Stuck at the same weight for last few weeks

[2anddone]

Hi I am 5ft 5 and currently weigh 10st 8lb. Using mfp I have lost 1st 3lb but have now plateaued. For the last few weeks I have been at 10st 8lb and the scales don't seem to be going down any more!
I do at least 10,000 steps a day and stick to my calories which mfp give me which is 1640 to lose 1lb a week.
I don't eat the calories I get from exercising yet I don't limit myself so if it's in my calories I will have it for example the ice cream man came round yesterday so I had a small mr whippy.
I am 43 next month (don't know if that makes any difference) ideally I would like to get down to 10st but seem stuck at 10st 8....any ideas please?

I would say you’re going to have to weight train to raise your resting metabolism or do more intense calorie burning to burn more calories off or reduce your calories further. It’s as simple as that.

• reduce your calories further by eating less

That seems like a pretty high TDEE for your weight. I think you may need to reduce calories if you want to lose more - though you are within healthy range just about so it will be harder

@2anddone pribably best to reduce calories to 1200/1300 see if you lose that way. Good luck

1640 calories seems a lot, most people (me included) on other threads seem to be doing 1000-1200

My TDEE is 2300 as a much heavier woman so I'm surprised you are expecting to lose 1lb a week at that. I can lose 1lb at 1800cals a day

I’m a similar height and I’d love to be 10’8. We unfortunately are not not getting younger. You’ve done amazingly well to lose over a stone. I wouldn’t lose on 1600 but maybe try to maintain for another month then see what happens.

Ok thank you. I am happy to maintain for now I don't really want to drop calories too much more while we are in lockdown however once I reopen around 1st June (childminder) I will hopefully be too busy/active and may begin to lose again

There's an interesting article on MFP which says that you should aim to lose 5-10% of your weight at a time and then stay at that weight for 6 months before then losing the next 10%. Apparently it stops your body resisting against losing the weight.

Weight will plateau. Most people come to a plateau point and you have to exercise harder to work through it. Reducing calories may be a short term answer but it's very rarely a long term solution to healthy weight loss.

Think forward and imagine you've lost those extra 8lbs. Really put yourself in the body of your 'future self' who's successfully shed, and kept off, all the weight. What would you be doing differently to what you're doing now? That's your answer.