Anyone having this issue?

I found the closer I got to my goal the MORE I had to eat to lose.

Sounds counter intuitive, but it worked for me.

How exactly does this work?

My stats are pretty similar to yours so I thought I'd comment. I'm 5'11" started at 198 and am currently 169. I've noticed a few times that I'll get in a rut like that (when I lost the first 20lbs pretty fast I got stuck at 178 for a while). Personally what works best for me is to shake up my metabolism. I'll go a few days eating on the higher end, pretty close to my TDEE and then drop back down and it restarts my weight loss. I know a lot of people that zigzag their daily calories and have good results. Have you been consistently eating the same amount for a while? Also, it's always harder in that last 10 lbs or so for me because I'm getting so close to where my body naturally wants to be. But that might not be your problem if your GW is 140.

I'm not really sure how it works to tell you the truth, I just know for me it did.

I was eating 1200 net, plateaued for about 8 weeks, upped my calories, and the weight started coming off again.

Now I net anywhere from 1600-2200 a day, and I am still losing.

Bizarre. Any specific changes in foods? Any differences in your macro ratio? Anything specific that you started eating that you weren't previously, or that you replaced with [more of] other things?

Eating more definitely works. Basically you're telling your body that you are going to feed it enough to function and it responds by letting go of fat. I use the scooby workshop calculator to get my TDEE - 15% and that's what I eat on my "high" days. It's still a deficit but not to the point of hurting your body or losing muscle.
http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

I found the closer I got to my goal the MORE I had to eat to lose.

Sounds counter intuitive, but it worked for me.

How exactly does this work?

dieting for an extended period of time slows metabolism there is no way to get around that. you will slow ur metabolism even quicker if the caloric defecit is too great (ex. aneorexia, 500-1k caloric defecit, copious amounts of cardio without enough nutrition)

so if you are at a standstill with weight and you have been dieting enough to lose 40lbs its time to start adding food into your diet along with resistance training to build lean muscle tissue... lean muscle tissue along with doing anerobic activity will heighten your metabolism along with eating more food and if you slowly "heal" your metabolism and workout effectively you will be able to eat more food and stay the same weight... just increase like 100cals a day for the first few weeks and see how weight changes and then keep adding small incriments until you can eat more food and stay the same (possibly small weight gain)

then once the metabolism is healed again create another caloric defecit and you should be able to get leaner than before. this is where cutting and bulking comes into play because dieting for an extended period of time is harmfull to the metabolism... u just have to cut and bulk responsibly with small additions or subtractions of caloric intake.


also to add your macros are f-cked up man you should try something like 40/40/20 or 40/35/25 CPF

How much more are you looking to lose - at 5'11" and 158lbs you would be at a pretty healthy weight now I would think.

Almost everyone hits a plateau or two (or three) along the way. Personally, from the first of April to the end of May -- almost 2 months -- I lost only one pound.
I didn't change anything. Finally, I started losing again.
Jumping your calorie intake might work -- it's worked for some folks.
I just stayed the course, and the problem went away.
Yes, it's discouraging, but don't surrender.
Keep going.
You'll get there.

Okay so I've 5 11 and have gone from 197 to 158 and I weigh myself every sunday. The problem is I've stayed 158 for several weeks and can't seem to go lower. I'm under my calorie goal and everything but I don't seem to be losing. Any tips or suggestions?

The only thing that makes you lose weight is a calorie deficit. Macros don't matter. Clean food does not matter. Of course you want enough protein and healthy food, but the fat cells do not care about that.

Your body loses weight in chunks, not linear. I have found that you can do everything right and your weight loss seems to plateau but if you are patient and keep exercising and eating at a deficit (however slight) you will lose it, it will suddenly "whoosh". There are so many variables for the scale; water retention, digestion, hormones, allergies, sodium, carbs, water intake, DOMS, inflammation, the list goes on. People mistakenly think they lose or gain weight when they eat more or less because of these fluctuations.

Losing weight requires tremendous patience. You will not lose it when you want it or where you want it. The body does its thing. Some apparent plateaus can last a month or so. You cannot make it happen faster. You must focus on two things; calories and exercise. Nothing else matters. Scales and metrics don't matter. The day in and day out grind of exercise and calories are all that matters. It is not very exciting until things fall into place. You get your victories and you ride one victory to the next.

The scale is a trend tool. The scale is good but put it away and only check once a week and only use it as a trend tool. It will fluctuate, it does not matter. Take front side and back progress pictures at least once a month. You will see differences that the metrics won't tell you and it's that little bit of NSV that will keep you going until the next victory.

What is the exact number of calories for you?

We’ve been trying to figure out an exact NUMBER of calories that everyone should be eating, without recognizing that everyone is slightly different. In truth, the calories aren’t the end game. Your body is. So the EXACT amount of Calories that are right for you is the EXACT amount that will allow you to maintain your ideal bodyweight no matter what some calculator or chart says.

In other words, an online calculator might tell you that you need to eat 2,500 calories
per day to maintain your ideal bodyweight. But the only way to know for sure if this is
the right amount for you is to test it out. If you gain weight or can’t lose weight eating
that much, then you know you need to eat less to lose weight no matter how many
calculators and text books say otherwise.

This doesn’t mean your metabolism is broken, it just means the estimate of your needs
was just a bit off.

-John Barban (The Body Centric Calorie Guide from the Venus Index and Adonis Index Manuals)

Okay so I've 5 11 and have gone from 197 to 158 and I weigh myself every sunday. The problem is I've stayed 158 for several weeks and can't seem to go lower. I'm under my calorie goal and everything but I don't seem to be losing. Any tips or suggestions?

The only thing that makes you lose weight is a calorie deficit. Macros don't matter. Clean food does not matter. Of course you want enough protein and healthy food, but the fat cells do not care about that.

Your body loses weight in chunks, not linear. I have found that you can do everything right and your weight loss seems to plateau but if you are patient and keep exercising and eating at a deficit (however slight) you will lose it, it will suddenly "whoosh". There are so many variables for the scale; water retention, digestion, hormones, allergies, sodium, carbs, water intake, DOMS, inflammation, the list goes on. People mistakenly think they lose or gain weight when they eat more or less because of these fluctuations.

Losing weight requires tremendous patience. You will not lose it when you want it or where you want it. The body does its thing. Some apparent plateaus can last a month or so. You cannot make it happen faster. You must focus on two things; calories and exercise. Nothing else matters. Scales and metrics don't matter. The day in and day out grind of exercise and calories are all that matters. It is not very exciting until things fall into place. You get your victories and you ride one victory to the next.

The scale is a trend tool. The scale is good but put it away and only check once a week and only use it as a trend tool. It will fluctuate, it does not matter. Take front side and back progress pictures at least once a month. You will see differences that the metrics won't tell you and it's that little bit of NSV that will keep you going until the next victory.

Macros dont matter??? youre crazy yo it matters a lot for body composition.

fat loss isnt linear??? yea it can be if you are consistant and track cardio and use MFP... and weigh urself at the same time of day -.-