I'm also 5'2" and I was 143 about a year ago, but have slimmed down to 120.

I let myself go from 120 to 143ish in college and let myself stay at that weight for over a year. Then after some encouragement from friends I managed to get down to 120 again in about 5 months.

I didn't notice much results the first month. I was annoyed and stopped getting on the scale but I stuck with controlling my calories. I realized the more I look at the scale the more demoralized I get and more I justify eating another slice of chocolate cake or something because I would feel like I'm broken or that things are hopeless.

The first 3 months was also tough because I was trying hard to fix my bad habits and progress was painstakingly slow. I did a mixture of light cardio and calorie counting. I focused on fixing the problem that caused me to get to 143 in the first place. I didn't weigh my food, but I developed a good sense of how much I should be eating.

I lost about 10 lbs in 3 months. I think one of the important things to losing weight is to find out what caused you to be at that weight in the first place. For me it was because I liked to eat a second dinner at 12AM after my first dinner and I loved to eat lunch outside at work, which often consisted of fatty foods whose portions are too big and price too hefty for me not to finish. I started to get light snacks so that I wouldn't have a second dinner and munched on them at work too in case my lunch wasn't filling enough. I also had to learn how to chew softly.

I know it sounds counter intuitive to not go crazy about calorie counting, but making myself worry about every detail caused me to feel anxiety which in turn caused me to binge OUT of anxiousness of overeating. If that makes any sense whatsoever. By getting a general sense of how much I should eat or compensating with the next meal or day, I feel like I have a better sense of control. I mean overall, a pound equals like 3500 calories. Can't go -3500 calories in a day anyway. To soothe my anxiety I tell myself as long as I don't continuously binge it's okay if I eat bad every now and then because if I feel bad I'm going to binge more.

So yeah, the first 10lbs are going to come off slowly at first. There's probably water weight and your body is probably just starting to approach the calorie deficit needed to lose 1lb. The last 10lbs went a way much quicker.

For the most part I've maintained my weight since then. I did gain about 2-3 lbs recently because I've been going to the gym more and eating more. I have been getting A LOT hungrier since I started running regularly, but I find drinking protein shakes help me with the hunger. Definitely look out for the calories you consume after gyming. Hunger can be deceitful.