I’m doing everything right but scale won’t budge?

Hello and wecome!

Are you thinking of this as a sprint? If you are, it helps to do a reframe: you are in a marathon. It may take some time to really see notable progress. Your body's adjusting to the changes, and any change can confuse the body. Give it time to learn that your are changing some things up.

Hello, and welcome!

Not to be mean, but to be real: You joined in December, but didn't get really serious until 8 days ago . . . well, 7 days as of your post.

Some people do lose weight over the holidays, but that most commonly would take serious seriousness.

I wouldn't necessarily expect to see much in the way of results after 7 days in January. That's extra true if also adding new exercise.

Weight loss - especially weight loss that will result in staying around goal weight - is going to take patience and persistence. Common start-up advice here is to set a calorie goal and stay close to that - maybe +/- 50 calories daily - on average for 4-6 weeks, whole menstrual cycle at minimum for people who have those. The average result over that time provides the personal data needed to adjust calorie goal if necessary. It can take that long to get a realistic view of results.

Losing any meaningful amount of weight isn't a quick project with an end date. It's about finding a way of eating fewer calories while staying reasonably full and generally happy long enough to lose the total amount of weight we need to lose, then keeping those general habits going to stay at that good weight. It's a lifelong thing.

Implication: Don't make a super difficult plan. Make it as easy as you can, consistent with reaching goal. If it takes you some time to work out the right plan, that's OK. As long as you keep working at it, you'll get there. That kind of approach relies less on "motivation", more on finding and practicing better routine habits. It's a different mindset.

Fast fat loss, 2 pounds a week, is losing just over 4.5 ounces daily . . . around a quarter of a pound. Not much.

Our bodies can be up to 60% water, and water retention fluctuates by up to several pounds from one day to the next, even one week to the next sometimes. It definitely can be more than 4.5 ounces a day, or two pounds a week! That's part of how healthy bodies stay healthy, so we shouldn't try to defeat that: They know what they're doing.

Then there's digestive contents. Simplistically, an apple in your stomach weighs the same as an apple in your hand. Until it's fully metabolized, which can take up to a couple of days or so, the calorie impact hasn't hit, but the waste, maybe up to half a pound, is still in the digestive tract. Until the calories hit, fat is unaffected . . . and if you're truly in a calorie deficit, it won't be stored as net fat anyway. But the food weight in your digestive tract varies by multiple pounds daily for reasons like that, too, and it matters how often you hit the bathroom and what happens there in private. Don't try to game that, either: Again, your body knows what it's doing.

Hang in there. This process can work. Make a simple plan, not something that requires white-knuckled "motivation". Don't try to be perfect instantly or every second, because few humans can do that. But you can succeed at this process, if you're realistic and stick with it. It's worth the effort, IME.

Context: I've been here for over 9 years, a bit under a year of loss from class 1 obese to healthy weight, the rest maintaining that healthy weight. During loss, I was 59-60, menopausal, severely hypothyroid (medicated for it); and I'm basically a hedonistic aging hippie flake with a near zero budget of willpower, motivation or discipline. I figure if I could do it, most adults - more mature than I - can probably do it, too.

You can.

Best wishes!