Weight Loss - What Am I Doing Wrong?

[ThatgirlMolly]

Hello all,

Over the past year I have gained a stone and a half which I have been trying to loose for about 4 months now. I wouldn't consider that my diet is that bad, and for the past month I have been doing yoga at least three times a week.

I managed to loose weight strictly through changing my diet about four years ago. But this time no matter what I try my weight just stays exactly the same from week to week. Does your metabolism slow down once you get older? How can I speed it up?

[spathiphyllum]

Maybe some in the weightloss and dieting thread can help you out? Also, there is a specific weightloss and dieting category :)

https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Body-and-Soul/Weight-Loss-and-Dieting/Question1625963.html

[Rockrose]

It depends on how you are dieting - what plan are you following? What is your calorie intake?

[ummmm]

Keep a food diary. Write down 'everything' including drinks.

I have two sugars in my coffee. That adds up but I never thought to include it when I thought about how much I eat.

[ThatgirlMolly]

@ummmmm that's a good idea I might try keeping a diary

[ummmm]

It does work. My daughter suffers with bloating so was told to keep a diary by the doctor. Poor Irish girl can't eat spuds :-)

Obviously activity will help. Do you mind me asking your age?

[Palustris]

Sorry to say that the only way to lose weight, at any age, is to put in less than you put out. I have lost nearly 8 pounds over the last 6 weeks purely by taking 300 calories out of my diet. Would have been nicer to increase the usage of calories, but the reason for losing the weight is because I can no longer do as much as I used to.

[Old_Geezer]

Watching/noting what you eat as you do so allows you to see how many calories you've consumed and adjusting accordingly for the rest of the day. You can monitor other things at the same time.

[Rockrose]

Oh and only weigh once a month.

[ThatgirlMolly]

Thanks Palustris, I understand you need to 'put in to less than you put out' - as I said in my original post I lost weight before so I know exactly how it works. Just this time I don't seem to be loosing or gaining just staying the same even with changing my diet and regular exercise, so wondering why

[Rockrose]

What fat burning exercise do you do though?
Yoga is more about toning and honing your muscles.

[ummmm]

Are you actually overweight? Are you in the healthy range?

[ThatgirlMolly]

Ummmm @ I'm bigger than I would personally like to be
Rockrose @ I only do yoga :(

[rowanwitch]

Yoga is good for tone but not a lot of help for weight loss. Keep the diary as suggested, and try to include something aerobic like brisk walking or cycling or even dancing. Beware of so called health drinks they may not have added sugar but they have high natural sugars. A number of people think they are doing the right thing but have you seen the calories in a not so innocent smoothie.

[ThatgirlMolly]

@Romanwitch thanks for the advice. I hadn't thought about that drinks, I do drink a lot of squash maybe I'll cut it out completely and see what happens.

[237SJ]

Try the Lose It app. It counts calories for you (and it's free)

[ummmm]

Molly...walk as much as you can. I was on holiday in May and the hotel was much bigger than I thought by the pics. Upstairs, downstairs, steps everywhere. I could see the difference in my legs by the first week. (I'm not over weight) walking is a pretty good workout though.

[pastafreak]

You say you're bigger than you'd like to be, which doesn't tell us much. What's your age, height and current weight? What did you change 4 years ago? What do you eat...can you give us an idea of what your meals are like? If you are close to your natural weight, it will be harder to shed the last few pounds. For what it's worth...and a few ABers will agree...in my opinion, and personal experience...the best way to lose is to drastically cut carbs. That's bread, rice, pasta, foods full of sugar, starchy veg. Cut out sugar also. For some people that means artificial sweeteners also...the theory being that even fake sugar leaves us wanting sweet stuff. Eat fresh food you cook yourself. What you do depends on what and how you want to lose.

[Palustris]

The difficulty is finding out what calories are to be found in things. We had to go digging deeply into foodstuffs to discover what to cut down on. Easy enough of you drink sweetened fizzy drinks, have sugar in tea or coffee, eat sweets and snacks between meals. But what do you do if you stopped taking sugar when it went up to a Shilling a bag (1963), rarely eat sweets, not had a sweet fizzy drink since 1960, don't drink alcohol, don't eat crisps. Even fresh fruit is full of calories (an ordinary apple is about 60 of them).
Seriously though, you really do need to find out the calorific value of everything you eat and adjust your intake appropriately.
Best of luck with it.

[ThatgirlMolly]

Hello everyone I'm 5ft 11 and 12stone 8, Ive always weighed between 11 stone and 11 stone 8. I'm coming up to my 36th bithday.

[ThatgirlMolly]

@Pastafreak thanks for the good advice will try a low carb diet