Nothing is working!

How are you logging your foods? Are you weighing everything? Many times this is due to inaccurate logging.

You're eating a surplus of calories.

You barely mention calories at all. You can exercise all day long but if you're eating too much you're going to gain weight. Work on your logging. Use your food scale for all solids. Measuring cups/spoons for all liquids. Use the recipe builder. Use accurate entries. Don't over estimate exercise calories. Log every single thing that passes your lips. Be sure your calorie goal is calculated correctly.

What type of macros--if any--are we talking about here? Keeping to your calorie limit is fine, but if your macronutrients are not also a factor that could be part of the problem.

ALSO, have you considered that you've put on muscle? Because muscle is heavier than fat.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, screw the scale! How do you look? How do you feel? How do your clothes fit?

DomhDomh wrote: »

ALSO, have you considered that you've put on muscle? Because muscle is heavier than fat.

No it isn't. Use words correctly. A pound of muscle weighs as much as a pound of fat.

Muscle is more DENSE than fat and looks better on the human body under most circumstances.

And as @Ready2Rock206 said, you will not gain weight if you are really on deficit, no matter what your macros are.

It is unheard of for a woman who is not weight training 3 or 4 days per week to put on 10 lbs of muscle in a year.
That presumes about 60 minutes of weight training per day.
Pilates and Yoga will not put on that kind of muscle.

Based on your opening post, I suggest you ask yourself these questions:
1. What am I logging as exercise?
Light cardio for 30 minutes is maybe going to earn 100 calories, depending on your size which I don't know. Pilates and yoga also won't be a big calorie burn. It's really difficult to have confidence in the calorie burn claimed by a machine, and it's really difficult to have confidence in calorie burn claimed for pilates and yoga.

2. Am I eating all my exercise calories?
But wait! Didn't I just cast doubt on the calorie burn of the exercise you described? Yes, I did.
I suggest that you not eat back any of your exercise calories. You didn't say that you were eating back your exercise calories, but the unexplained gain you describe in a year can be explained by the uncertainty in the calorie burns you may be claiming and eating.

3. Am I cooking my own food, without accurately entering it into the recipe tool?
This is a way for you to lose a grip on portion control, and even to lose track of flavorings and condiments you may be using now which you did not use in months past.

4. Am I mixing diets?
Seriously. Are you allowing yourself unlimited WW fruits without counting them on mfp?

try switching up your cardio with HIIT and do some strength training. It would seem you are not in a caloric deficit which is required to loose weight, despite all of your good efforts. Also, if you do not have much weight to loose, the weightloss can tend to feel a little slower. you will need to show your diary or give some more info for us to give you a proper answer.

GeorginaYoungEllis wrote: »

Your responses have given some really helpful things to consider. I am, generally, eating back my exercise calories. My calorie limit for losing weight is 1260 so it's really hard not to. Yes, I was fairly thin to begin with, and just want to get back to my original weight. I moved out of NYC, and have a much less stressful lifestyle, so I think my metabolism slowed down. I'm pretty sure I'm measuring portions correctly, but I think I need to do more strenuous cardio and more weights. Again, thank you for your responses. I have a lot of food for thought (no pun intended) here!

You're not measuring correctly if you're only "pretty sure". Get a food scale and weigh everything you consume.
You do not need more strenuous cardio to lose weight. You need to fix your logging.
More weights wouldn't hurt though.

To help you be more sure you're measuring your food correctly, take a watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnnpUYmr0OM

GeorginaYoungEllis wrote: »

I am, generally, eating back my exercise calories. My calorie limit for losing weight is 1260 so it's really hard not to.

For what it is worth, the 1200 calorie range is possibly too low, depending on your age and body fat percentage.

Where and how did you come up with 1260 calories per day? What is your BMR?
Even if you lose the weight at that number, you will likely pile it back on as soon as you are done with your "diet", unless you are weight training.

If you body needs more protein than you eat (due to illness, stress, exercise, Basal Metabolic Rate, TDEE, etc) it will be forced to catabolize muscle / lean body mass. That is Bad.
Then you will be complaining you "can't keep the weight off".
Because you have lost so much lean body mass your BMR will be lower and your resulting body fat percentage will be even higher.

That is where your "macros" come into play. You need to be eating enough protein to protect yourself from muscle loss.

This isn't a major problem now because you are not being accurate about your CICO (Calories In, Calories Out) but once you are things may get rough.

In other words, you may be better off eating more and training harder to put on muscle.
Putting on muscle will help keep the pounds off when you hit your "goal", you ill look better and you will feel far better.

I recommend this calculator:
https://legionathletics.com/macronutrient-calculator/

If you do not have access to a reliable method of to properly / professionally measure your body fat then there are various methods to estimate your body fat percentage via Google.
Estimate your body fat on the high end, whether you like it or not.
When in doubt, use several estimate methods and take the highest one.

Then track your food calories (not exercise calories) via MFP.

All the numbers are estimates, so you need to track carefully and adjust as needed.

Do not play with the numbers or macros until you have been on a given "diet" for at least 3 weeks, even if the scale goes up for the first two weeks.