Not losing weight

[Silver5374]

Hi, I have been lurking about on this site since diagnosed type 2 in June last year. Started following a low carb diet as many of you have had great success and it seemed to be working. Lost over a stone.

Then went on holiday and it was an all inclusive 10 day food fest and I just kept telling myself a little won't do any harm. But just could not get back into it at all when we came home. Gave up self testing and thought I just won't eat chocolate or biscuits. Got blood taken in December at 6 monthly review and ended up on metformin, 1 a day. Wife gave me a severe kick up the backside and straight back into low carb. I am trying, prob only eating less than 50g carbs per day but weight doesn't seem to be shifting, I do still have off days, like maybe some ice cream on a Saturday or a slice of cheese cake or maybe chips if we are out for dinner. I also struggle to eat as I have to take a packed breakfast and lunch and I do get a bit put off eating cold food so I might open lunch, cold chicken or salmon and think , yuck, so I
Don't eat anything. So I might go 6 hours with no food.
My question is when I read all your posts you are all very successful at losing weight, and apart from my weekend treat what am I doing wrong. Bg is normally between 6 and 7. Just can't seem to get it lower.

Thank you for reading this and hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.

 

[NoCrbs4Me]

Welcome to the forum!! Sorry about the diabetes.

I hate to say it, but what worked for me was absolutely no cheating by eating biscuits, chips, cake, etc.

Also, you may want to be sure that you are under 50 g of carbs a day. Generally, if you eat only fresh veg that grow above the ground, meat, eggs, butter, and full fat (nonflavoured) dairy, olive oil, you should be under 50 g a day.

Another mistake that happens is trying to combine low calorie with LCHF. The way I think of it is as follows: when you are driving and the "gas tank nearly empty" light goes on, what do you do? You slow down, don't accelerate fast, don't brake fast, etc. You conserve your gasoline to try to make sure you make it to the next petrol station. It's a similar thing with your body. If you starve it of calories, it will reduce your metabolism to conserve energy. Give it lots of fuel and it will purr along burning calories.

So you need to figure out a routine that works for you. Instead of cheese cake or icecream, have a square of 85% or 90% chocolate or cheese or full fat yogurt and berries. Go online and find some recipes for extremely low carb biscuits (usually almond and/or coconut flour with artificial sweetener). Bring something for lunch that you will eat - easier said than done, but I'm sure you can come up with something if you put your mind to it.

One thing that has worked for me is eliminating processed foods (except cheese and 85% chocolate) as much as possible. The labels can be wrong and you may be eating more carbs than you think you are.

It's definitely doable. I only averaged less than a pound a week, but in a year that's about 50 pounds! Some weeks it didn't seem to budge, but eventually it would drop a little more. Slow and steady wins the race. I hope this gives you some ideas.

 

[dawnmc]

You're not alone silver, I've not lost a pound either, not in 3 yrs. I've even tried a fat fast for a week, still nothing.

 

[Sam72]

I've stalled a bit lately. Put 3 pounds on over Xmas, lost them then put one back on. I know I relaxed and had a few more "treats" over Xmas and finding it hard to stop. Difficult isn't it? I wish you could buy willpower!!

 

[Clivethedrive]

Hi sam72 sending very large pack of willpower to you ...just think what you can do with it :)

 

[Silver5374]

Hi, thanks for replies. I was wondering if maybe lchf was not for me but I am a bit scared to change to a different eating regime as you guys seem to promote low carb with great results.

Willpower in a bottle, ha ha I'm sure that would be a massive seller.

Thanks guys for taking time to reply.

 

[Silver5374]

Just wondering how you guys include fat in your diets, my brain is still tuned to fats are bad, having high blood pressure. I don't like yoghurt or cheese, or rather cheese doesn't like me!!

 

[Clivethedrive]

Hi silver5374, cooking with butter,or coconut oil,olive oil,are all goodways to add fat, thenthere's fatty meat,roast pork with crackling,duck, also fish has good fats salmon and trout especially, hope this helps :)

 

[sanguine]

Avocados. Double cream in coffee and on berries. Brazil nuts.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Just wondering how you guys include fat in your diets, my brain is still tuned to fats are bad, having high blood pressure. I don't like yoghurt or cheese, or rather cheese doesn't like me!!

I didn't like yogurt or cheese for over 60 years. Really I didn't, so never ate it. I now overdose on it. Tastes change, and if you add something to it you do like (berries with a full fat yogurt, mayonnaise or pickled onions with cheese, or cheese cubes dipped in egg yolk, it really can be so different. Give it a try.

 

[Lenny3]

I often find I don't have enough fat so I add a couple of fat bombs. Google and you'll find loads. The ones I make, cos they're easy are;
100g 75% chocolate
200g butter
200g peanut butter
melt it all together then I pour into silicon ice cube trays. Chill in the fridge, then I pop them into a tupperware box and have a couple when I feel I need them.

 

[Brunneria]

Hi,

A couple of things stuck me as I read your post:

You treat yourself occasionally. I am not saying that is wrong. I don't think that there is a 'right' or a 'wrong' where food and diets are concerned
- but there are consequences.
And one of the consequences of treating yourself with carbs is that it may pull you out of ketosis, or prevent you from getting into ketosis in the first place.

I have a friend who has absolutely nothing good to say about the Atkins diet. Waste of time. Useless (She says). Thinks it was a terrible load of hyped nonsense. But the truth is she wasn't ever on the Atkins, because the Atkins required that she low carb very strictly for two weeks, then stick to a strict lc regime while she lost weight.

What she used to do was low carb from Mon-Fri, then treat herself when her boyfriend came to stay at the weekend.

That may work for low calorie diets, but not for lc. With low carbing, it is consistency that is needed.

The other thing that occurred to me is that, if you are avoiding fat, and not getting hungry, then you must still be quite high carb.
What are you usually eating?
If you previously lost a stone on lc, and are now not losing on lc, then you must have changed something...

 

[NoCrbs4Me]

I often find I don't have enough fat so I add a couple of fat bombs. Google and you'll find loads. The ones I make, cos they're easy are;
100g 75% chocolate
200g butter
200g peanut butter
melt it all together then I pour into silicon ice cube trays. Chill in the fridge, then I pop them into a tupperware box and have a couple when I feel I need them.

Fat bombs!! I'd love to tell my diabetes nurse I'd been eating fat bombs!

 

[tim2000s]

I often find I don't have enough fat so I add a couple of fat bombs. Google and you'll find loads. The ones I make, cos they're easy are;
100g 75% chocolate
200g butter
200g peanut butter
melt it all together then I pour into silicon ice cube trays. Chill in the fridge, then I pop them into a tupperware box and have a couple when I feel I need them.

I'd swap the 75% for Lindt 90% - then you have 14g of carbs across all the bombs! Perfect...

 

[Sam72]

I hated yoghurt until I tried full fat Greek! A revelation!!! It's just that low fat nonsense that is disgusting. I have it every day now. I particularly love fage Greek yoghurt with some frozen cherries and flaked almonds.

 

[Bluetit1802]

I hated yoghurt until I tried full fat Greek! A revelation!!! It's just that low fat nonsense that is disgusting. I have it every day now. I particularly love fage Greek yoghurt with some frozen cherries and flaked almonds.

It's Fage Total that I have. Totally delicious with berries.

 

[Silver5374]

Hi

Firstly THANK YOU ALL for your replies.

A typical day is
B. Egg/bacon
L. Salmon or Chicken with tomatoes
Snack, some smoked sausage
D. Minced Beef, cauliflower/broccoli
Snack. Sugar free jelly/cream

Then as I said maybe a bit of cheesecake or ice cream at weekend.

But I am getting now that the thought of food is actually making me feel sick so by the time I open the Tupperware box I have been put off before I even start eating. I do not have access to a microwave so everything is cold except dinner at night.

 

[cath99]

i love the lchf works alot for me , and 7 days a week i have cake and cream and biscuists etc i just make them myself on a saturday for the week ahead using coconut flour etc , i do occasionally have a treat but in fairness dont care for the sweet stuff now, i lost half stone in a yr but have stopped dead now , so will rethink to get next 2 stone of this year , keep us informed how u get on xx

 

[NoCrbs4Me]

See previous comments. Eat more good fat - butter, full fat yoghurt, cheese, full cream in coffee/tea, etc. Cut out the weekend carb/sugar snacks.

Get a thermos flask if you want a hot breakfast and lunch.

 

[Kezzer4321]

You could be having too much protein... I've read that too much protein slows or stops weight loss. I've started to log my food intake in myfitnesspal so that I can see exactly how much I am eating.. I am using the ratio of 15% protein, 15% carbs and 70% fat... And it seems to be working for me. So this might be something you could consider and test.