Getting fed up. Advice please

candice0405

Hi all, third attempt to post this lol I could really do with some advice please. I am trying to lose weight, I am 5ft 8in and weight is 179lbs - wow that's hard to put out there lol I eat a health diet and exercise 5 x a week and do a lot of walking in my job. I have not lost one pound since going to the gym - although body shape is changing - slowly! But the bottom line is, I'm overweight and need to lose weight.

Below is an example of what i eat in a typical week plus exercise.

I bulk cook at the weekend, and everything is home cooked, including stocks, sauces and pastes. I am vegetarian.

Daily intake works out about 1300 a day. Trying to up it

Monday to Friday

Breakfast - 2 x eggs plus 6 x asparagus tips lightly fried

Mid morning- handful nuts and raisins

Lunch - leftover dinner, smaller portion and maybe a small wrap

Mid afternoon - skyr and sometimes a merigune and berries

Dinner - I went a bit lentil mad this week. Lentil soup/bean and lentil chilli/vegetable soup/chickpea and lentil curry/red Thai curry with brown and wild rice

Just before the gym, I usually have a teaspoon of peanut butter as I'm usually starting to get hungry at that point.

Saturday and Sunday I'm not quite so strict.

Breakfast- wrap with ketchup, cheese and eggs

Lunch - something easy. Sandwich/soup etc...

Dinner -
Saturday pizza and garlic bread. Yes, this probably has to go.....
Sunday - roast - and this I will keep, my one sin day!

I usually have a glass of red wine in the evening.

Exercise.

Monday - hour of power (cardio incorporating weights)

Tuesday - weights focusing on upper body
Tuesday - scuba diving in a pool 45 mins

Wednesday - hour of power, however a girl I train with has convinced me to try rugby!?!?!

Thursday - weights and abs focusing on legs

Friday - barbell blast. 45 minute work out with weights

The instructors at the gym are great, giving me loads of advice. But nothing is working! Any suggestions as to where I am going wrong would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance

livingleanlivingclean

Exercise and "healthy" diet are going to be pointless in your attempt to lose weight if you're not in a calorie deficit. You mention nothing about your calorie intake, so I guess you're not tracking properly?

Get a calorie goal for weight loss, get a food scale, and start logging your intake. Weigh all solids, measure all liquids and log everything you eat using accurate database entries.

No food "needs to go". You can still include pizza and wine, just make it fit!

Keep up the exercise - it's great for your health! Remember to log that too, and eat some of the exercise cals back (mfp numbers for exercise are said to be over exaggerated, so perhaps only eat half back)

candice0405

Oh, and I have just used a iifym calculator which has set me at 1670 calories, 205g carb, 123g protein, 36g fat.

candice0405

My daily calorie intake is usually 1300. I'm trying to get my calorie intake up, but struggling

livingleanlivingclean

candice0405 wrote: »

My daily calorie intake is usually 1300. I'm trying to get my calorie intake up, but struggling

You aren't overweight from eating too little. Are you weighing all solids and measuring all liquids?

candice0405

Yep. Nothing goes in that isn't weighed or measured. I am known to log a single m and m if eaten. The only thing I don't log is my milk in Coffee, but that's not going to have too much of an impact

livingleanlivingclean

candice0405 wrote: »

Yep. Nothing goes in that isn't weighed or measured. I am known to log a single m and m if eaten. The only thing I don't log is my milk in Coffee, but that's not going to have too Mich of an impact

What about your weekends?
Have you double checked your database entries?

candice0405

Yes. I'm a bit more complacent at the weekends, and my calorie count probably.goes to 1800 to 2200. But.... I don't believe that is going to destroy everything completely, as it's still within a maintenance programme. Overall, is my weekly food plan ok? Any amendments I need to make?

PAV8888

You mention a lot of items that are actually calorically dense: lots of calories in a small package.

Are you WEIGHING THEM on a SCALE BY the GRAM. <-- I don't care if you weight them once for the whole week and then portion them by eye or if you weight them, like I do, as you're about to eat them.

The question is whether when you're calculating your total calories the nuts and peanut butter you eat get measured by WEIGHT instead of volume.

You mentioned fried. Are you counting your oil/butter, condiments and in particular condiments that are more calorically dense.

When I eat fish and chips I often eat more than 80 calories worth of ketchup. My sriracha use easily hits 60-70 calories. And these are low calorie condiments. I cringe when people mention a tablespoon of mayo. A single heaping tablespoon can actually be two tablespoons. And mayo or dressings can add up real fast...

I easily drink 100 Cal worth of milk with my coffee during the course of a day.

Other than that, set yourself to 1lb a week, measure carefully, track your weight change using a weight trend app, and adjust after 4-6 weeks that include at least one monthly period.

livingleanlivingclean

candice0405 wrote: »

Yes. I'm a bit more complacent at the weekends, and my calorie count probably.goes to 1800 to 2200. But.... I don't believe that is going to destroy everything completely, as it's still within a maintenance programme. Overall, is my weekly food plan ok? Any amendments I need to make?

You can eat what you like as long as it fits your calorie goal. How long have you been doing this plan for? How much are you aiming to lose per week? What is your activity level set to? Do you add exercise calories?

If I was you, I'd be logging everything, including weekends, and being completely honest with my intake.

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candice0405

Ok. Thanks. When I cook I cook 4 x portion, everything weighed and logged. I then portion it all out visually, husband and son get slightly more, my dinner portion slightly less and lunch is about 2/3. I am seeing where i may not be counting calories sufficiently enought. Nuts, i will weigh once in a while to ensure that i kmow visually what i am eating, but maybe i need to weigh everytime so it doesnt slowly increase throughout the week.
Peanut butter, no, I have never weighed, I use a teaspoon. Get what you say there, I will weigh from now on.
Milk. I'll.work out my intake.
Oil with the asparagus, although with my dinners it is all measured, no, I don't measure that. I will change to a low cal spray and lightly fry.
I will be stricter with counting the weekends.
My exercise. I walk about 6 to 8 miles a day. At least an hour in the gym in the evening, so active levels I put as high.
I don't count the exercise calories. I try to hit about 1500 to 1700 calories a day.
I regards to this plan. The gym since January, although until August was mainly cardio, I had an injury so started weights, which I am loving.
Food plan. Changes with the seasons. So this will be the main for the winter. So any advice on what I am eating greatly appreciated.
Thank you for all your advice

Machka9

candice0405 wrote: »

Yes. I'm a bit more complacent at the weekends, and my calorie count probably.goes to 1800 to 2200. But.... I don't believe that is going to destroy everything completely, as it's still within a maintenance programme. Overall, is my weekly food plan ok? Any amendments I need to make?

Yep ... that's pretty much how I reached my highest weight.

Enter your information into MFP.
Select sedentary as your activity level.
Select how much you want to lose each week.
MFP will give you a calorie amount.

Chances are 1300 is about right. I'm 5'6" and I lost my weight on 1250 for the first 16 weeks, and 1350 for the next 16 weeks. For me, 1500 is about maintenance.

Then weigh (don't measure, weigh) everything.

In your first post, you say: "Mid morning- handful nuts and raisins" ... I used to do that too, until I realised I was eating about 400-500 calories worth of nuts. Oops.

When you weigh your nuts, you'll see, but you can see it here too.
http://www.thekitchn.com/a-visual-guide-to-100-calories-of-nuts-snack-tips-from-the-kitchn-201778

As you start weighing things, you'll discover that certain foods are worth it,and certain foods just aren't.

I discovered that nuts aren't worth it (see above ... 13 nuts = 100 calories and 13 nuts just aren't satisfying at all). I also discovered that pears aren't worth it, a 45 gram serving of breakfast cereal is only a dusting of cereal in the bottom of a bowl -- not worth it, and mangoes are a once in a while fruit, not an every day fruit.

candice0405

Hi, yes, when I do a handful Nuts, works out at that.

I think I need to double check everything and count the things I don't count.

And get stricter over the weekends

livingleanlivingclean

candice0405 wrote: »

Yep. Nothing goes in that isn't weighed or measured. I am known to log a single m and m if eaten. The only thing I don't log is my milk in Coffee, but that's not going to have too much of an impact

Please be completely honest with yourself - you've contradicted yourself about your intake just within this post. Getting the results you want requires you to put in the effort. the amount of food you eat is the biggest factor in achieving your weight loss goals - food types are irrelevant, as is the amount and type of exercise.

candice0405

Hi. Yes. I can see the contradiction in neon lights which I hadn't before. Been great to see it as that is probably where I am going wrong.

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jgnatca

The nuts and the peanut butter are both calorie dense and must be weighed especially.

DebLaBounty

Eating more on the weekends stalled weight loss for me. Once I switched to making my calorie limit every day, I started losing. Hit my goal weight in 5 months.