5'6 female- BMI 25. I have been trying to lose weight for the last year after gaining ten lbs basically in three months back in late 2024/ early 2025- until I reached 153lbs. I tried eating healthier and started doing at home workouts/ pilates (mainly abs and glute). I noticed I was getting leaner again but the scale stayed the same. I finally went down 7 lbs when I went on vacation but regained it back as my college campus' sodium levels are crazy and there are nonexistent good fiber options.
Since october of last year I have started going to the gym 2-3 times a week, using weights this time for glute, arm, and core workouts. However I stopped back in december-january and it completely threw off my body. Period delayed by two weeks, feeling more fatigued, just felt off. Then in february I started getting into the routine again, this time buying weights for my dorm so I could be more motivated. I feel myself reregulating, period finally becoming more on time, so I took it as a good sign. However I in fact have gained weight while doing so, now being 158 (one scale tells me 156-159lbs, another scale tells me 154-156lbs).
I know a lot of this comes from body recomp but I feel as though I'm not losing enough fat to make up for this difference. I've even gone on a calorie deficit (now eating around 1600) and tracking my meals for almost three weeks now (been trying to make smaller portion sizes and eating less for the past year though), and have increased my cardio to almost 10k steps every day (some days a bit less than and some days more), and have been using the stairmaster + treadmill to help build cardiovascular health as well. People say they see their weight dropping at least by half a lb to a lb doing this, even through water weight, but I usually gain 3 lbs after weighing myself from cardio (takes 2 rest days for it to settle back down to 156.5).
I'm concerned if I do an even stricter calorie deficit that I'll mess up my period again, ive noticed it is slightly shorter now that I'm working out more consistently (daily almost) or to not make my body feel as though it needs to go into "survival" mode as I see some describe. I just want to see the results I'm feeling.
What am I doing wrong? How long is this meant to take for the weight to go down? Thank you!!