@inquirer2016 Hi! So, I think maybe part of your issue is that
you are over-focused on weight as opposed to body composition. You really probably want to lose
inches - not
pounds, to get to your true goal.
You probably have heard the phrase before that
muscle is denser than fat. And it really is! Two people can
weigh the same at the same height and even on the same frame... but look really different depending on how much of that weight is made up of fat vs muscle mass.
The more of your composition is muscle instead of fat, the thinner you will look at the same weight.
When you diet by restricting calories, your body will break down fat
and muscle for energy. Over time, you can end up losing a lot of muscle mass. But muscle will burn calories even when you are not using it, so the more muscle you lose, the less calories you burn and the less calories you need to eat to continue being at a deficient. This is part of why people may gain more back after a diet than they originally lost - losing muscle mass lowers your BMR (how many calories your body uses up just to maintain weight) significantly.
This may be part of why you are finding you have to eat so few calories to continue seeing your weight drop - your body is burning less and less calories because it has less and less muscle to do so with..
So my advice, is,
at least for now -
stop worrying about losing pounds! Eat 1,500+ calories of
healthy foods to
nourish your body (and include plenty of protein!), and keep working towards those strength gains. Let your body
rebuild muscle mass - and recognize that it needs
more than your BMR to do that. It can take around a month even to see a full pound of muscle gained (although water retention during muscle building can drive your weight up a pound or two more during the process, too), but that pound of muscle isn't going to look like a pound of fat, and it's going to burn ~50 extra calories for you every day even if you do
nothing after putting that pound of muscle on. So don't be afraid of "gaining" what in the end is "good" weight! You can cut calories again, later,
after you put some muscle back, but it will be different because you'll have a different composition. The more muscle you start the process with the more calories it will burn throughout it and the more muscle you'll have relative to fat at the end.
