haven't been able to lose anything for the last 5 months help?

[Nelly2]

here's my stats real quick: 19F 5ft8 for 157-162lbs (so bmi of like 23-24).

anyways so I've been on a diet for over a year now, and since about june I can't really lose weight really anymore. I will yoyo with the same 4lbs over and over again since then. I'm really sick of it, been trying almost everyday to fix it. isn't working.

this started happening when I found out my tdee was probably around 1200-1300 which is horrible fucking news if you're trying to lose weight. I know that plays a huge role esp psychologically in me overreating then trying to eat at maintenance or underreat. I know I can fix it by moving enough to be at sedentary, not sub sedentary which would add like 200 cal more. and just moving a little more than that & exercising could really make it more like 1800 or something more manageable but I haven't done that yet mainly bc I have no energy ever (probs bc of my fucked up sleeping schedule that I'm trying to fix).

so basically I'm kinda going to ask two things, first is how do I get over this? and if you have tips or like you want to motivate me a little, please do <3

second thing is, that since I've gotten to a little over a year I'm hitting that mark where most people have that set point pull and bc I haven't lost weight properly & might not have really done maintenance (I might have though unwillingly over the last 5 months or when I plateaued in february). to avoid that huge pull, need to stay at the exact same weight for about a month to lower the set point.

so basically my second question is, should I try to maintain for a month & up my activity and exercise intake so I can eat about 1700-1800 cal a day and then continue losing weight or go another month at trying to lose weight while rethinking everything & upping my exercise intake and everything? I don't want to maintain rn at all and that might affect my motivation but I don't want to risk regaining all my weight. idk if one more month before a short maintenance would hurt though. what should I do?

 

[Err2]

You may have already heard this before, but at 5'8" and 160 lb, you're already in the normal/healthy weight range. At your age & height, your by-the-book "ideal" weight is 138-142 and your goal weight of 120 is actually considered underweight (125 being the bottom end of the normal/healthy range).

It is also extremely unlikely that your Total Daily Energy Expenditure is 1200-1300 calories. Even if you had 35% body fat (unrealistic at your height/weight) your Basal Metabolic Rate would still be around 1389 so your TDEE, even with a fully adapted/slowed metabolism, should be at least 1450 just lying in bed all day eating fats & simple carbs. Far more likely is that you're underestimating the actual calories you're consuming - usually by forgetting some items, recording smaller portions than actually consumed, or relying on inaccurate nutrition labels. This is very, very common: the average person under reports by about 400 calories per day and even dietitians average about 200 calories low: Do Dietitians Accurately Report Their Food Intake? You could still be recording your calorie intake 100% accurately and just overestimating the calories you burn exercising - even if you're getting the numbers from a cardio machine or fitness tracker (which are notoriously off).

The good news is that as long as you are consistent in your counting, it shouldn't matter what the raw calorie numbers are as long as you adjust your food intake to your changes in your weight.

All that said,

so basically I'm kinda going to ask two things, first is how do I get over this? and if you have tips or like you want to motivate me a little, please do <3

Without knowing more, my generic advice would be to cut out as many simple carbs as you can and replace them with more complex carbs from vegetables. I'd also look at increasing your exercise and particularly look to take up some new forms of exercise (as you do one activity over and over and over your body gets more efficient at completing that task so you burn fewer calories to do the same work).

so basically my second question is, should I try to maintain for a month & up my activity and exercise intake so I can eat about 1700-1800 cal a day and then continue losing weight or go another month at trying to lose weight while rethinking everything & upping my exercise intake and everything?

You could try increasing your exercise without eating more, but in my experience more exercise tends to make me want to eat more too. So I think I'd focus primarily on eating *better* with more filling low-calorie foods like vegetables and fewer processed carbs.