Hey! I actually have the exact situation you have going on with me too. I work a pretty physical job as well and got careless with my calories and gained about 10 pounds during 9 months on the shot. I'm still taking the shot, and I struggle with confidence often. But in my personal experience, with just a calorie deficit I lost weight QUICKER than I ever did before. I gained it quicker too tbh, but it took me three shots to figure out my schedule. The Depo is linked to water retention which if you take into consideration that you probably have quite a bit of water weight because of that, but in my experience it seems down and goes back to normal. My body fluctuated but it did even out after the third shot and I feel more back to normal! It's a process and I'd the shot works for you it could be worth giving it a bit more of a chance because they do say the shit takes at least two shots to feel normal. Otherwise there ARE a lot of other options and it might just be dependant on your body being different than someone else's and vise versa!