GAINING WEIGHT

I am no expert on the matter because I am just in the process of being diagnosed with another underlying hormonal disorder on top of hypothyroidism that only might be PCOS, but my endocrinologist has said several times that it is harder for people with PCOS to loose weight than the general population. It isn't impossible, but it is more difficult. As such, I conjecture that your body is reacting to the reduced calorie deficit differently than the general population. How long have you been eating 1300 calories each day? Do you have a doctor that treats you for PCOS? If so, I recommend you talk with him/her about it. They would be the expert on the matter and offer solid advice particular to your situation on what to do.

Most importantly, though, is to be patient with yourself. Once things sort themselves out, you WILL loose the weight because you are determined to do so.

Feel free to friend me if you feel that I can help you on your weight loss journey.

I have had a few weeks where I eat way below my calorie goals and yet don't see as much weight loss. I am starting to think that I need to eat a certain amount to loose weight. It doesn't make any logical sense, but it seems like my body slows down weight loss at a certain calorie level. I don't know if this is true, unique for me, or applies in anyway but it is just a thought.

Makes perfect sense.

I'll break it down for you.

You burn about 1800-2800 calories a day (maybe more depending on height, weight, body fat, activity)
Stasis is eating the same calories you burn and thus staying the same.
Once you start eating at a deficit your leptin levels start to fluctuate and within the first week you could see leptin levels drop up to 50%.
Leptin tells the brain that there is ample food and its okay to not store body fat for energy.
If you drop calories too low, cortisol, a hormone that wakes you up and gives you energy in the morning, instead of tapering off in the afternoon and lowering in the evening will continue to be at a higher level all day.
Cortisol is antagonistic to muscle growth and maintenance and can actually break down lean mass to allow the body to have more energy at lower caloric levels.
It basically is trying to slow you down.
Lean mass is active tissue so muscle, heart, lungs, kidneys, etc require calories to operate.
When you have less of this active tissue then youll require less calories to function throughout the day.
Then when you decide that this isnt working and lets say your TDEE used to be 2500 but since youve been dieting down for so long and diminished LBM with some fat your new TDEE may be like 1700 (hypothetical of course).
So you do the calculators and decide that since the calcs say 2500 and youd lose fat at a 20% cut at 2k.
you start eating 2k a day and you are now 300cals above your diminished TDEE and gaining.

The good news is if you continue to lift weights and forget about cardio for a while youll actually build lean mass back and thus restore your TDEE to its higher number.

Its always a good idea to start slow, figure your numbers out for yourself and go from there.

Took me a year of experimenting to find out that on off weeks I maintain at 2k and on work weeks I maintain at 2700.

Also through 100s of numbers ive found that almost all women can lose fat at 1600-1800 calories as long as they are lifting weights 2-4x a week.