Where am I going wrong?

[Thenthatsthatthen]

I have at least a stone to loose. I suffer from PCOS and take a birth control both of which can make you gain wait/struggle to loose it. Having said that I’ve been dieting for over a month now and I have only lost 5lb. A typical day can be as followed:
Breakfast

• 2x small eggs (boiled or scrambled without milk/butter)

-Weekends I might add half a can of tinned tomato’s and/or a veggie sausage.

Lunch
-salad with cheese (reduced fat feta, mozzarella etc) or tofu. Maybe some lemon drizzle.
-or a homemade cauliflower cheese (low carb, low fat recipe).

Snack
-carrot sticks with 1tbsp low fat hommous
-OR 60g strawberry’s with a small pot of Greek yoghurt.

Dinner
-green veg with a vegetable patty
-or stir fry with tofu
-or homemade vegetable curry
-or skinny bang bang cauliflower and salad.

Average around 20-30g of carbs a day (never over 50g) and no more than 40g of fat a day (most of which comes from the cheese). Calorie wise anything between 600-900 a day.
Excercise wise I walk 10,000 steps a day, gym 2-3 times a week and a spin class once per week.
Some days I’m starving by bed time others I’m fine, guess it depends on the days protein intake. but I do wonder if I should be loosing more than 1lb a week.

Are you actually strictly counting your calories cause that sounds like more than 600-900, it’s crazy how fast they add up

However, you need to eat at least 1200 a day, MINIMUM. That’s what your body needs to exist.

My best advice is find a BMR calculator online, work out what you need to lose weight, and be strict on my fitness pal.

I’ve been using it for 2.5 months and have lost 6kg, steadily. I’m almost at my goal weight and I’m on 1300 Kcals a day.

It can be tricky to work out exactly what you need, but it works if you’re strict!

Are you sure your typical day totals between 600-900 a day? That's a low calorie intake tbh.

5lb in a month is actually really good bough, you don’t reallt want to lose more than that! Slow and steady is how you’ll keep it off.

But seriously, if you are eating only 600-900 a day it’s not enough!

I suspect your calorie intake is underestimated. But it's still a good weight loss, slow and steady.

If you only have a stone to lose you may not be very big in the first place so it takes a lot longer to lose weight then. 5lbs in a month sounds fine to me.

I think your loss is fine. Slow and steady weight loss has been proven to be more likely to stick rather than losing lots, super quickly.

I'm struggling to see how the food you list could be coming in at 600-900 cals though. Are you weighing every single thing you eat? Accounting for oils used in cooking? People usually underestimate when left to guesswork.

Everything this weighed and recorded so yes I’m sure! For example eggs this morning were 150 calories, lunch was califlower cheese made with reduced fat cheddar (50g cheese and 90g cauliflower) and was 300 calories. Dinner is cooking and will be broccoli and a vegetable patty coming in at 200 calories. I had a miller light and handful of strawberries earlier which was 115 cal . Overall that’s 775 cal, 20.2g carbs and 31.4g fat. I use mfp to track.
I weight everything before cooking and factor in cooking oils/seasonings.

1st is the minimum to get to a healthy bmi, but a bit more wouldn’t be such a bad thing. I’ve lost 2-3 a week before so guess I expected the same results this time.

But if you’re using my fitness pal and you complete your diary it’ll tell you it’s too little to be eating.

Seriously, you’ll do damage eating that little. You’ll end up exhausted, and eventually binging. Also your body with go into starvation mode and cling onto anything extra. Who advised you to eat so little? Please find a bmr calculator and calculate how much you should actually be eating.

Starvation mode doesn't exist.

That said, it really isn't a good idea to eat so little OP. Your body will really struggle especially given that you're quite active/going to the gym etc.

Why have you decided to eat so little? 600 calories is in the realm of what many anorexia sufferers eat.

Fwiw I eat 1000-1200 calories a day (high protein/low carb), rarely feel hungry and am always full of energy. Think you could really benefit from upping your calorie intake tbh. Weight loss depends purely on CICO (Calories In vs Calories Out) so as long as you're eating at a caloric deficit you will lose the weight. It might just take a wee bit longer than you initially hoped for.

If you're eating so little (and you shouldn't be...that's why your body is holding onto fat, probably at the expense of your muscles), you really need to have a cheat day where you eat a lot. This will reset your metabolism and hopefully kick start your weight loss.

No one advised it it’s just a pattern I fell into naturally. I started intending to do a high fat low carb. But went veggie a few months ago so struggling a bit with the high fat part (my fat was mainly meat, now it’s cheese, dc very allergic to nuts so don’t tend to eat those).
But also only eat when in genuinely hungry (I used to eat a lot out of bordom). And most days I’m simply not that hungry. Its only on gym days when I don’t have an extra snack type thing I feel hungry.
I drink a lot of water so maybe that supresses the hunger.

5lb in a month seems like a pretty good weight loss to me - 1-2lb a week is a pretty sustainable weight loss. You could try an egg fast for 1-3 days to try and "kick things off" if you look into that??