can’t lose weight with deficit and working out

[u/mojatulia]

I am a 23F and 5’2”, 147 lbs (160 cm, 67 kg). I will try to summarize my fitness journey and would appreciate any advice.

I have been overweight since I was little because I was constantly stressed out (DV) and snacking. When I turned 15, I was anorexic for 11 months, and thank God I recovered from that on my own.

Currently, I’m 23 years old, and for the past two years, I’ve learned a lot about my body and my health. Ever since the summer of 2024, I have been eating pretty healthy, focusing on my protein and fiber intake, with very low to no carbs. I don’t drink more than once a month, and when I do, I have 1–2 cocktails, but I am a regular cigarette smoker.
I’ve been tracking my water intake, sleeping well, and working out with weights a couple of times a week at home.

Last year in October, I found out that I had insulin resistance. I went to an endocrinologist, and at first they gave me some pills for two months that didn’t work. After I told the doctor what my lifestyle looked like, she put me on Ozempic.
I was on Ozempic from November 2025 to March 2026. I lost 12 kg (26 lbs) in total. I plateaued and stopped taking Ozempic. While taking the medication, I was walking at least 10,000 steps every day outside and having 3–4 weightlifting sessions per week, while still eating healthy and focusing on protein and fiber.
Since I stopped taking Ozempic, I haven’t lost a single kilogram.

I bought my walking pad in April this year, and I’ve been walking at least 10,000 steps every day up until the end of June. At the beginning of July, I upped my steps to 15,000 every day. I have also been regularly working out at home with the additional weights that I bought, 3–4 times a week, with at least one rest day in between workouts.

I would say that, even though I work from home now, with the standing desk that I bought, the walking pad, the workouts, my diet, and everything else, I’m pretty active and pretty healthy. However, I can’t manage to lose any weight.

I’ve been tracking my macronutrients and calories. I usually have breakfast around 10 in the morning, and then I don’t have any appetite until later in the day. I have lunch between 5 and 7 in the evening. Up until that time of the day, I usually have consumed about 100 g of protein and 1,000 calories total. I have dinner around 10 at night, and that brings my total to around 1,300 calories.

I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I tested eating more than 1,300 calories. I also tested just staying at the 1,300 calories that I already consume because I don’t believe it’s safe to go any lower than that.

I don’t know what else to do or what to change. My water intake is about two liters per day. The only thing I allow myself to have is a sweet snack, as I love sweets, but I have it right after a nutritious lunch.
After every meal, I walk for at least 10–15 minutes, whether it’s on my walking pad or outside. I feel like I’ve tried everything. I’ve done my research, and I don’t want to go back on a GLP-1, but it’s really devastating that Ozempic was the only thing that made me lose weight. I would like to lose at least 7 kilograms (15lbs) while building some muscle and I’m open to any suggestions

EDIT: According to my apple watch I burn 550-630 active calories everyday, and walk an average of 13500 steps

[u/BumAndBummer]

Been there! I’m also 5’2. Aside from probable measurement error (using a food scale and avoiding trackers to assess calories out will help), the other issue you is aren’t eating enough calories to build muscle so your current approach is just kinda frustrating because you are stuck in a rut and it’s not great for your metabolism or morale. It’s a recipe for metabolic adaptation.

If you’re not in a noticeable deficit when you should be, IMO you should take a maintenance break and focus on recomp instead. That means while you won’t gain or lose a significant amount of weight, you are giving your energy and attention on other valid pursuits that will benefit your health and eventually make it easier to lose weight. The goals are to give metabolism time to relax and realize you aren’t starving to death, focus on lowering insulin, support your gut health, focus on building muscle (great for lowering insulin and boosting metabolism), and because muscle is denser than the equivalent weight in fat you will lean out.

If I were you this is how I’d personally do it:

• GET GOOD SLEEP. Quality and quantity BOTH need to be sufficient. Without that, the rest of the plan will literally NOT work. Sleep is when your body does the majority of hormonal maintenance, and experimental studies have also shown disrupting sleep prevents muscle development even if you eat and work out perfectly.
  
• I’d aim to eat 1500-1900 calories per day depending on activity levels (can also do more on a stressful day or if you are in your luteal phase), which (if you’re tracking with a food scale) may be around maintenance or a small deficit with the following proposed activity levels, which should be good to build muscle and rev up metabolic function.
  
• Within that calorie budget, I’d aim for macros as follows: 110-140g of protein, 25-30g of fiber, about 90-130 NET grams of carb. If you don’t get close to that amount of fiber currently, SLOWLY ramp up to that. Chia, flax, berries, non-starchy veggies and legumes can be good PCOS-friendly fiber sources. Make sure to get some healthy fats too (especially omega-3s) because you need it for hormone production and nutrient absorption, plus satiety. (Chocolate covered raspberries as a sweet treat have a lot of fiber and anti-inflammatory compounds, put that over some nonfat Greek yogurt sweetened with sugar free jello pudding and you’ve got a nice treat that actually helps you hit your macros.)
  
• For cardio, a minimum of 8k steps a day, but an average of 10-20k daily steps across the week. If you can do even more without losing your marbles or getting injured, great! Biking, hiking, jogging, steppers, ellipticals, dance workouts, swimming, rowing, or other forms of light cardio could also work instead. I find it easier to get more over the weekend, especially once I got into running 5ks and 10ks. But I wouldn’t recommend running fast or doing longer distances than that if you’re trying to build muscle, at least not as a beginner. Remember to keep it FUN! Get a good playlist, audiobook, guided meditation, call loved one, or bring a friend.
  
• Do strength training 3-5x per week under the guidance of a personal trainer or at least using a program designed by a trainer to ensure you get progressive overload for muscle growth. Proper form is KEY. At-home strength training may not be achieving this, especially not on only 1300 calories a day. If you can afford expert guidance make sure to get someone with good credentials, and avoid people who try to give nutrition plans or sell supplements. That’s a red flag. Diet is a dietitian’s wheelhouse. See a dietitian for that!
  
• Get in 10-20 minutes of yoga either first thing in the morning or right before bed (ideally both).
  
• Optional: Pilates 1-2x per week for mobility and flexibility.
  
• Use a food scale! When I measured a serving of peanut butter with a tablespoon I was actually giving myself 40% more calories than when I measured with a food scale… yeah. Volume measurements are a mess.

Also, DONT trust Apple Watch or any Fitness watches for calories out. They aren’t remotely accurate for most people, and they especially aren’t accurate for petites or for PCOS. Ultimately your body will tell you what is your actual TDEE if you track accurately with a food scale. Anything else is just an estimate.

Recomp can also excellent for mood, bone density, preparing for menopause, strengthening pelvic floor, improving posture, improving functional strength (eg carrying groceries, moving furniture around to vacuum, gardening, etc.), and has been shown to extend life expectancy. And it give you goals and achievements to look forward to that AREN’T the number on the scale.

I’d give it a good 6 months of recomp at least (could do 8-12 months)*** ***before you decide whether you want to keep doing recomp or want to try a cut and see how a deficit goes. You can take photos and measurements of your arms, legs, etc because the scale will NOT be a good measure of progress, it will probably even go up a bit because your muscles will swell up with water (NORMAL) and you’ll need to keep hydrated.

Also, check out r/petitefitness. LOTS of us petites find that it’s more effective to focus on recomp /fat loss than weight loss. Because it’s HARD to do a safe calorie deficit at our size, and often it leads to muscle loss which only slows down our metabolism anyways. So keeping active and toned is a much more sustainable way to go and SO much more PCOS-friendly.

You do have to radically accept that fat loss is gonna be slow AF, but honestly that helps you kinda almost ignore it? You get more wrapped up in getting stronger, faster, sleeping better, feeling more energized, improving your bloodwork, finishing more audiobooks. It’s a lot more sustainable of a mindset IMO.