Help me create a plan please?

5x5 isn't really an option for me...Planet Fitness is the only gym I can afford, and I'm hoping I'll be able to make reasonable gains on machines rather than free weights, which they don't have a great selection of aside from dumbells going up to 60 pounds. Most everything else is a machine of some sort.

5x5 isn't really an option for me...Planet Fitness is the only gym I can afford, and I'm hoping I'll be able to make reasonable gains on machines rather than free weights, which they don't have a great selection of aside from dumbells going up to 60 pounds. Most everything else is a machine of some sort.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/902569-barbell-routines-when-you-only-have-dumbbells

Long story short, I've gone from 255 pounds at xmas, to 177 now, as a six foot tall male. Shrunk from a 2XL T-shirt to a medium, and size 44 jeans to 32. I'm thrilled, but lately, I hear "when are you going to stop?" and "you look almost -too- skinny."

Now, as one might imagine, I had a pretty drastic program to drop nearly eighty pounds in five months. I did the elliptical trainer at 7-8MPH for 35 minutes five days a week, halfway through the five months also started adding 4.5 mile walks five days of the week, and on each alternating day I'd do strength training like so:

Day A:
-Bicep Curls (3 sets of 12)
-Chest Press (3 sets of 12)
-Crunches (2 sets of 50)
-Push Ups (roughly 3 sets of 12, though it took time to build up to that.)

Day B:
-Pulldowns (3 sets of 12)
-Shoulders press (3 sets of 12)
(And, within the past week I've added the following, FINALLY)
-Leg extrensions (3 sets of 12)
-Leg press (3 sets of 12)

Along with all of this, I operated on the MFP app at a calorie limit of 1800 calories from Xmas to late february, and from there did 1650 until the present. I don't eat back any exercise calories.

Now, as I've said, I'm delighted at the numbers...both clothing size drops and the number on the scale. However, I feel like I'm at, or very near, what my goal weight for my height ought to be. I'm -sure- I could drop to 165, but from the remarks I've heard lately, some even here on the forum (I've got a before and after over in the success stories forum) I'm thinking that's probably not the way to go.

At the same time, I'm...a bit underwhelmed. I guess a part of me figured when I hit my goal weight, I'd just be all "Wow, I look great!" Instead, I've still got a bit of a love handle thing going on, my gut doesn't exactly look buff, and my arms, while a lot firmer and all, are kind of skinny, and I still feel fat over my biceps.

Suggestions aplenty have been made that I start looking to go the other direction, putting on muscle weight rather than losing fat. I might have just kept going at my current pace in spite of those thoughts, except that...I've noticed my strength gains in training plateaued two months ago, and on some days even decline: This past monday I was able to complete my usual 3 sets of chest presses at 145 pounds on the stack. Wednesday, I couldn't start at 145, or even 130, having to take it back to 115. I did two sets at that, and had to go down to 100 (!) for my final set, which sort of concerned me.

My calorie tracking has been saintly (I think I've spent less than seven days out of these five months as "cheat days" where I didn't track my calories.) but I question if I've been on such a significant deficit for so long (my TDEE at this stage, with the cardio levels I listed, is about 2600-2700) that I've sacrificed a lot of muscle with the fat. Part of me wants to keep losing more weight, to get down to 165 just to have a safety net to start bumping calories to build more muscle, but I think maybe the time to stop is now, and besides THAT, I think that within my limited calorie diet, I've done a poor job monitoring my protein intake.

My average diets have been more or less like so:

-Special K/Fiber One for breakfast
-A banana with breakfast
-2-3 Clif bars during my shift
-two or three hot dogs, a tin of sardines, or a small frozen pizza (200-340 calories)
-a couple low calorie funsy snacks before bed (low calorie pudding, a couple of rice cakes.)

Bullet points 3 + 4 are the only ones that contain protein, and probably not enough. I know I have kind of a crappy diet, but I'll never be the type to have a food scale or eat salads, half the reason I eat so many packaged foods is because they're -easy- to track calories for. Also, I'm lazy.

Now, at this point, as of this morning, I've decided to do three things and hope for seeing some strength and mass gains in the gym.

-First, I've purchased a 2# container of EAS whey protein. At 150 calories and 26g of protein a serving, this seems a sensible way to jumpstart my protein intake and hopefully improve my strength training gains (both aesthetically and quantitatively.) at the gym.

-Second, I've adjusted MFP app's daily calorie allotment to 2000, in part to allow a bit more wiggle room with the introduction of one (possibly two?) servings of the whey each day.

-Third, I've cut the elliptical out of my plan. I'll still be taking my four and a half mile walk each day, but I get the nagging feeling that too much cardio might be part of the reason I'm having trouble even maintaining weights.

So at this point, I've added whey, added a bit of calories (though still at a deficit) and cut back on cardio.

Should I expect to see more benefit from weight training now? Think adding 25-50g of protein will make bumping up plates more frequent and easier? And, should I add more weight lifting exercises to either or both of my days, keeping in mind I want to focus on toning my stomach, and getting bigger arms? Also, with this, or a modified plan, how long should I expect it to take to see pleasing results? Faster than it was to lose the weight? The same? Longer?