To not understand my weight?

If starvation mode really existed all the starving people in the world would be fat. They aren't.

I believe your body does get used to you eating less and slows down the use of calories, but at some point you must start losing weight again if you eat less food than you need for your lifestyle. I think estimates of calories in different foods may be highly inaccurate depending on many factors, fat content, nutrient content due to the life cycle of the individual animal or vegetable, if you are not losing weight eat less. If the op is finding it easy and not feeling hungry and not losing weight (even gaining) over a number of weeks they are eating well for their lifestyle no matter what the calories say.

PCOS has now been renamed PMOS - polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome. This is to acknowledge that it's not a condition about ovaries, it's a whole body metabolic condition, and this does lead to the issues with weight you're experiencing. Mounjaro in my experience helps to reduce these metabolic issues, meaning eating in deficit results in weight loss.

there's quite a lot online about this change - eg https://www.verity-pcos.org.uk/pmos-media.html

I’m taller than you OP. I would not lose weight on 1100 calories and I do loads of exercise. I’d also not lose if I was eating that many carbs.

All of that matters if OP is eating 1500 or 1600 calories and never moves a muscle, lives a completely sedentary lifestyle. What are you describing is marginal. It is splitting hairs and only comes int play when you have nailed basic calorie deficit. Over complicating simple rules is why people get stuck in a rut.

As I say, at 1200 calories, there is no way that OP is not losing weight. If she is not, it’s because she is eating more than 1200 calories and she is not in a deficit at all.

It does yes, but weight loss continues as normal if a defecit remains. You need to remain in a defecit to lose weight. Again, there is no getting round this.

The body does adapt its metabolic rate, so although people like to trot out this out, it isn't factual.

I'm really curious as to how anyone eating 1100 calories per day can gain 10 pounds in 2 weeks. That's quite something.

I'm very similar height, weight and age to you.

If I calorie count generally, I can easily think I've eaten 800-1000 only.

But if I really think about it:
There was a glass of apple juice that I was offered at work. I had a biscuit around 2pm when they were offered round the office. I had a handful of nuts when I first got in home... and I realise that all those extra bits add up to a bit amount, and they're all sweet/fatty things. Because they're all small things that have less than 100 calories, I don't recall them offhand, but they add up quickly.
Is there any chance you're doing similar?

Tbf I'm a grazer. I'd happily graze all day rather than have full meals. I've been intending to properly diet and cut the snacking for about a year now. I can always find a reason why I need to begin tomorrow/next week/another time.

I wasn't saying the cals in/out was wrong. I was saying that the calculation to get to a deficit may not be correct.
I am basing this on the work I've read and listened on Giles Yeo and others who say that yourweight loss will plateau even when consuming the same intake. Which doesn't appear to be the same as the trials you're quoting. I am genuinely interested so would be grateful for some references or people to look up.

This is a complete misrepresentation. Yes if you go v low cal your metabolic rate reduces, but trials have shown weight loss continues at the same pace. No one has ever met an anorexic who plateaued. Or someone in famine. The body doesn’t work like that, it simply doesn’t.

if you consume in a defecit your body burns fat or muscle to fuel itself. Thus making your body lighter. The reason people plateau is they don’t continue to reduce their intake as their weight goes down. Not because they are fueling their body with fresh air.

the poster is right, she isn’t losing weight as she’s eating to maintenance. And as such,she’s miscalculating what she consumes. Every single human being ever is the same. There are no medical marvels. There are no fueling your body with air

biology is the exact same for all of us. Eat in a defecit. And you burn fat or muscle to fuel your body, to make up the defecit. and this makes your body lighter. There is no ifs, buts, whatabouts. Not one. Ever. That’s it. It’s how we all work.

But calorie calculation is actually not an exact science at all. A pureed cooked apple is not the same as a whole apple. You will extract more of the calorific value from the former and less from the latter. Your body also regulates metabolism to adjust to calorie intake so will reduce RHR etc if you are in a sustained low cal diet. This is why calorie deficit diets plateau after a while.
There is good science now backing this up. So whilst the cals in<out is in principle true, you cannot actually override some of the biology that is going on to account for the basic cal requirement your body needs to function

OP, there is only reason. You are not in a calorie defecit. There is no way you are eating 1200 calories and not losing weight, unless you are 4 feet tall. You are 100% eating more than 1200 calories. Way more.

You are not tracking your calories correctly. Ignore all the complicated advice which makes quantum physics looks easy.

Calorie defecit is like gravity. There’s no defying it.

You have to be sure about the macros of everyone you eat, don’t guess. Weight what you are plating up. Thats the only way to be sure that you are in a calorie deficit.

I am your age albeit much heavier. I can only shift weight using a very low carb diet. Even using mounjaro low carb was required.

I have lost using it but it wasn’t magic - I’m still hungry and have an appetite - it just gives me space to make better choices.

I honestly think menopause does a massive number on us.

I’m another one who found they gained weight from minimal calorie intake once I hit peri.

When I weighed 13 stone 8, my maintenance calories were 1300. Now I weigh just over 8 stone and I gain if I exceed 1100.

It really is shit. I will be on Mounjaro long term as it’s the only way I can keep to a low enough calorie level that my weight doesn’t shoot up again, with worrying health implications.

The fluctuations seem to be on a 4 week pattern so I expect the extra is just fluid retention at particular points in your menstrual cycle rather than extra fat.

You need to up your protien intake and do more resistance/weight bearing exercises to build up your muscles a little. You don't need to bulk up too much but muscles burn more energy and rebalance your fuel needs better.

Most people don't want to hear or believe this, but calorie TDEE are a range and not a concrete science. So, if TDEE for a sedentary, short woman is 1200, and someone is gaining, that means their calories have to be less than 1200 to lose weight.

We've been brainwashed to think we'll die if we go below 1200 calories, but this simply isn't true when we're overweight, because we have the calorie deficit/nutrients to spare.

It's frustrating because we want to be healthy and we're told that going below 1200 isn't healthy but we stay overweight at 1200 etc.

It's a hard road, OP. But, as someone said above, your calories are too high at whatever you're at so they have to go lower.

Even if you eat the same calories, and exercise to a deficit, your calories are still lower because you've burned them off. So, it ends up being calories no matter what you do or no matter how you decide to go into a deficit.

This is the first sensible response. But it doesn't mean her TDEE is 1100 as that's not possible. More likely she's miscalculated her calorie intake

Starvation mode isn't real. And how do you think she's going to gain muscle in that kind of calorie deficit?

I agree, I think her body is in starvation body so is storing food essentially.

I'm 5'1, weigh 8st and my BMR just for my body to function properly is around 1350 calories. 1100 calories a day is too little for anyone

Mate. This is physically impossible.

Starvation mode isn't real

And it sounds as though your body has adjusted to 1,100 being your baseline intake, so you’re not burning enough to make it a deficit. This isn't how bodies work

There is no way someone aged 47 at 12.5 stone is burning less than 1100 calories a day.

Don’t eat more op, I think logically you know that’s not how weight loss works,