I think everyone gains weight faster. 0.5 pounds a week is good. It's still progress but to lose more I'd do more cardio or burn more calories instead of lowering what you're eating.

This is normal for a lot of people. The idea that weight gained is a function only of calories in and calories out is wrong. When you're eating freely, your body passes a lot of calories through, or burns them up in ways that don't produce fat, e.g., via mitochondrial uncoupling. Your body has a certain weight it wants to be. When you go over that, it burns a higher fractions of the calories you eat away. When you go UNDER that weight, it grabs onto those calories hard, and tries to convert every gram of carbs into glucose or fat. So you can cut your caloric intake, and over a considerable range--from the point where your body is dumping calories to generate heat, down to the point where it's grabbing every gram and turning it into fat--you won't lose much weight.

There's also a variety of ways to metabolize the different macronutrients, which are more or less efficient, and direct calories to energy or to fat. You want your body to be less efficient. The point of the keto diet is to turn on less-efficient fat-burning pathways.

People vary in their % bodyfat set points, AND they vary in how active their hunger signalling system is. If you have a high setpoint and a low threshold for hunger, you're going to have a VERY HARD TIME losing weight. You CAN lose it by cutting calories enough, but it is MUCH more difficult for some people than for others. The guys who are at 7% bodyfat and say losing weight is just a matter of "getting a handle on your nutrition" are genetically gifted and have no understanding of what some people have to go thru to lose fat.

Try a keto diet, try reading "Nature wants you to be fat". Try drastically reducing fructose. Try low-intensity long-duration exercise. Eg, if you're gonna make a phone call or read your email, go out walking or do it on a treadmill. Exercise while watching TV.

Keep track of your hunger response. Try intermittent fasting. I find it's much easier to fast in the morning than in the evening, so skipping breakfast every day is good for me. Fasting for 2 days once each 2 weeks is easier than fasting 1 day once a week.

people chronically under report what they eat, I have seen this a million times, I guarantee you are not eating 1200cals

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1454084/

Working in the nutrition field in the past I can tell you that 3/4 the people that would come into our business would tell us they are "eating next to nothing" yet maintaining 300-500lbs of bodyweight.... that can only happen through eating enough calories to support that weight (upwards of 10000cals in some cases unknowingly)

You have to track everything that goes into your mouth, every sauce and condiment, every time you put butter on the pan to cook your chicken (common mistake), every oil, every soda, everything! And check to make sure what you scanned is accurate, yes it takes work.

When you do this you will see how much hidden calories you have been consuming.

Why did you get on steroids if you don't even know how to properly lose weight. I'm not hating, but I find it a bit odd.

You should safely be able to lose about 1.5 - 2lbs/wk without sacrificing much muscle depending on where your BF % is at. Higher bodyfat will be easier to lose more weight. Cals in vs cals out for the most part. How large of a calorie deficit are doing when trying to lose weight?