Frustrated

When you are actively trying to lose weight, are you restricting yourself too much? A diet that has too few calories or that doesn't allow you to eat foods you really enjoy isn't sustainable for long. It is easy to get into the starvation then binge cycle where weight goes up and down and up and down. Also, how long are you trying to lose weight before you give up? Weight can go up and down due to water retention, hormones, etc. It is easy to think that your diet isn't working when it is actually just a matter of water causing temporary weight gain.

I lost weight when I was about your age. (Lost 50-some pounds at age 59-60, will turn 68 later this week.) Your profile says female; so am I. I'm also severely hypothyroid, but properly medicated.

I agree with some of those above: Why you're not sticking with it is really important.

Me, I stayed fat for literal decades, because I just didn't sincerely commit to making a change in my life. Wanting to be at a lighter weight wasn't enough, some switch in my head needed to flip to "committed". For many years, my behavior clearly said that I wanted the short-term pleasure of eating more tasty food, than I wanted to long-term benefit of being at a healthy weight. I feel like my behavior is the expression of what I truly mean and what I truly want: Voting with my feet, essentially.

I don't know how to flip that switch to "committed", even in myself. But it needed to happen.

Beyond that, I do wonder how severely you're trying to restrict yourself. I'm a big believer in trying to make weight management easy (relatively, at least) rather than trying to make it fast.

Most of the things "they say" about weight loss are nonsense, or at least not Universal Truths. We don't all need to give up treat foods forever, never eat fast food again, eat only low-calorie superfoods, drink buckets of water, do punitively intense and miserable exercises, cut carbohydrate intake to small double-digit grams daily, etc.

Do some people need to do particular things? Sure. If someone's insulin resistant or diabetic, they're going to need to manage carbs carefully. Would many people feel full on fewer calories if a larger fraction of their eating was nutrient-dense so-called whole foods, if they've previously been eating lots of high-calorie, nutrient sparse, highly processed foods? Mostly likely. But those aren't universal, nor absolute.

For many of us, all those ideas do is make losing weight harder, so we're more likely to give up. Even if we can stick it out through losing a meaningful total amount of weight - weeks to months or even years - we're likely to reach "the end" and "go back to normal". That's the recipe for weight yo-yo-ing, possibly the least healthful scenario.

Better: Set up a manageable plan for losing weight gradually. Reduce frequency or portion sizes of high-calorie foods, especially if they're not very nutritious. Eat foods we like eating, just portion sizes and choices that add up to a reasonably nutritious, reasonably filling amount of food. Figure out how to eat in a way that will balance calories, nutrition, affordability, practicality and enjoyment. Figure out how we can eat long term, relatively happily, to reach and stay at a healthy weight.

I found that when I logged my food, the first calorie cuts were both obvious and pretty easy: When I saw the calorie cost of certain foods, they weren't worth it to me, at least not in then-current portions/frequency. What those foods might be would differ for other people, but I'd bet most people would find some if they start logging.

Alongside that, if inclined, add manageable increases in activity, either in daily life or intentional exercise, or both. Keep that moderate and enjoyable too, and gradually increase as we get fitter. A daily walk in the park might be pleasant, and will burn some extra calories, so we can eat a bit more while losing weight at that same sensibly moderate rate.

TL;DR: Don't think you need to do extreme things. Find relatively manageable, tolerable changes you can make in your routine habits, both eating and activity. Just stick with that. If there's a momentary lapse, learn from it, let it go, get back on track. It's what we do on the majority of our days, on average, that determines the majority of our progress. Habits are powerful: Harness them. You can make progress.

Best wishes!