Weight gain

[mammysammy]

Hi. 53 and have gained 10lbs since October when I had surgery on my foot. I’m active again, walk at least 5 miles a day, go to the gym, eat sensibly and stick to 1200 calories a day. Why am I not losing weight?🙄

[TheAwfulToad Visitor]

Because you're eating 1200 calories a day while going to the gym.

Your body is starving, and since its primary aim is to not die, it is holding onto bodyfat in order to keep you alive until the famine abates (evolution never had to contend with nutritionists' theories about calories).

To maintain a sensible bodyfat ratio, you need to eat to appetite. Eating substantially less will drop you into this "starvation mode".

To convince your body to start attacking those excess fat stores, you need to give it no other alternative: provide most of your daily energy as dietary fat and remove the "instant energy" provided by starchy foods. It will then have little choice in the matter. The straightforward way to achieve this is simply drop bread, sugar, pasta, rice, potatoes and the like from your diet, and replace them with non-starchy vegetables. The rest of your plate should be meat, eggs, and dairy, all of which provides protein and fat in roughly the correct ratios. In other words, just eat proper wholesome food, and avoid stodge. If you feel hungry, eat more. If your body is getting all the dietary calories it needs, and not having its fat-burning pathway blocked by a repeated insulin response from starches, it will reduce its bodyfat-based energy reserves (because they're no longer necessary). It really is that simple.

[focused1 Maintainer 13kg in reply to TheAwfulToad]

I have actually lost more weight since I evaluated what I ate . I started on 1250 cals after my op as I had liquid diet and couldn't exercise like I do now. Would say I am more 1500 now with more exercise and better meal planning avoiding snacks but eating 3 substantial meals . I feel better and more in control instead of the food controlling me .

[BridgeGirl Administrator 2 stone]

Hello, mammysammy, and welcome to the forum 😊

You have a great reply from TheAwfulToad - you're not eating well or sensibly if you're restricting yourself to 1200 calories.

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[MadmellyGT]

Not sure how long you've been back active again and only eating 1200 calories a day as you haven't stated. But if it's been a few weeks or more and you haven't lost anything and you have been rigid with your diet and included everything into you daily calories (even drinks, the odd bite of something etc) Then my suggestion would be to try a refeed meal. Treat yourself to a chinese or a takeaway of your choice but DON'T count the calories. Just eat what you fancy until you feel full and satisfied. THEN, weigh yourself for the next few days and you should see a drop on the scales. This is called the whoosh effect. If this works then you have a few choices. You can up your daily calories so you don't go into "starvation mode" and you should keep losing at a steady rate if done correctly. (You really need to go onto a calorie calculator and put it how active you are to find your proper daily calorie allowance) Or, you could carry on as you have and have refeed days. (google is your best friend here) Or as TheAwfulToad said, you could go keto. I myself have put on about 6lbs in the last couple of months and I'm also in the process of losing them again. Maintaining is a nightmare. LOL. Good luck.