Does this exercise and eating routine seem balanced for steady weight loss?

[LoftyCoralBird]

i need to lose 8lbs and happy to do it steadily while eating well. PCOS and now menopause so weight loss tends to be incredibly slow anyway, with carbs setting me back massively. I weight lift three times a week and get 10k steps daily. Have you any thoughts on this .. does it seem balanced?

So yesterday …

eggs fried in olive oil, avocado, spinach, chilli flakes

Creatine with moju Tumeric ginger shot

Full fat greek yogurt with raspberries, honey and Linwoods goji sunflower flax pumpkin chia mix

Green tea

chicken leg

Coffees with milk

Water

Salmon, roasted root veg, salad, salad dressing, various pickles, dips

Chocolate protein drink and full fat milk to create milkshake

iron, b12 tablets

i probably have cake, bread or grains three times a week but I only have to look at the stuff to put on weight

Sounds lovely to be honest, but impossible to say without knowing how many calories it is, and how tall you are and how much you weigh.

It’s impossible to say without the weight of the food you’ve listed. 100g of full fat yoghurt or 300g? 1 tbs of olive oil or 3 tbs?

How are you tracking your food?

You need to work out your tdee and count the calories of every single thing. Olive oil, salmon and avocado are very calorie dense and you could easily be eating 3000 kcal a day with those foods (delicious though).

Ive a BMI of 23. I’ll work out my TDEE now thanks

It sounds delicious! But yes, you need to weigh every single item that goes in your mouth and use an app like Nutracheck/MFP to add it up for you. If it's 300-500 cals less than your TDEE you will lose weight. If you eat a very repetitive diet and are using tsp/tbsp for oils etc, then you probably only need to weigh for a week, and then after that just do it occasionally to check your portion sizes are still good.

Just wanted to check you are taking inositol too. So many women with PCOS don't seem to know about it.

Also OP, a lot of your choices are very calorie dense. You would need to eat tiny portions of them to stay within your calorie deficit.

Focus on higher volume foods like squash, bulking out rice with 50% cauliflower rice, cottage cheese etc. I always feel more satisfied eating more.

It’s a fairly healthy diet, but you’re almost certainly not in a calorie deficit. Your exercise levels aren’t particularly high.

Unfortunately it’s probably the (healthy) fats in your diet that are the culprit for weight gain, not a bit of bread every other day.

As others have said it’s hard to know without you saying portion size and your own height etc. It sounds like a diet for someone doing a lot of exercise and it doesn’t sound like you do loads (sorry, you’re doing plenty but most people wouldn’t have the protein shake unless they’re doing more intensive exercise and why would you use full fat milk unless you’re wanting to gain weight not lose?).

I should also say your food sounds really tasty. I have that Linwoods stuff on my cereal and I love it.