What do I need to do ?

[Thistooshallpass.]

I’m at a loss . I want to lose about 4 pounds to be my ideal weight - this is where my tummy looks ok .

I watch my diet , I exercise a lot , my scales say I’m 21% body fat ( which I think is quite low ) . My upper body is very toned , legs are fine . But … I have a band of squishy fat that sits around my mid section - low abdomen and hips .
Nothing I do makes any difference to it .
It looks very disproportionate to the rest of my body . My weight will not go down - in fact it’s increased by 2 pounds this year - I have been doing more exercise so may be muscle .
I know because of my age it’s likely hormonal partly .
What short of liposuction can I do ?!

Work out your tdee.
Your calorie allowance drastically reduces as you get older. It’s not called middle age spread for nothing!
A weight loss calorie target is 20% lower than tdee.
My tummy only vanished when I was towards the lower end of my BMI, HRT helped though.

Cut out sugar.

Hmm- my tdee says if I’m cutting I should have 1600 calories a day - I think I have less than that already or no more ..

BMI is around 20 - maybe I need to be lower end - but literally nothing happens no matter what I do .

Entirely cut sugar ? Natural sources ?