Why am I not losing weight?

[SquareDaff]

They should have written muscle is more dense, 1 litre of muscle weighs more than 1 litre of fat.

I can't remember the unit of volume used and it's been a long while since O'Level Biology but I seem to remember the same volume of muscle to fat having a ratio of 37/14. Of course it's been a long while and I could be talking absolute rot!

 

[BSRU]

Some where I have a link to a decent nutritionalist who claims 2 units of alcohol in 24 hours also supresses your body's fat burning system for 3 days.....

Booze is a potential double whammy.

Two units, that's less than half a can of special brew.

That means a Saturday night tipple of what ever you fancy affects the body until Tuesday evening.

 

[BintanMan]

Wow - some fantastic responses so far!

Firstly alcohol - I sound boring but I really don't drink much. But can I assume wine is better than beer? The occasional trip to the pub on a Friday has been known with the good weather.

Secondly - I'm beginning to think I'm eating big portions. I didn't want to go down the 'weighing' route but I might start by being conscious of portion sizes. With cereal I tend to stick to Shreddies, but I prefer to steer away from cereal and go for the dry toast and tomatoes (my current favourite) or porridge (with honey ).

As most have said I do get very hungry after rides, especially longer ones. What is the best thing to eat after a ride?

I am slightly limited with longer rides because my family come first. I have 3.5 year old twin boys who take up a LOT of time at weekends so early mornings and evenings are my only option, but it's unfair on my wife to expect her to do all the housework when the kids are in bed - she deserves some time as well!

Anyhow, lots of stuff here. I'll crack on and try to stay motivated.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

BintanMan. Eat off smaller plates, and no seconds, a great way to control portion sizes.

 

[Globalti]

Evening snacking is always my undoing. I deal with it by flossing my teeth after supper, which stops me raiding the fridge. Mostly.

My best weight loss ever was this Feb/March when I gave up carbs almost completely, eating only fish, meat and salads. For about a month I had a strange fatty buttery taste in my mouth, which somebody said is common amongst people on the Atkins diet.

 

[BSRU]

Wow - some fantastic responses so far!

Firstly alcohol - I sound boring but I really don't drink much. But can I assume wine is better than beer? The occasional trip to the pub on a Friday has been known with the good weather.

Secondly - I'm beginning to think I'm eating big portions. I didn't want to go down the 'weighing' route but I might start by being conscious of portion sizes. With cereal I tend to stick to Shreddies, but I prefer to steer away from cereal and go for the dry toast and tomatoes (my current favourite) or porridge (with honey ).

As most have said I do get very hungry after rides, especially longer ones. What is the best thing to eat after a ride?

I am slightly limited with longer rides because my family come first. I have 3.5 year old twin boys who take up a LOT of time at weekends so early mornings and evenings are my only option, but it's unfair on my wife to expect her to do all the housework when the kids are in bed - she deserves some time as well!

Anyhow, lots of stuff here. I'll crack on and try to stay motivated.

I drink very little also, sometimes going for months without alcohol.

Don't worry about your longer rides, you've already cycled a longer distance than I have done this year. I only cycle when I am commuting now about 40km a day, like you I have family commitments but I cannot do any riding at the weekend.

You could always try to keep a food diary, you might spot something that needs to be cut out.

You could always try some running, uses far more calories than cycling for the same amount of time, although personally I cannot stand running.

 

[coffeejo]

They should have written muscle is more dense, 1 litre of muscle weighs more than 1 litre of fat.

 

[BintanMan]

Yeah seconds is a killer with kids in the house. Don't you just find that, with certain foods, you could just eat until you pop? My wife makes an awesome tuna/pasta bake and I really have to restrain from that.

I'm cool with evening snacking. My other hobby is playing the guitar so I can usually stay away from trouble by doing that.

I do find bulking out meals with veg helps a lot. Last night I made gnocchi in a tomato sauce with garlic and basil, but I did less gnocchi and loads of broccoli. Definitely helped but having the veg in the house isn't always the case, whereas having 'stock' stuff like pasta, tinned toms is always there. Another thing is - I really hate waste but I never know how much my kids are going to eat. I do try to put things in the fridge for the next day whenever I can.

Sounds like a bit more restraints with the portions is in order, and bulking out with more veg. Love fruit as well, but I suspect some will be full of sugar.

 

[SquareDaff]

Love fruit as well, but I suspect some will be full of sugar.

Not the ones you'd think I suspect. Remember seeing a quiz show where you had to guess the sugar content of various bits of fruit from lowest to highest. I got it totally wrong and so did the guy playing!

 

[coffeejo]

My newly discovered trick with pasta are frozen peppers and mushrooms. A large handful of each bulks it out beautifully.

 

[BintanMan]

I drink very little also, sometimes going for months without alcohol.

Don't worry about your longer rides, you've already cycled a longer distance than I have done this year. I only cycle when I am commuting now about 40km a day, like you I have family commitments but I cannot do any riding at the weekend.

You could always try to keep a food diary, you might spot something that needs to be cut out.

You could always try some running, uses far more calories than cycling for the same amount of time, although personally I cannot stand running.

Yeah I should have mentioned I used to run a lot. When I turned 30 I was 19st (in 2001). In 2003 I ran the London Marathon and 2006 the Amsterdam (<4 hrs). I got down to about 14.5st then but when the kids came along I went back to my old ways, hence here I am now trying something new!

Running is hard though. You need at least 6-8 weeks to even get to the point of enjoying it and getting into the 'zone'. I have found cycling much easier and I really do enjoy it more than running because you can cover greater distances quickly and you don't really need to be that fit to enjoy it. Maybe my memories of running 40 miles/week and shedding weight easily are still fresh.

 

[JamesMorgan]

Firstly alcohol - I sound boring but I really don't drink much. But can I assume wine is better than beer? The occasional trip to the pub on a Friday has been known with the good weather.

A glass of wine is roughly the same as half a pint of beer (or cider). A lower calorie option is gin and tonic (as long as you use low calorie tonic). I find the big problem with alcohol is not the calories in it, but that it gives you the munchies so you end up eating lots of junk food afterwards. As with any diet it needs to be workable in the long-term so no need for complete abstinence. If you already drink little alcohol you seem to have that in control.


If you are concerned that portion sizes are too large, weigh your typical meals to see how many calories are in them and then adjust down to give you the amount of calories you are aiming for (500-700 calories in a meal is a good target). You only need to do this once to work out what a typical meal should look like.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

I have been where you are. Keep one thing in mind. Muscle is heavier than fat. Just weighing yourself is not enough. Take measurements of your waist and neck say once a week. If the diameter is getting smaller you are loosing weight. Also as others have said you have not been at it that long and it will take time for you metabolism to adjust. At the start of this year I had gone upto 18 stone as I had had a 7 month lay off after a GBH (with intent) assault upon me. I am now around 15.7 / 16 stone

 

[zacklaws]

Muscle weighs more than fat so if the scales say the same but your clothes fit better, then rest assured that you're doing all the right things.

The correct way to state that muscle weighs more than fat is, "Muscle is heavier by volume than fat."

 

[ColinJ]

The correct way to state that muscle weighs more than fat is, "Muscle is heavier by volume than fat."

Or as BSRU wrote in post #12 - "more dense"!