equivalent to skimmed (but has taste). Plus if your cereal is to the top of the bowl that's far too big a portion. 40g is a normal portion size.

you need to be aware about your portion sizes as losing weight is all about creating a calorie deficit even healthy stuff can pack a calorie punch if you eat enough of it. WW's points system is good as its all about controlling portions sizes but does'nt forbid any foods. Or get one of those calorie counting books to get use to the portion sizes (you do have to weigh foods at first ) you should be aiming for to lose weight. Beware they are usually a lot smaller than you think!

There are free on line calorie counters which might help. I think the one most people here use is called "food focus," I use "my fitness pal" as I primarily wanted to get fit and it has a good range of exercises logged (it was the first one I stumbled on). It gives me warnings when I don't eat enough. Also, at a fairly healthy weight my minimum calorie intake is very similar to my maximum (for 0.8lb a week loss), so I can only healthily lose weight with exercise as well. Is better than a diet, for me anyway, as it is easier to make little changes that you will stick to and has made it easier to make associations between what I eat and how I feel.

Good luck!