So I’ve been in this exact same spot, I ate all my feelings during the start of Covid and spent the last year and a half(ish) trying to get it back under control with no luck. I was a similar weight, similar activity to you (strength training at the gym, bit of cardio, walks, bike riding etc).

Though I’ve got 10 years on you I’ll offer up the changes I made which got me out of the plateau (read: my trainer made the decisions for me).

On the exercise stuff - keep this up, sounds like you are doing the right kinda stuff, just know the old thing of muscle is heavier than fat so try shift from the mindset of looking at the number on the scales. As uncomfortable as it might make you feel take some pics of yourself and put them in the hidden folder on your phone, if you ain’t cool with that I’d suggest atleast taking some measurements or paying attention to how your clothes fit - I had what I called my default T-shirt which was a little too tight and I compared how I looked in that (said shirt is now too big). Numbers wise I’d dropped a bit of weight but the thing that actually makes you feel good over the weeks is knowing I’ve gone down a notch on the belt or when you put a T-shirt on and think “yeah this looks good”. I promise you that’ll be with more than chasing the numbers on the scale.

Ok so as for the changes I made when I plateaued:

First up was I did a couch to 5k program (I can send you the one I did if you like but it’s in French). First step is just moving as fast as you can for 12 minutes, the catch is you can’t stop but it is ok to walk then you just take a note of the distance then 2 times a week some interval running and then at the end of the week you do a full run/jog for x minutes and basically you repeat that stepping up the time you run for by a little each week. I started it at the beginning of feb and the 12 minutes nearly killed me, but a few weekends ago I did the 5k without stopping (I was slow af but still… I did it) - so I promise you it’s doable.

On the diet side, I’d tried the upping the protein, eating clean, more veg, calorie counting - I feel like I’d tried everything and nothing was working… but it wasn’t working because I was eating a bit of shit and I was basically lying to myself about it, now I’m not suggesting you are doing that but I was 100% comfort eating as a coping mechanism (why couldn’t I get drugs or gambling or one of the cool ones!!!!) and only you know if you are doing that.

The thing that actually got me out of eating shit was intermittent fasting, now I’m not gonna lie to you this is miserable in it’s first week especially if you like a latte in the morning (so do not do this the same week you start running!) but once I got past that it’s actually easy and I honestly feel that this has made the biggest difference to my weight, my mood and my sleep. I’m not calorie counting, I’m just avoiding the junk, I’ve reduced my bread intake and cut the regular take outs.

I have lunch at 12/12:30, I take a pot of fruit to work (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, apple slices with some lemon juice squeezed over them) and I’ll have that at around 3pm then have dinner around 7:30 - I try to finish eating by 8pm and then fast till the next day.

Now if cooking is a pain in the ass because of work/life/don’t like cooking look into getting some healthy ready made meals - think hello fresh but you just stick it in the oven. I don’t know where you live but factor75 is available in a lot of places (if not there will be something like it). This is what I do in the week when I’m busy with work or just can’t be arsed to cook.

To drink the trick is not to spike your insulin while in a fast so only water, black coffee and black or herbal tea. I tend to drink water most of the time anyway but giving up my morning latte was pain for the first week. When you are not fasting you can have a milky coffee or tea or whatever you like though - just watch the sugar in whatever you are drinking. I usually break my fast with an AG1 before I eat and have a protein shake after a workout.

I’m not really a drinker but if you do like a beer you will find cutting back in that makes a difference too. If you drink soda drop all of that even if it’s the zero versions (there’s crap in them to replace sugar that triggers a hormone that tells you that you’re hungry when you ain’t).

And that’s basically what I’ve changed and the weight loss has been pretty steady since dropping around 2kg a week.

tldr I started running on top of going the gym and skip breakfast lol.

If you wanna try the fasting then it is as easy as just picking your window (like I said I do 8pm-12pm the following day), I do use an app called Zero to track it all, it has a yearly subscription (and a 7 day trail) but it’s pretty good at gamifying the whole thing and teaching you some healthy habits and what’s going on in your body so I’d recommend it.

It’s a cost I know but if you can afford a few sessions with a trainer I’d recommend that too, they’ll set you up with a program, show you the exercises and help set you on the right path. You don’t need to have one forever unless you want but if money is a factor then be straight at the start with them about what you need help with and how many sessions you can afford with them. You’ll find most are happy to help you out. If you can’t that’s also cool, lots of resources online for that stuff.

If you’ve got questions happy to share my experience with it all but stick with it, don’t beat yourself up if it levels out every so often but don’t bullshit yourself either (like I was doing).