To think I’ll be stuck at 16 stone forever

Because bodies don't create muscle from nothing to start with; you need to be eating at maintenance or above (on a planned programme) to be physically able to create new muscle. Secondly you have to be training in a specific way for hypertrophy - just lifting weights won't grow more muscle, but it will increase overall strength (due to postural improvement, better connection to muscle chains, better awareness of muscle activation etc) and also maintain existing muscle which is extremely important for women especially going through peri.
Women don't lend themselves to growing muscle generally due to lower testosterone levels which is why it's hard to build for us. There is absolutely a phenomena of newbie gains where a woman with low muscle mass can gain some when she starts lifting even in a calorie deficit but it's only going to be a couple of pounds worth and doesn't persist beyond the first few months.

Links -
https://www.strongerbyscience.com/muscle-caloric-deficit/
https://blog.nasm.org/calorie-surplus-female-athletes-research
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/hypertrophy

I don’t know why people are being dicks. OP I believe you. To be honest it sounds like you eat a varied, nutritious diet and you exercise. On that basis, does the number on the scales matter?

I can't help OP but felt the need to comment, just for solidarity really! I feel your pain, I really do.

The only thing I will say is maybe don't focus on the scales at all for a few weeks/months as they can either make/break the day ahead (that's what I find anyway) and just keep on with your healthy lifestyle. Keep logging your deficit, keep up the protein and fibre intake, drink loads, make sure you get good quality sleep as much as possible, keep walking, keep weight training.

Someone mentioned the 'set point' in the thread and I've read 2 interesting books, I think the author was Dr Andrew Jenkinson. The books explain the concept and it makes sense.

It's beyond frustrating, I get it but you are doing all the right things so at some point, your body will react and the weight will come off. Best of luck!

Bacon and eggs for breakfast. Lots of meat and a tiny bit of salad for lunch. Omelette for supper. Water or black coffee in between.

You have to consider all the carbs you are taking in, including the lactose in milk.

Think about animals in the wild. Those that eat meat (even fatty meat) stay lean. Animals that eat carbs all day but don't burn off calories, such as store cattle, sheep on turnips etc., will pack on chub. That's why farmers put animals on tight grazing (lots to eat and they don't need to walk far burning off calories to get it) to put on fat prior to slaughter. Everything that isn't meat, butter and eggs pretty much has carbs.

I lost nine kilos on the paleo diet. Meat, butter (fat doesn't make you fat - your body burns it as keto fuel) and eggs and a bit of fasting to really knock my insulin production down and get into ketosis) will have it falling off you and because the only way to remove the fat is by burning it (carbon basically) you will have breath like a rotting fox! There is no other way of doing it. You have to burn your own stores and your metabolism can't access it in the presence of insulin because the point of insulin is to store calories as fat for a rainy day.

Your body uses glucose from your circulation first, then the stores in your liver and when that is both depleted, it starts on your visceral and body stores. This is why intermittent fasting works. It allows the above to happen.

Anything that releases insulin will stop it and once insulin is released, it stays up for hours sometimes. This is why it's so damn hard to lose weight.

Perhaps you are gaining muscle and that's why the scales aren't shifting?

You dont say how old you are.. but I'm in my early fifties and can't move a damn ounce unless i fast. It is the only thing that works for me. We are a large family of females on my mums side and the majority of us have weight issues. I've watched my cousins eat salad and go to the gym for years and nothing changes for them. Fasting does work, it's hard to begin with but really quite easy once you get into it. You can still eat your favourite foods if you really want to eg i fast all day on a Saturday and we either go out or have a lower calorie takeaway like chow mein and a few glasses of wine. Last year i got married again and shifted a stone in a half in 10 weeks.

I beg to differ, according to my apple watch I burned 1950 kcal on Monday 1300 on Tuesday and 1960 and yesterday. Hardly insignificant and I would find it impossible to eat the 4000kcal required to gain weight.

Agree with PP to vary your diet by day to average 1500. Some days 1300, some 1700 (eg on a running /weights day). You might find it brings a whoosh. Good luck

Always amazes me, it’s the TDEE! Why are people fixated on a number that simply asks them age, height, weight and a very basic question about exercise (what is ‘moderate’ anyway!).

This its just a rough starting point. You try it and if you pass out 10 times a day you increase your calories and if you don't lose weight after a while you decrease them.

The OP has discovered the TDEE has overestimated her need for calories and she'll need to reduce them. That sucks but having such terrific access to food that you need to strictly ration yourself is a first world problem.

What I find most interesting about this is that in barely 2 hours, there are over 200 responses about weight loss. Many of which are contradictory with each other. And many more openly accusing OP of being a liar or deluded.

It is fascinating that so many women are so utterly fixated with having to be smaller.

I have to have a much bigger deficit than the 500 it takes to lose 1lb, I simply don’t lose unless 700-800 deficit. Can you increase your steps before cutting calories?

This is your answer, OP.

A few weeks in the context of something you've been doing since the start of the year is really not much.

You have to look at the total loss over the 5 months you've been doing it. It's normal to plateau for a few weeks, it is frustrating but just keep doing what you're doing and it will eventually break.

The problem is when people plateau and then stop what they're doing, and then of course they're going to gain again.

Your body isn't a machine, it doesn't work on a steady downward trajectory - it will be up, down, plateau, down again, plateau again, maybe up a bit, etc. That's just how it goes.

As long as you know you are doing the right things (which you are), just keep right on. You need to give it a good 6-8 weeks to truly see if it's not working. If you are still doing it the same and still at this weight at the end of May/ June, then maybe think about changing something.

It sounds to me like you're doing great :)

Well done on your weight loss so far.

I don’t use a set amount of calories when I start dieting, I gradually reduce my fairly calories until I start loosing weight. If you are not losing weight at 1550 then 1550 isn’t your deficit for your height and weight. Try 100 calories less and see what happens.

When I’m dieting the results are very closely related to my calorie intake.

I also lose weight very slowly. I find it hard. I just need to shift half a stone at the moment but it’s taking forever

Are you measuring anything else other than weight? Body composition can change - fat loss and muscle gain can actually increase your weight, but your health status is still changing. I think you probably ARE still losing fat, but possibly other factors are affecting your actual weight - water retention from carbs maybe, or like I say, muscle gain from your training.
If you don't have them already, I would get some scales that measure your body composition including body fat percentage, water mass, muscle mass etc and track this, as well as physical measurements like your waist and hips etc.

Have you amended your TDEE after losing weight so far? Adjusting your intake based on your current weight?

Also, I've read that with a plateau it usually can mean your body has adapted - so changing something in your routine can help. You day reducing calories further doesn't work well for you, so can you change up your gym routine? Different exercises, level of intensity, length of workouts etc?
As a PP said, you could also try intermittent fasting or changing up your calories on different days to see if this has any impact.

One other thing - how balanced is your plate? Are you getting the right balance of protein, fats, carbs, but also fibre and fruit / veg? You say you're tracking macros but have only really mentioned protein and calories.

It sounds like you're doing all the right things, and you're still seeing changes despite the scales staying the same so I would take that as a win. I bet your other measurements ARE changing too. I'm currently in a WL plateau so I am thinking of trying some of the above too. Let us know how you get on X

Are you counting your calories correctly is the new cancel the cheque.

If you want to be able to eat a 'balanced' diet you will need to eat a lot, lot less than you think. And if you are exercising that will be hard, because exercise makes you hungry. Go on the WLIs and then you'll be able to eat any food you like because you won't be able to eat very much of anything.

If you don't want to go on WLIs then you should follow a low carb diet focusing on protein, meat, fish, greek yogurt, eggs and low carb vegetables with a few very low carb fruits like berries. You won't need to calorie count and can eat as much as you like, providing they are not carb heavy foods. You will burn body fat far quicker that way than going to the gym and eating carbs for the energy you will need. That's digging holes to fill them halfway in again. It can feel slow, laborious and counter-productive, as you are finding.

While it's good to exercise for lots of reasons, it's a pretty inefficient way to lose weight if you are still going to eat too much of the wrong things. Not that any food is 'wrong,' just wrong in the context of what you are trying to achieve.

Because 1200 calories is the allowance for a toddler
at 16 stone with exercise, her TDEE and therefore deficit should be way higher so something isn’t right

OP there are some shitty people on this thread and some poor advice! Its sounds like you are doing everything right but have hit at plateau, this does happen. Eating at maintenance for a week helped kickstart me again. Iv lost 20kg in about 18 months, it is slow and sometime very frustrating! Going lower in calories is not sustainable especially if you are running which could lead to binge eating. Your clothes are fitting better which is a huge sign that this is working, keep going and stay consistant

Weight training and clothes fitting her better would suggest that.

A great source of nutritional information is the Zoe podcasts. Also would you consider weight loss injections? I was like you going up and down the same loss and regain. Had my thyroid checked and I’m hypothyroid. Could you be?

There is always one term in these threads that imo is pretty much always the answer. The OP will say how the diligently weigh food, do their exercise etc but they refuse to budge on their daily allowance as that’s what their TDEE tells them.

Always amazes me, it’s the TDEE! Why are people fixated on a number that simply asks them age, height, weight and a very basic question about exercise (what is ‘moderate’ anyway!). For a start, as previous posters have stated, exercise has very very little impact, it’s all about calories in. You are simply eating too much, people who are slim don’t eat much that’s why they are slim.

Because you'll be eating more veg, protein and fat in place of the carbs and feeling more satiated thereby making it easier to eat in calorie deficit. Not because carbs have some intrinsic fat retaining properties.