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I posted two months ago, and planned my daily calorie deficit to about -1000 of what the NIH Body Planner suggests is my maintenance at (Very Light at Work, Moderate Leisure). While I know that my calorie count probably isn’t the most accurate, it’s at least been precise and consistent across the 2 months and -200 calories less than before I posted the original thread. Yet, my weekly weight and waist measurements still are trending towards a same-ish number rather than downwards. Sometimes I’ll see a slight taper on both, but they eventually go back up consistently to around 75kg and ~84-85cm.
Still eating about 1750 calories per day, with about a 45% protein/35% carb/20% fat macro split. Currently finished Week 4 of Hypertrophy 1. I feel like I’m going insane going on what I always thought was at a very high deficit, but what seems to be actually maintenance. Sleep has somewhat improved a little since then.
The picture and pinch test tells me that there’s still some subcutaneous fat left around my waist. I’ve been training with weights for 9-10 months now, and adherence to my diet is getting really difficult at this point. Do I still need to “just eat less” to shave it off?. I still want to get a 32" waist for health reasons, but it feels like I’m forever stuck at ~33"…
It seems like you have some extra skin around your midsection, no? Might that be contributing to your waist circumference measurement?
That’s what I’ve been suspecting as well. I always thought that if my stomach skin wasn’t as easy to pinch thinly as other parts of the body, there was still fat to lose. But being at a definite deficit for 3+ months and not making any progress measurement wise is making me doubt that there’s still excess fat to burn.
To be honest, I’ve been cutting for nearly 2 years straight and lost a significant amount of weight. I’m exhausted with my current diet, and I think it’s just time for me to finally throw in the towel and be happy I’ve made it this far. Planning on slowly bumping up my caloric intake the next few weeks to find out what my true maintenance is and stick with it in the long term. I’m fine with building strength/lean mass slowly at maintenance, I just want to avoid eating at a deficit as much as possible.
Have you thought about why you feel this way? It might be worthwhile to talk to a professional about this stuff and exploring it a bit further.
That said, I would agree that if motivation is waning and diet RPE is increasing, adding calories slowly over time while maintaining weight is a good plan.
I’ll have to undergo a physical here overseas in August, so I’ll use that opportunity to ask a doctor who can maybe figure it out if it’s still a bother at that time.
I honestly think that I look small and underweight atm, something that I was willing to put up with for the sake of getting my waist well below any associated health risks. My family does have a history of diabetes and high blood pressure. Right now though, my short term goal is finding my maintenance and then in the future slowly make some gainzzzz back in size and strength, at maintenance or a slight surplus. 
