My wife and I been "cutting" for about a month now and are slow to lose weight. We both feel like since we started weighing our food and counting/logging every calorie our body composition has changed but the scale ain't showing for shit.

My lifting isn't lagging and I'm still getting stronger. I'm 5'10", 37 years old and I've been at 1600/cals/day for a month. Macros are 170gr protein, 67 fat and 65 carbs.

No cardio except a few complexes a month and lifting heavy 4 times a week. I take vitamin D, fish oil and a multi-vitamin daily, plus 15-20 grams creatine.

Should we be patient with progress since we've both noticed body comp changes or keep cutting cals every 3-4 weeks by 200-250 until it start falling off. I see people talking about 2lbs a week and I haven't seen anything like that with what we're doing.

Every meal is weighed and logged in MyFitnessPal, and we've had maybe 2 cheat days in a month. One of which was....excessive.

I started at about 190 and am down to 186 at my lowest and she started at 200 and is down to 198.

If you're losing ~.5lb/wk.  maintain that for 3-6 months... then hold weight stable for 3-6 months before doing another reduction...

I've read that fat cells try hard to stay the same SO... sometimes they will take in water to 'try' to keep the same size and weight.  If you think the program is reasonable then stay the course a while longer.  Plateaus are common, and frustrating.

The good news I don't feel like I'm losing those GAINZ. I do the linear progression of 10lower/5lbs upper monthly and I haven't had any trouble keeping pace yet and neither has my wife. I was hoping to not stay in a cut indefintiely. I'd like to get back to eating enough to maximize gains sooner or later. I keep my protein up even when I drop my calories and remove them from fat and carbs instead.

I read and hear a lot about catabolism when restricting calories. Is it overrated? thats why I mention the lack of weakness.

It's going to be hard for any of us to tell you what your calories should be.  That's very dependent.

However, what's this weight thing you keep talking about?      Unless you're in a sponsored event to win based on total weight lost or getting your BMI down for healthcare coverage, ditch talking about weight.

Do you like what you see in the mirror?  If not, what do you not like?

Refeeds, carb replenishment, etc are very much bro science.  However, it might be worth looking into.  Your wife won't have the same refeed needs that you do.

I've been a fatty since I was.....6 or so.

I went paleo about 4 years ago and dropped 70lbs, started lifting a year ago. Still got about 20lbs of mid section fat I wanna lose and that shit just will not piss off.

Other than that, I'm happy with my progress, but this last 20 is crazy hard to lose. We've been disciplined except for those two times. I'd like to see this shit go.

I was doing 300 deficit 6 days a week and one day at a 300 surplus.  Sometimes I went on a larger deficit, didn't have a cheat day, or just ate at maintenance for a bit.  Basically it took a bit over a year to lose 38 pounds.

UPDATE: 04/22, weighed 184 this morning. Now down 6lbs in 3 months.

I feel like as I started to analyze every calorie I ate, my weight didn't change much but my body comp improved drastically. I'm 3 months into "cutting weight" and still stuck down about 10lbs. I weigh all my food and stick to whole, clean type foods. Lots of lean meats, veggies etc, whey/oats/creatine/milk post workout followed directly by dinner and cottage cheese/gorganzola right before bed.

I really need to sort this out. I'm down to 1500cals a day and still not losing. I lift heavy 4 times a week, carbs post workout only and a cheat day about once a week with pizza and/or ice cream. It seems like being in such a deficit a thousand or so calories over my cutting intake wouldn't be enough to stall out the entire weeks losses? 6 days of 1500 cals and one day of 2500-3000 doesn't seem like a wash to me with my activity level and LBM.

Any insights?

Typical day from MFP:

I hit a plateau for a month an a half where the scale said the same thing every day. Logging my calories, getting my exercise. Finally broke it and am back on the down swing.

My biggest change was to completely cut alcohol out of my diet. It alters your liver's ability to process the sugars in your diet and causes you to store fat. That, plus the increased water intake may be the thing for you.

Not sure you're gonna lose much while lifting.

Also, are you salting your food? That broccoli and chicken would be pretty bland if you didn't. Maybe try Mrs Dash or some other low sodium seasoning.

Also, at your current weight, a .5 lb/wk weight loss is actually pretty decent and nothing to be ashamed of.

I've been sober 9 years. No booze for me.

Really? If it's what I'm supposed to get then I'm ok riding it out. I thought I was doing something wrong and wasting time. I'm capable of patience, but it's not something I wanna do if I don't have to.

I have been pleased that I'm not dropping strength so that's why I haven't done anything drastic.

What are your MFP goals set at? Mine is set at 2/wk, but I'm considerably bigger than you and not lifting.

I sent you a friend request

1700 cal a day for a man is pretty darn low....you could easily back yourself into a "metabolic" corner that low.....your body will get better at using less cals, then weight loss stalls...then you have no place to go, cause cutting more would suck even worse.  

Then again, I have never really cut, I've just read about it.

Have you seen this article?

http://www.barbellmedicine.com/potpourri/584/

Stop lifting heavy and only eating 1500kcals/day. If you're lifting heavy and starving your calories, you may be sending your body mixed messages. At 37, 5'10" and 184, your BMR is around 1850kcals. You might be literally starving your body into conservation mode. You need to feed it and feed it correctly to lose weight.

Have you tried Scooby's Calculator: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

You're not going to want to hear this, but cardio is your friend. Start doing it. I have lost over 50 pounds in the last 13 months concentrating mostly on cardio.

**Completely Anecdotal**

I'm much more successful in cutting body weight when doing more conditioning, cardio or endurance type training rather than solely heavy weight training.

You think about adding in more (gasp) "crossfit" type complexes after your 5/3/1 to bump up the volume?

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I am doing about the same.  I started 6 weeks ago.

Weigh everything and log everything.  Between 1400-1800 KCal per day.  

HIIT Workout three days and one day rest.

Lost a lot of fat.  Gained muscle.  So far 11 lbs down from 186 (5 foot 7)

First few day, I was losing a pound a day.  Now it has slowed down to .5 a week.