The latest thing that I learned is that you need to either pick bulking or cutting. That is to say, you need to decide whether to lose weight or gain muscle. Doing both at the same time is quite hard, and I wish I had learned it a lot sooner. That's actually why I have been losing more the past few weeks.
When bulking, you need to eat at a calorie
surplus to sustain muscle growth and conditioning. When cutting, you need to "cut" dietary intake and hold a sustainable calorie
deficit to shed more fat. This is why I've recently changed my goals. I want to cut off the fat and make 165, then build back up to 175 while eating healthy and working out to build muscle mass.
If you attempt to both cut and bulk at the same time, it requires a lot of dietary supplementation and doesn't work for most people.
My advice would be to cut out the weight lifting, drop your calories to 1500/day or less, and suffer for a few weeks until you reach your target. Then, you get to eat well while you shift back to weights and strength training.
I hit that stupid 180lb barrier and couldn't get below it for months until I shifted strategies, and then I dropped 7 pounds in 2 weeks! It's quite uncomfortable, but I have seen more progress in a shorter period because of that switch.
Also, some things to consider:
1) For the average person, 2000 calories is the equivalent of 1 pound of body weight. So, to lose a pound in a week you need to have a weekly calorie deficit of 2000, or about 285 calories/day.
2) As I understand it, if you're drastically overweight and don't want to wind up with loose skin bags hanging from your body, you need to take this stuff quite slow. Like, 1-2 pounds per week. That gives your body time to absorb excess tissues. That means losing 100-200 pounds of fat in a healthy manner could take 1-2 years or longer! Patience is a virtue.
