Why isn't a loss happening?

[vodpod]

Me and my husband have both been doing SW for almost six months, both losing around 2 stones in this time. My husband's weight is yo-yo-ing a bit at the moment each time he gets weighed and has been for over a month. He's finding it really frustrating as he's putting in a huge amount of effort and going to the gym 3-4 times a week but his weight is fluctuating between 3lbs and every time it goes down it pops back up again. Can anyone offer any hints or tips?

Typical diet each day is:

Breakfast - three egg omelette with ham, onions, peppers and a tiny bit of grated mozzarella and mullerlight
Snack - either Mullerlight, raw carrots or pickled onions
Lunch - Syn-free soup and bread roll (HEX-b) with fruit salad or syn-free jambalaya with fruit salad
Tea - always a free meal on EE as I batch cook every weekend. It's usually curry/chilli with rice or some form of pasta, always with a big side salad or we'll have a big stir-fry or steak or chicken with SW chips and steamed/roasted vegetables. We have a small amount of light salad dressing which is 1 syn. I don't use any oils other than frylight.

I've changed the soup to Superspeed Soup in the last two weeks and have also tried to increase the amount of superspeed foods we have. Daily drinks are water, sugar-free squash or diet drinks and one or two cups of tea.

He does have a protein shake after the gym but this is only 6 syns and he uses skimmed milk as a HEX-a. We keep most of our syns for the weekend when we have a curry or chinese (20 syns max) and a few beers or wines. We've done this throughout and have never had any problems with a loss before now.

It could be that he's putting on muscle at the gym but it's really frustrating not to see any losses. Any ideas as to how to kick-start the losses again?

 

[Paul_Farnham_uk]

Well my honest opinion is that maybe its time you stopped saving your synd for the weekend as if what you are doing now isnt working something needs to change and my suggestion would be to go back to using your syns daily and cut out the alchohol at the weekend as that will also cause an awful lot of water retention.

Try a week using your syns daily and drinking lots of water and no alchohol, 1 week wont kill you to try it and if it works you know what you have to do to continue losing weight.

You could also try adding lemon to the water as it is very good for clearing through toxins and cleansing your body.

Hope that helps

Me and my husband have both been doing SW for almost six months, both losing around 2 stones in this time. My husband's weight is yo-yo-ing a bit at the moment each time he gets weighed and has been for over a month. He's finding it really frustrating as he's putting in a huge amount of effort and going to the gym 3-4 times a week but his weight is fluctuating between 3lbs and every time it goes down it pops back up again. Can anyone offer any hints or tips?

Typical diet each day is:

Breakfast - three egg omelette with ham, onions, peppers and a tiny bit of grated mozzarella and mullerlight
Snack - either Mullerlight, raw carrots or pickled onions
Lunch - Syn-free soup and bread roll (HEX-b) with fruit salad or syn-free jambalaya with fruit salad
Tea - always a free meal on EE as I batch cook every weekend. It's usually curry/chilli with rice or some form of pasta, always with a big side salad or we'll have a big stir-fry or steak or chicken with SW chips and steamed/roasted vegetables. We have a small amount of light salad dressing which is 1 syn. I don't use any oils other than frylight.

I've changed the soup to Superspeed Soup in the last two weeks and have also tried to increase the amount of superspeed foods we have. Daily drinks are water, sugar-free squash or diet drinks and one or two cups of tea.

He does have a protein shake after the gym but this is only 6 syns and he uses skimmed milk as a HEX-a. We keep most of our syns for the weekend when we have a curry or chinese (20 syns max) and a few beers or wines. We've done this throughout and have never had any problems with a loss before now.

It could be that he's putting on muscle at the gym but it's really frustrating not to see any losses. Any ideas as to how to kick-start the losses again?

 

[Paul_Farnham_uk]

also one more thing is it seems you arent tracking your syns properly to me so do food diaries and account for every single syn so you can see how many you are actually having.

As a FEW beers can be a lot of syns if you dont keep track of them

not to mention hes having 18-24 syns worth of protien shake, a few syns worth of dressing, 20 syns worth of take out (which is more likely more btw as the syn values on SW for take aways are never for the portion sizes you get they are reduced portion sizes so if for example you are having a curry each its more likely 30+ syns depending on what you are having of course, so you need to weigh those out too.

So food diary is the way forward, and make sure you account for milk, sugar etc in drinks etc...

 

[kingleds]

My first instinct is that you're both eating too many syns. It's really easy to do without realising.

Breakfast - three egg omelette with ham, onions, peppers and a tiny bit of grated mozzarella

Do you weigh the mozzarella. This could be 3 or 4 syns easily for that tiny amount.

We have a small amount of light salad dressing which is 1 syn.

]

Do you actually measure that though. Even a small amount could be more than a tablespoon so you need to measure it.

. Daily drinks are water, sugar-free squash or diet drinks and one or two cups of tea.

Do you measure & syn the milk? 1 syn per dash of milk

We keep most of our syns for the weekend when we have a curry or chinese (20 syns max) and a few beers or wines. We've done this throughout and have never had any problems with a loss before now.

Even the lowest syn beer is 6 syns a can, some are more like 10 syns. wine is nearly 30 syns a bottle.


If you eat even 40 syns at the weekend (more likely to be 60), then 6-8 a day 5 days a week you can easily do over the maximum syns for a week.

Your best bet is to drink more water, not eat a take away AND beer/wine at the weekend (maybe 1 or the other if you can't face cutting out both) & then see how you go.

 

[vodpod]

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I am really particular about measuring everything that can be synned. I've done a food diary for almost all of the time we've been doing the diet so have a really good idea of where we are synning. It tends to be 60-70 syns on a Friday and Saturday, maybe 10-15 on a Sunday and then Mon-Thur (which is weigh-in day) are usually syn free or perhaps 2-3 syns (see below) on occasional days as it's easy for us to not syn while we are at work so this allows for his protein shakes. I don't buy anything processed and cook everything from scratch so know exactly what we are having. As I say, it's what we have done all along and the weight has come off well.

The 2-3 syns on a weekday can be accounted for in 10g of mozzarella in the omelette so way under the 45g allowed every day for the HEX-a so the remainder goes on milk in tea, which is nowhere near 250ml. My leader said that this was fine for the HEX-a as we only have a couple of cups a day so still within the dairy limit. On the days he has the protein shake as the HEX-a I will count the omelette/tea in milk syns.

Salad dressing is less than a tablespoon and we very between three varieties, two of which are free and one of which is 1syn for a tbsp. Takeaways are either tomato based curries (e.g. dopiaza, rogan josh) with boiled rice and no bread or a chow mein so I'm confident that I'm actually overestimating the 20 syns given the portion sizes as the book puts these all around 8 syns for a restaurant/takeaway portion. I'm still continuing to lose, but he isn't, which is what's causing the frustration and I know he isn't having sneaky syns as he's really motivated and dejected when there isn't a change.

I agree an alcohol/takeaway free weekend is a good idea to see if it has an impact as we probably do need to shake it up a bit, but I'd actually hate to have syns every day as I tend to just eat fruit/meat and healthy food anyway. I'd be interested to see if anyone else had experienced anything similar though, after 6 months into the diet?

 

[Paul_Farnham_uk]

Well what concerns me about your last post is that you say you are still losing but he isnt, and generally speaking men lose weight more quickly than women anyway so it seems to me that these protein shakes may be causing a problem if he is eating the same as you apart from those.

Is it really essential that he has them as i used to train a lot at the gym and i never took protein shakes so my suggestion for him is he knocks those on the head for a while and see what happens

 

[Jenny809]

I'm sorry as I have absolutely no idea as new ish to sw. I just wanted to say how fab I think you are, 6 months is fantastic, so well done! Have you spoken to your consultant about it?

Do you eat many lemons? Have heard lemons everyday really helps when losses start slowing up.

Keep going tho and keep positive, easier said than done I'm sure!

 

[Happy Holidays]

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I am really particular about measuring everything that can be synned. I've done a food diary for almost all of the time we've been doing the diet so have a really good idea of where we are synning. It tends to be 60-70 syns on a Friday and Saturday, maybe 10-15 on a Sunday and then Mon-Thur (which is weigh-in day) are usually syn free or perhaps 2-3 syns (see below) on occasional days as it's easy for us to not syn while we are at work so this allows for his protein shakes. I don't buy anything processed and cook everything from scratch so know exactly what we are having. As I say, it's what we have done all along and the weight has come off well.

Do you actually keep a total of the weekly syns you are having, or have you in the past found out what the syns are for x takeaway & now just assuming all is the same. I've been at target now for some time & still make a note of all my syns. On a Saturday MiL comes round with wine & chocs I don't 'guestimate' the syns I actually keep the choc wrappers & write down the syns the next day. Do you know how many syns are in OH's protein shakes? why does he have protein shakes, is there an alternative?

The 2-3 syns on a weekday can be accounted for in 10g of mozzarella in the omelette so way under the 45g allowed every day for the HEX-a so the remainder goes on milk in tea, which is nowhere near 250ml. My leader said that this was fine for the HEX-a as we only have a couple of cups a day so still within the dairy limit. On the days he has the protein shake as the HEX-a I will count the omelette/tea in milk syns.

IMO it's easy to guess how much milk you're having in tea etc, I personally don't like milk so don't have it, but I do know some people on here measure out their milk in a morning & put it into a container/flask for use the whole day. Are you measuring the mozzarella & are you sure it's 10grms, if guessing what once looked like 10grms may not be now. I understand the use 10grms cheese & rest as milk hexa calculation, but are you actually doing this properly.

Salad dressing is less than a tablespoon and we very between three varieties, two of which are free and one of which is 1syn for a tbsp. Takeaways are either tomato based curries (e.g. dopiaza, rogan josh) with boiled rice and no bread or a chow mein so I'm confident that I'm actually overestimating the 20 syns given the portion sizes as the book puts these all around 8 syns for a restaurant/takeaway portion. I'm still continuing to lose, but he isn't, which is what's causing the frustration and I know he isn't having sneaky syns as he's really motivated and dejected when there isn't a change.

I agree an alcohol/takeaway free weekend is a good idea to see if it has an impact as we probably do need to shake it up a bit, but I'd actually hate to have syns every day as I tend to just eat fruit/meat and healthy food anyway. I'd be interested to see if anyone else had experienced anything similar though, after 6 months into the diet?

I've read through my comments & they appear a little harsh, which I honestly don't mean them to, it's just my initial thoughts & observations. It doesn't do any of us harm to 'go back to basics' & weigh/measure hex's.

Is your diary on here? if so you could add a link for us to take a look at

 

[kingleds]

I know it's a bit out there as a suggestion but if you are eating the same stuff, and you are still losing but he isn't, could it be that he's eating stuff you don't know about? There are plenty of us who eat stuff secretly. I don't know if bloke do this tbh, but definitely us women are prone to it! Having just eaten 1/2 a pack of fish sticks after my lunch I can attest to this myself.

Just a thought as it seems like you're doing the right things otherwise.

 

[Stefanie]

Lose the protein shakes....absolutely no need to be taking these unless you are working out like crazy, doing serious weights. Instead, if he wants the protein, then have a piece of chicken, same intake of protein, less crap. Also protein shakes are to be used for a high protein diet....adding of carbs etc will not make his workout more efficient unless he is following a structured weight lifting plan. xx

 

[Emmamb]

If he's on protein make sure it's an isolate whey and not concentrate and mix it with water. I limit my protein shakes but have omelettes etc instead-tip for the omelette,use 1 egg and 3 whites (all the calories are in the yolk) and protein in the white.
Even though they're free on sw it will still help.

 

[vodpod]

Thanks for all the suggestions and ideas folks. I do think we need to change the weekend synning to see how that affects things, but also consider the protein shakes too as I suspect they could be the culprit, though I know he did go for the lowest carb/calorie one he could get to keep his intake down. I've heard about the lemon juice too so will give that a try as well.

We both decided to start exercising at the same time to see if this boosted our losses and so began our own routines at the same time. He has only been going to the gym for three months but does a really tough weight training programme and cardio workout for at least 90 minutes 3-4 times a week so I think we had both expected the weight to be dropping off as he hadn't really done much exercise at all before. I do a 20 minute Jillian Michaels workout DVD while he is at the gym and I am still losing, but I know for a fact he is working much much MUCH harder than I am! He definitely isn't sneaking in naughty syns - he is so determined to lose weight that he isn't doing anything to jeopardise it.

 

[Stefanie]

The problem with protein shakes is that your diet has to be pretty clean to get the benefit. I will admit, I am not a fan of protein shakes, especially when you can eat free food to get your intake without using syns - our bodies can only digest 60g of protein a day, all the rest goes down the toilet literally I would ask your hubby to try coming off them see what happens. The weight will fall off, but remember even with exercise, diet is even more important to see the benefits. I train 5 days a week, 1.5/2 hours per day and have gained a noticeable amount of muscle (even for a woman), but I have stripped my diet right down, still following sw but just making better choices at weekends when my willpower isn't great and choosing things like brown rice and wholewheat/grain. He will do it, like everyone else has said, go over it all again and start afresh, see how your week goes. Good luck, you both will smash it! xx

 

[shellywelly1983]

Away from the food side of things, since I started at the gym my weight loss slowed lots (I had been doing Jillian Michael's dvd before joining and my weight loss was good) I spoke to the PT's at the gym and apparently when you first start training you retain water so up the water. Also I was using heavy weights on the machines and basically meant I was building muscle, which I have now dropped the weights to much lower and sticking to more cardio, it seems to have helped my weight loss again.

Does your husband need to bulk up yet? If he is having protein shakes and using heavy weights then he will be building muscle, has he still got a lot to lose? If so I would recommend that he sticks to building up his cardio first and only using a few weights to help tone and then move on to weights when he is near target. Oh and definitely ditch the protein shake. He should be able to get enough protein in his diet.

 

[Stefanie]

Got to disagree above (sorry!) Using weights burns fat for up to 48 hours after exercise and therefore should be used as part of your workout plan. Yes muscles hold water, but not to that extent, also muscles are smaller density wise therefore will replace the bulky fat. What do you want more, fitness, muscle or both. I say both. My advice would be take a good look at your diet before you change your exercise routine Stop all this scaremongering about putting on muscle/retain water/less weight loss....this to me makes people who want to exercise think twice about it. All advice is good of course, so I'm not putting anyone down here, I just hate the excuses some people make about exercise. xx

 

[kingleds]

It's not scaremongering - its fact... In the SHORT term you do end up affecting your weight loss when you significantly increase your exercise regime, regardless of the type of exercise you do. It doesn't mean you shouldn't do it - just that you need to be aware of it.

Also, whilst you build lean muscle by exercising, you don't actually replace fat with muscle in a 1 in 1 out kind of way. As you build lean muscle your metabolism gets more efficient & you burn more calories, which will eventually mean you burn more fat, but you can't burn the fat if you don't eat right, regardless.

 

[Stefanie]

We can agree to disagree on this one Kingleds

 

[kingleds]

We can agree to disagree on this one Kingleds

????On what bit exactly???

 

[kingleds]

Oooo- forgot to say you can mitigate the chances of short term weight loss slowdown due to exercise by increasing your water intake appropriately. It helps stop water retention.

OP - does your hubby drink alot of water already, and especially when he does his workouts? If not, then it might be an idea for him to increase his water intake. It'll help him with the water retention from the takeaway & booze at the weekends as well x

 

[Stefanie]

????On what bit exactly???

I won't clog up this OP's thread with us disagreeing as it will go back and forward and there are far too many factors to go into xx