What am I doing wrong?

batty5

Please help. I have no idea what I am doing wrong. My doctor said to just keep dropping calories but it isn't working & this week I am UP by 3.4 lbs which puts me 10 lbs away from my 1st September goal!!! It has taken 12 weeks to lose 6lbs but i have been exercising a lot for 16 months now & am finally losing inches. Please can you look at my diary & tell me where I am going wrong. Today I am following a Slimming World plan which means I am eating more. Please bear in mind the following:
I can only exercise in deep water which I do 5 times most weeks for a total of about 6 hours,
I weigh my portions & list everything
I am on regular medication
I am female aged 59 with mobility problems out of the pool
I have arthritis & hypermobility syndrome & take NSAIDs daily plus some painkillers & these cannot be changed due to a stomach problem.
Any help would be so appreciated & am happy to answer any questions.

mocosa74

I am by no means an expert on this site, or weight loss for that matter, but could it be because you have your calorie goal set at 1000?? I would try and up it to at least 1200, to avoid your body going into starvation mode?

frabjak

Batty5,

There are two things that caught my attention. First, is there is a lot of the same exact things being consumed every day. Trying mixing things up a bit, and try swapping out processed foods for more natural foods. When I took out the preservatives, processing and chemicals in my diet, it made a HUGE difference. Small steps, it doesn't need to be all at once.

Second. You burn A LOT of calories a day, but you aren't eating them!!! I know it's scary, but please trust me. You are still in a calorie deficit by eating all of your earned excercise calories. Say you burn 1000 calories, so you then eat them...those 1000 that got added get subtracted when you eat them..and you're back to 1200 calories (that's a healthy deficit and you shouldn't go any lower). I know it sounds crazy, but you're starving your body, for you to lose...eat more!!! At this point what have you got to lose, try it for two weeks and see what happens. Don't be afraid to move goals around.

batty5

Well I have been eating more than 1000 especially on exercise days but have gained all that weight!!!!

withtree

Well, since you are limited on the types of exercise that you can do, you are pretty much left with diet changes. Cutting calories is not enough and it is more the types of foods you eat, then the calories you eat, otherwise, you could eat one Big Mac a day and nothing els, lol. The South Beach diet worked very well for me. It is not based on calories but, instead, on the Glycemic Index (almost like a diabetic diet). It is low carb, but not high in fat and unhealthy like Atkins. For the first two weeks, you don't eat carbs or fruits, this is phase one. You eat vegtables, beans, cheese, limited amounts of nuts, lean meats, eggs. You can eat all the veggies, both cooked or raw that you want to eat. After two weeks (you will lose 8 to 13 lbs during the first two weeks) then you go to Phase Two, which is the phase that you stay on until you reach your goal weight. In this phase you add back in fruit and some limited whole grain carbs such as whole grain bread (no fructose corn syrup in it), whole grain pasta and brown rice. Phase three you can add a few more whole grain carbs. By understanding the glycemic index, you control your cravings. If you have a glass of orange juice, it is full of quickly absorbed carbs and sugars, so it hits your blood sugar quicker and causes it to spike, your body freaks out and dumps insolin into your blood, causing your blood sugar to plummet and you to get weak and hungry and crave carbs to quickly raise your blood sugar, then the rollercoaster cycle continues. If you eat low carb, low sugar and fruits low on the index, your blood sugar rises slow and steady and remains mostly constant during the day, causing less cravings and you naturally feel full and satisfied and eat less calories. Vegtables are low in calories too. I hope this helps you as much has it helped me. Although I have only lost 8 lbs here, I have lost almost 30 lbs since January, using this diet, or should I say way of life.

RuthWorth

Some mediences cause weigh gain-- no matter what ou do. But it really sounds as if your body has decided to protect itself --kicking into salvation mode. Up your calories a bit--at least try to consume the excerise calories back. Your excerize program looks good otherwise. If this does not help ask your doctor to schedule you an appointment with a Nutriation person and copy out your program and let them work with you. Good luck in the weeks ahead

erickirb

I agree with the second response but if you do eat all the exercise calories you will have to back out the calories you would have burned at rest as they are already accounted for. As an example if you exercise for 2 hours and burn 800 calories you would have burned at least 120 cals at rest (120 minutes times 1 calorie per minute) So in MFP you should enter 680 (800-120) and eat those calories.

I also noticed that some of your meals are quite large while others are small. Try making your intake a little more consistent, your body will do much better with 3, 400 cal meals plus snacks than it will with 1 meal 800, one meal 250 and another 150. Too many calories in one sitting can slow you down and make you have less energy, and it is harder on the digestive system.

sanura

I'm not an expert but in my opinion some of your medications may cause inflammation which can mess up the scale, do you have any swelling in your hands or feet? do you feel bloated? talk to your doctor if this is a problem for you. also there are foods that naturally reduce or increase inflammation for example dairy and wheat and foods with added salt all increase it and berries, greens, ginger and oatmeal help reduce it.

Andre_Demers

I have looked at your food log and see that there are big differences with your food consumption. One day a big breakfast and lunch, the other a small breakfast and big dinner. Try to have a regular calory intake. 400 for breakfast 400 for dinner and 400 for lunch or something like that. Keep it steady. When your hungry do an exercice. Diet alone will not help. From what I read you most probably have tyroid problems. This will be a factor that will slow down your progress but you can still do it. Best of luck.

batty5

"Some mediences cause weigh gain-"
Mine say they can but my doctor disputes this as rubbish!!!! And I will not be defeated but need to make sense of this. Have reluctantly recorded my new weight & am so upset to see my ticker go down.