Finding it hard to cut caloric intake any more

Ok, a lot to take in and answer, but I am glad I came to this forum! So, as for @lightenup2016 we seem to be so similar! My kiddos are almost 6, one is 4, and the baby is 2 though. So I have a lot on my hands lol. But my TDEE is very similar as well. Using Fitbit's data, my TDEE over the last month is 2396 with 29 days of data averaged. According to Scooby's "Most Accurate Calorie Calculator" or whatever it's called, it should be just over 2300. Anyways, I know what you are saying about IF. I used to practice it after I stopped eating "keto," I naturally fell into it, and I'm not much of a breakfast person anyways. But I stopped doing it because I found that when I worked out in the mornings, which I try to do more often than not so that my brain doesn't say "No, I don't want to work out!" lol, I would feel lightheaded and not be able to push as hard if I did them fasted. But I do agree it was harder to "go over" what I wanted to eat/easier to condense my intake into 2 meals and 2 snacks vs. 3 meals & 3 snacks. Do you know anything to address that issue of fasted workouts if I attempt IF again?

As for @Dano74, I should have been more clear about my intake. So, I eat within a range. I wouldn't say I follow intuitive eating, but I listen to my body, and some days, like say I push really hard that day and did a brutal weights session, I might feel really hungry that night or the next day and I eat more, and others I just don't feel like my body needs as much, so some days I eat less and others more, like caloric cycling, but I eat within a range of 1800-2000 and I always hit at least a certain target for fiber and protein like I said to a PP because I feel that's more important than my intake. Over the week, it averages out that I have a deficit. But whatever this deficit is, my body doesn't want to go lower it feels like. I tried to eat around 1500-1600 and it was awful. I felt awful. Apparently my BMR is 1500. So maybe that's why. Is it dangerous to try eating near that? That's my laying around, couch-potato, intake. Yet I'm far from that, so it feels my body SCREAMS for me to feed it when I eat like that.
So as for above ^^^ my TDEE averaged at 2396 for a 4 week period according to the data I have. My intake for the same 4-week period averaged at 1950. So my deficit over 4 weeks was ~450/day. I've lost about 3 lbs in that time frame. Seems on target since my loss should have been about 3.5 with that deficit. I'm just not sure what to do from here I guess is what I'm saying. Stay the course, keep doing what I'm doing? Try to cut my intake slowly? Get more stringent with a strict calorie intake day to day instead of cycling? Play around with bringing it up? I've been dieting for about 10-11 months out of a 15 month period and now am in a healthy weight range for my height so it just seems it is getting harder and harder.
Now as to bringing it up, I don't know that it's the answer but about 4 weeks ago, i had plateaued, and I was tired of reading all these articles saying "You're not tracking properly, you're lying to yourself" or "You need to push harder with your workouts" etc. -- I track religiously and am obsessive about getting it right, and I push myself really hard in the gym, changing routines when I'm bored, practicing progressive overload, etc. Two of the personal trainers at my gym joke that I'm a beast lol because I am always there working my butt off and doing burpees for fun and stuff haha. So I found two articles when this happened, one from Jillian Michaels and I forget what the other one was, but they actually said to bring up your intake for a few days or a week and then drop it again, (and there was a lot of scientific reasoning behind it that made sense to me) and you will break it, so I tried it, and I did break it! I mean I'm not sure that it applies now or what I should do right now, I haven't plateaued, just feeling like my weight loss is really slow where I'm at but finding it hard to suffer with eating near my BMR either.

Aaron_K123 wrote: »

From your description you seem knowledge and have a sensible diet plan. I'm guessing if you find and decrease in calories has you starving that you don't have much fat to lose and are just trying to get very lean? I think that's pretty normal that that last few pounds of loss is going to be slower and slower and tougher and tougher. If you aee still losing with what you are doing I'd stick with it and just accept it's going to take a while.

If I'm wrong and your actually quite overweight then I'm not sure. Usually high protein high fiber helps but sounds like you already do that.

I wouldn't say I'm "skinny" or anything, maybe not in my eyes at least, but I'm definitely in the last leg of my journey. I'm in the range of normal weights for my height, and a range of average body fat, although I'd just like to be leaner. I think that because I'm normal/average/whatever now, the process has to go slower, as people have suggested. A deficit of 500 is as low as my body wants to go right now. -750 leaves me ravenous with all the working out I do and is extremely close to my BMR, and I'm far from sedentary. I've just accepted like you said, it's gonna take a while. I might not hit my goal for 6 months. I just felt like you said, it gets slower and tougher. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and keep my eye on the prize! I appreciate all the comments.