First off, do you have a metabolic condition such as PCOS or insulin resistance, even at a low/subclinical level, eg irregular periods, greasy skin, excess body hair, apple shape. That can make weight loss much harder.
I would try low carb. Ditch the low fat products, they’re choc full of excess sugar (to replace the flavour of the fat taken out), artificial sweeteners and general flavourless gack.
Ditch: sugar, syrups, alcohol, anything sweet flavoured, cold soft drinks, potatoes, rice, bread, pasta etc, low fat dairy, low fat anything, most processed foods like commercial sauces, breakfast cereal etc.
Do eat: meat esp fatty cuts, fish, eggs, full fat dairy, cheese, fresh raw salads, lightly cooked vegetables (go for mainly above ground veg rather than roots), fresh or frozen berries (unsweetened), EV olive oil, butter, coconut, lard/goose fat.
typical day:
Breakfast: FF authentic greek yoghurt (Total or Aldi… preferably not “greek style”) with double cream. Scant 1/4 cup of berries, splash of vanilla
Lunch: big dinner bowl of raw salad, chunky batons of halloumi wrapped in streaky bacon & fried, or a fillet of smoked mackerel
Dinner: homemade lamb burger, or steak, or roast chicken pieces with a huge pile of buttery lightly steamed veg
Snack: slice of cheese and pastrami/parma ham etc rolled up
Drink: coffee with cream, one or two cups of tea with FF milk, herb teas, lots of water (2 to 3 litres)
Don’t count calories, you’re not an internal combustion engine! The body is a complex biochemical and metabolic powerhouse. It’s not that the laws of physics don’t apply, it’s the fact that eating different patterns of macronutrients (protein/fat/carbs) has a huge differential effect on how those calories within the food are metabolised and where they go in the body. It’s not calories per se that cause weight gain, but the body’s insulin response to those calories that direct the body to convert them to body fat and lay them down. CICO is not wrong, but irrelevant when you have biochemical/metabolic processes at play.
250 calories of kale and bacon omelette will have a completely different effect on the body’s metabolism and weight patterns than 250 calories of lucky stars breakfast cereal with skimmed milk.
Ergo, eat a diet that has a minimal effect on your blood sugar levels and insulin response. So this is where LCHF comes in, it has been shown by blood tests to be very low insulemic. Insulin is the fat storage hormone… it is anabolic - builds you up.
Likewise, a low GI diet is good for evening out the blood sugar levels. However the fatal flaw of low GI is that it doesn’t account for fructose. Table sugar only has a GI of about 41, which is the glucose component. However, the other part fructose is far more deadly than glucose, leading to obesity, chronic metabolic diseases and liver/pancreas dysfunction. But because it doesn’t have a direct glycemic response, it’s not accounted for in GI food ratings. So if you do go for a GI approach, avoid anything sweetened with sugar/syrup/honey/agave. Eat only fruit with a high fibre to sweetness ratio (sour temperate fruit like berries & apples rather than juicy sweet tropical fruit like mangos).
In evolutionary times, sugar was either limited by the short seasonality of fruit or protected by bees. That was only a few generations ago… our bodies haven’t yet caught up with having 24/7/365 access to supermarkets, drive thru fast food joints and donut stands in shopping malls. Our bodies cannot cope with the sudden hyper-availability of sweet and carby foods, hence why at the demographic level we have such huge problems with obesity, diabetes, metabolic chronic disease etc.
Doing exercise doesn’t correspond to weight loss in any linear fashion, but it’s still brilliant to do in its own right. Burning 750 calories is not going to lose a commensurate amount of body fat. It comes back to insulin again… doing exercise massively improves your insulin sensitivity… so your pancreas has to pump out lower amounts of insulin in response to one unit of glucose in the blood.
Less insulin = fewer hormonal messages telling your body to put down fat stores.
Read John Briffa Escape the Diet Trap, goes into all the details about the approach.