Despite following a reduced calorie/carb diet since mid July, I am really struggling to lose weight!! I had a bit of a breakthrough last week and lost 2lbs! I weigh myself every Monday morning, before I come to work. I even upped my walking last week – average of 10,000 steps Mon/Tues/Wed and Friday last week (Thursday was wet and miserable, so gave it a body swerve) but when I got on the scales this morning – zilch, nada, not a lb!!!!! I don’t want anyone telling me it’s a plateau, but am getting so disheartened when it would appear that others, purely just through calorie intake reduction alone, achieve the losses of a stone plus after the 8 weeks! I have until end October / beginning of November until my next bloods test is due at the Dr’s and I really can’t face being told that they want to up my meds. The nurse in the surgery who’s my Diabetic ‘specialist’ wanted me to start taking slow release metformin from July, but at the same time I was given Levothyroxine to take for an underactive thyroid. I wanted to measure my bloods performance on only 1 drug so agreed with my GP not to take the metformin until September results were in – they have come down which is great, but she, the nurse, insisted that I start taking the metformin – which I haven’t!!! I really want to ‘show’ the nurse that I don’t need the metformin as diet/exercise etc is working.

Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do to help get this weight off and reduce by levels in time for November? Your help, suggestions and ideas are very much welcome.. Totally fed up and need a solution to lose this weight!!

Hello Fatfred01 – little unclear about what you mean by reduced calorie/carb diet – what intake levels are you working to each day? Are you aiming for 800 calories and sub 50g carbs? If you can give a clearer picture of what you are actually doing, it might be possible to offer some ideas for adjustments.

You obviously have the exercise cracked, which is a plus. Are you keeping your hydration level up? This is an important factor in weight loss and should not be under estimated. Also, can you tell us how much weight you have lost since beginning your diet and if loss has stalled completely, or if there are still small losses happening, but not as much as you would like.

It’s difficult to offer any real advice without a little more information, which you will hopefully be able to provide to us soon.

Hi Sunny B,
I’ve reduced my calorie intake to around the 800 mark every day – some days more some days less & where I’ve earned additional calories due to exercise, last week, I’ve not used them. I’vealso drastically reduced my carb intake – not quite sure how much per day & didn’t realise this was limited to 50, is it grams, per day?
Exercise was just for the one week & as I work full time, may struggle to get out as I hate the cold & wet,so far not been out this week due to the weather 🙁
I’m being told not to puttoo much emphasis on the weightas I could be losing inches instead. My hydration can be a bit hit or a miss – working in a busy callcentre it can bedp difficult duetp to little/no time between calls. I’ve just finished tracking today’s food/meals & finishing 124cals over! Tomorrow will be a stricter day – seem to find my cals intake is higher when I have slimfast for breakfast or lunch…..

50 grams per day of carbs is often suggested as a target to try to stay under to get into nutritional ketosis, which is the fat burning state. Hydration is incredibly important, if you can have a big bottle of water with you when you work and just sip it whenever you can, then that might help. Exercise is helpful but you should still lose weight if you are around 800 calories even if you are sedentary, unless your TDEE is very low (total daily energy expenditure, it varies amongst other things with body weight, and gets lower the lighter you are, unless you build a lot of muscle).

Hi FatFred01 – it sounds like you are doing okay-ish on the calories. We are in this for the long haul, so there will be days when we are above or below on calories, but overall these will pretty much balance out. Most people find they hit ketosis and lose fat on 50g daily carbs, some of us pull it down still further, but if you are losing at 50g this is not necessary. Try at 50g and see how you go. Be sure to look at the carb content of everything you’re consuming, because it can be surprising where they hide out. Getting into the habit of weighing, measuring and recording every calorie and gram of carbs consumed is important, as this will help you to see where adjustments can be made.

Good hydration is really important. It’s become quite a thing for me, as historically drinking enough was a big issue for me. Now I’m almost obsessive about it and really notice very quickly now, if I am under hydrated. So, finding a way to keep your hydration up would help I’m sure – as Mixnmatch says, perhaps get a large refillable water bottle to keep on your desk to sip as frequently as you can.

Exercise is not my strong point either and I have still lost over 2st, even with patchy exercise, so it is possible to succeed without a regular exercise routine, although logically, it must be easier and better to get results with one than without. But remember every little helps, so even if it is only using the stairs instead of the lift or escalator, or doing a few stomach crushes and squats, it all contributes.

Hope you will find things moving in the right direction again soon. Shout if you need more assistance and please do be sure to let us know how you are going.