Definitely some success, but...feedback, please?

Have you thought about strength training at all? Not only can\will you gain mass but you'll be stronger and might find yourself enjoying the challenge of gaining muscle, not fat. You don't want to get yourself in a battle of always thinking your not skinny enough. Best of luck.

I would say the issue is that you said you are eating at a 'significant deficit'. Maybe what you should consider at this point is eating at maintenance or a couple of hundred or so over and hitting the weights. Something simple and basic like Stronglifts 5x5 would be good. AND, it's free. You can look up the info on here (there are groups), there is a free site, AND the dude has free vids on youtube. But I'd say the issue right now is the deficit and the fact that at a large deficit, you can be burning muscle if you aren't getting in enough protein. Hopefully some folks better versed in this than I will get on here and help ya out!

wow!!

Why you skip leg day???

Squats and deadlifts are your friends.

Congrats on your loss!

Wowzer

I agree, think less about weight loss and more about body recomp.

In order to maintain muscle mass so you're losing more fat and building a better body form, you need to reduce that calorie deficit. You're currently at a 40% or more and without medical supervision, your deficit really shouldn't be more than 20%. So I think the first step is increasing your calorie intake. You might see a slight gain at first but again, don't worry so much about what the scale says for a bit. You'll still be at a calorie deficit as long as you stay at your current activity leve so you shouldn't have to worry.

TDEE-20% would be 2160
TDEE-15% would be 2300

You may gain a bit of muscle initially but at a calorie deficit, it's very difficult to gain mass. However, it is possible to gain streingth with proper nutrition and you will retain more muscle mass and see improvement in training. Make sure you're getting plenty of carbs and protein. If you're using the MFP standard for protein, eat more than that or custom set goals to 40/30/30 (carbs/protein/fat). In order to gain muscle mass, you'll need to eat at least your TDEE if not more.

just so in not leaving thngs vague, the deficit is ~1100 calories daily. my tdee is about 2700-2800, and i have calories locked to 1650 daily.

i sort of feel as if i should create a bit more of a bufffer in terms of being about ten or fifteen lbs lighter before risking a surplus, but i wont claim to know best


also, if this belongs in a different forum, i apologize, been in this one most the night and figured it fit, but asking for advice perhaps it belongs elsewhere.

You don't need a buffer. Unless you are eating 500 over your TDEE, you aren't going to gain something massive. But at this point, you want to fill out and gain muscle because your weight is already good for your height. Search recomposition on here or even on Google to see what you can do. Weight isn't the end all be all when it comes to health. Body fat and muscle tone are the other big parts and I would argue the real issues. Right now, no offense, you appear 'skinny fat'. Now, if skinny was what you were going for and you aren't into muscle, that's good. But if you're wanting some tone/muscle, lifting is where it is at. And like I said, you don't have to eat at a HUGE surplus, but eating at your TDEE could really do amazing things for you just over the course of a few months.