i don't respond well to positive feedback

So I've been keeping a 1680 diet, plus cardio to cut fat. I think I've made some progress, but not there yet. non-positive feedback encouraged, lol. I'm half-kidding. What I mean by non-positive is just that I easily rest on laurels (e.g. oh, i lost 5 pounds, I should eat ALL the ice cream and beer now!). I really want to cut ten more pounds of fat, so I can focus on gaining 5-10 pounds of muscle after that's achieved. Right now I'm at 155-6.





This, fyi, is what I looked like a year ago (175+ pounds) that I never want to go back to:


And this is what I looked like 9 years ago, when I first realized "oh, hey, my metabolism has slowed down since I was 16, perchance I should not eat all the beer and burgerz." I weighed approx 186.

yeah, sorry, I meant 1680 Net! Some days I don't exercise so that's all I eat, too, but on the 3-5 days a week I exercise, my overall caloric intake could be as high as 2200.

As for the heavy lifting, unfortunately I don't think I can do that. I have a tendency towards hernias (already had surgery once) and so it makes me a bit nervous. But would it be possible to substitute heavy lifting for lots of reps of pushups/planks/pull-ups? I know it's not a 1:1 substitution, but surely I'd get good results? Get rid of my 'moobs' and have better abs for when I lose the fat on my belly?

I would say eat more and build muscle. How tall are you? How old are you? I eat more than you, at 156 pounds, 5'6", plus I'm a 38 year old woman. And I'm losing (slowly, but losing.) I'm looking at your pictures from today and saying it's time to work on building muscle.

I am 5'5" and 33 yrs old. I worry that if I eat more that I won't burn my excess fat though.

Pretty sure you can cut the excess fat by eating at least 2000 calories a day as long as you're exercising. Since you want to burn fat and maintain muscle, you should already be doing heavy lifting 3 times a week. Doing even moderate cardio 3 days would just be a bonus. (Take at least 1 full rest day a week). (ETA: I'm talking total calories rather than net, but low-balling the estimate. I'm a 5'1" female and when exercising that much I can eat 1800-2000 calories and trim down)

You also want to make sure your macros are in line -- probably around 30% protein, 30% fat, and 40% carbs (by calories). Though it's overall calories that make a difference in weightloss, macros can be important for getting a "toned" or defined look.

You are very kind, and I appreciate that. For me, the thing is that I admit this is for vanity, and I am lucky for that. My doctor hasn't told me to lose weight, my wife hasn't said she isn't attracted to me. This last 10 pounds is for me, to get a sixpack, and good pecs, so positive encouragement will tend to be like, "Oh, you look fine." But I'm trying for something more than that, if that makes sense. But I definitely don't want to seem ungrateful for the body I have--it is functional, healthy, etc. I'm just doing this in the same way people want to run a marathon, or write a novel they don't intend to publish. Just to prove I can do it. So I don't mind if people say, "To be honest, you have a lot of excess fat around your stomach" because it motivates me, if that makes any sense.

You should take that positive feedback as good thing, I mean do you want people to be negative? If someone sees your progress and you motivate them to do the same things you are doing then you should feel good about it, just my opinion, but I have a friend who doesn't respond well to positive feedback either, so I stopped giving it to her, no need for me to waste my breath when all she does is reject every good thing I have to say.