Where am I going wrong?

SudburyC

I've been trying to loose weight for the last 4 weeks. I wasn't inactive before this but i wasn't puttin in the time at the gym and having too many treats. I lost 2 stone last year but put it all back on and i have about 5 stone to loose now!

My current eating habbits would be
Breakfast - bran flakes & skimmed milk
Lunch - wholemeal pitta or brown roll with chicken and salad(no mayo) & low cal soup
Snacks - nutri grain, low cal cereal bar, low fat yoghurt, ham, popcorn (not all on the same day)
Dinner - weight watchers meal with loads of extra green veg
Non fat latte once a week
I only drink about once a month and don't drink too much

My currect exercise routine would be

30 mins brisk walk (15m x 2) x 5 times a week
40 mins horseriding x 5 times a week
40 mins to 1 hour + in the gym x 5 times a week. Generally go on the bike, threadmill, cross trainer & rower and do some sits ups, lunges & squats. I get to a bootcamp class about once a week and swim about 14 laps on top of the workout twice a week.

I've been doing this for 4 weeks and haven't even lost 1 pound!!!!! Where am i going wrong?

Hanley

Do you know how many calories you're eating?

Do you know your daily maintenance calorie level? (ie what you'd eat to not gain/lose weight)

cmyk

...and a massive bias toward carbs at every meal. Some of your chosen 'healthy' options aren't always as they seem. Take a look at the carbohydrate labelling for your bran flakes, nutrigrain, low fat yoghurt and weightwatchers meals too I'd suspect.

SudburyC

Hanley wrote: »

Do you know how many calories you're eating?

Do you know your daily maintenance calorie level? (ie what you'd eat to not gain/lose weight)

No, i'll try and make a count tomorrow.

cmyk wrote: »

...and a massive bias toward carbs at every meal. Some of your chosen 'healthy' options aren't always as they seem. Take a look at the carbohydrate labelling for your bran flakes, nutrigrain, low fat yoghurt and weightwatchers meals too I'd suspect.

Any other suggestions welcome! I've really tried to cut down on the carbs.

cmyk

SudburyC wrote: »

Breakfast - bran flakes & skimmed milk
Lunch - wholemeal pitta or brown roll with chicken and salad & low cal soup
Snacks - nutri grain, low cal cereal bar, low fat yoghurt, ham, popcorn
Dinner - weight watchers meal with loads of extra green veg

I've highlighted your carbs for you, not all are bad of course, but more to highlight just how much of your diet is made up with carbs. I'm not sure what the ww meal actual consists of, but I'd imagine there would be a high probability the carbs would be high. Adding more protein will help, eggs, meat, fish etc.

As Hanley said, workout your calorific needs and count your calories for a few days to get to grips with just how much you're eating. Your exercise is predominantly aerobic, so you could mix your time in the gym up a bit with some resistance based training too.

You're probably 'spinning your wheels' a bit with regard to amount of exercise and calorie intake if your body shape and weight is stagnant.

Take a read of the nutrition stickies or I've an intro to nutrition basics here.

chrisp2281

http://weightwatchersformen.blogspot.com

whirlpool

SudburyC wrote: »

I've been trying to loose weight for the last 4 weeks. I wasn't inactive before this but i wasn't puttin in the time at the gym and having too many treats. I lost 2 stone last year but put it all back on and i have about 5 stone to loose now!

My current eating habbits would be
Breakfast - bran flakes & skimmed milk
Lunch - wholemeal pitta or brown roll with chicken and salad(no mayo) & low cal soup
Snacks - nutri grain, low cal cereal bar, low fat yoghurt, ham, popcorn (not all on the same day)
Dinner - weight watchers meal with loads of extra green veg
Non fat latte once a week
I only drink about once a month and don't drink too much

My currect exercise routine would be

30 mins brisk walk (15m x 2) x 5 times a week
40 mins horseriding x 5 times a week
40 mins to 1 hour + in the gym x 5 times a week. Generally go on the bike, threadmill, cross trainer & rower and do some sits ups, lunges & squats. I get to a bootcamp class about once a week and swim about 14 laps on top of the workout twice a week.

I've been doing this for 4 weeks and haven't even lost 1 pound!!!!! Where am i going wrong?

Bran flakes are surely full of sugar.

Nutri grain also full of sugar.

Low fat yoghurt also possibly full of sugar.

Popcorn - homemade or packaged? (packaged potentially containing bad fats.)

Weight-watchers meal - I'd imagine this is highly processed (i.e. unnatural), and therefore likely to be in turn stored as bodyfat as your body does not know how else to deal with it.

Exercise is only functional in fat reduction if it's progressive. You need to go harder and faster every time, or else your body does not need to burn extra calories to do it.

Essentially I think you have fallen victim to the "diet" industry, as have most of us at some stage. Eat natural and exercise progressively in order to burn bodyfat. Eating "diet" foods is more likely to increase your bodyfat.

username123

SudburyC wrote: »

Breakfast - bran flakes & skimmed milk
Lunch - wholemeal pitta or brown roll with chicken and salad(no mayo) & low cal soup
Snacks - nutri grain, low cal cereal bar, low fat yoghurt, ham, popcorn (not all on the same day)
Dinner - weight watchers meal with loads of extra green veg
Non fat latte once a week
I only drink about once a month and don't drink too much

You really need to weigh what youre eating and figure the calories, on the above no one has any idea if youre having a kilo of branflakes and 3 litres of milk or a small bowl - know what I mean?

Whats with the weightwatchers meal for dinner - would you not prepare yourself a healthy meal with fresh ingredients instead of processed food?

Laisurg

Cut out the nutri grain and cereal bars, they're all junk.
Replace some of your carbs with fish and chicken and that should help.
The Weight watchers meal could well just be crap so I'd suggest making something yourself eg brocalli, fish and carrots, things along those lines.

Mammanabammana

There seems to be a lot of processed food in there OP. I recently started eating better to start losing weight. On a daily basis my diet consists mainly of salads and vegetables, with a small amount of meat every couple of days. I allow myself 2 cups of tea a day. If I want pasta or rice I go for brown pasta or rice and I stick with yeast free brown bread such as McCambridge's. Replace potatoes with sweet potatoes and get rid of all the starch in them from your diet. Aside from that no sweets, no chocolate, nothing like that. No dairy produce apart from milk in my tea. I don't drink so alcohol isn't an issue.

Now this all might sound draconian but you'd be amazed at how quickly you get used to it. A vegetable curry made with vegetables fried for a few minutes in curry powder and then simmered in stock from a cube, with brown rice, is filling and satisfying. Likewise chilli, bolognese, burgers (which can be made meatless)...a little inventiveness is all it takes. Keep a jug of home made vegetable soup in the fridge if you need something to eat late at night (another one of my big downfalls). I know I sound like a militant vegetarian but I'm not at all - I love my meat but simply don't need to eat it nearly as much as I used to. I've also found that my cravings for takeaway food, chippers etc seem to have started to disappear - that food just doesn't appeal to me the way it used to.

And just for the record, I started this diet 10 days ago and I've lost 11 pounds on it so far, without feeling like I'm killing myself with starvation.