Help me get to my goal

[VerticallyChallenged]

Ok, I'll try to make this short as I can. Back in May I was in by far the worst shape of my life. I was up to almost 236 lbs, and my BF was over 50%. Everything required maximum effort. I had been in average to good shape for most of my adult life, and although my weight fluctuated, it was nothing like it has gotten in the past 3-4 years. So I made a goal to myself to get into the best shape of my life by my 50th. Lofty I know, but WTF right?
Since May I have managed to chop 44lbs off of that, mainly through diet and semaglutide. I started back at the gym, and I'm on a solid program that's full body 3 days a week, and I throw in some LISS cardio on at least a couple of my off days although admittedly I'm no fan of cardio.
Thing is, fat loss has slowed to a crawl. Like 4 lbs on the scale in the past two months. I am noticing some composition changes, especially in my arms and back and that's encouraging, but I do not think that I am gaining muscle to the point where I shouldn't be losing. I have asked in other forums and have gotten skewered for the amount I'm eating. I am between 1700-2000 calories a day. I have been told to reverse diet and get up to a lot higher daily calorie intake. I basically went with an online tdee calculator and started from there. Now keep in mind, I'm not your average sized dude. I'm literally 5'1" or 5'2" depending on who I'm trying to impress. To sum it up, I'm short AF. In my 20's I averaged 125-130lbs. What I can say is if I try to increase my calories past 2000 at all, the weight starts accumulating pretty fast.
Guess I'm looking for some info on how to approach this from here until next May. I realistically would like to lose another 35-40 lbs, depending on how much muscle I can salvage along the way. I would be happier at say 160 with some definite lean muscle going on than be at 145 and looking kinda skinny if you know what I mean. Should I concentrate on shedding as much of my excess BF before concentrating on anything else? At what point should I consider moving into a recomp phase?
I am also not adverse to looking into what I can do as far as sarms go to help me along the way. I am on TRT, I'm currently at 55mg twice a week and that's keeping me a little above the high end of what is considered the "normal range" If I was to look into a sarms stack, which would be beneficial to my goals without messing up my current hormone levels? I just had my most recent bloodwork done with my TRT doc and I'm not due for another until March, but I would not want to have my doc look at my bloodwork and tear into me or worse cut me off because my numbers were off the map.

[stevesmi]

okay so let me give you a lesson on calorie counting and how our metabolisms work via survival mechanisms and you will understand EXACTLY what is going on here

so when you cut calories and expend more calories then you bring in you lose weight. obviously this works and worked for you initially. but over time your own body survival mechanism kicks in and you start expending less and less calories too. so even though you are eating less you are also burning less. hence why you don't keep losing weight forever. there is a reason humans have been able to survive major famines throughout history.

now as far as metabolism, it changes day by day and hour by hour. so people on other forums telling you to eat more and count calories have things halfway right but that isn't the solution. because what will happen as it does in 99% of people in your shoes is they end up gaining it all back and more cause now their metabolism is slower but they are now bringing in more calories

i hope this makes sense and explains why you are stuck and why i never recommend counting calories or following online calculators. they do more harm than help!!

now the solution here is learning about fasting protocols. with fasting and time restricted eating you train your body to use its own fat stores for energy vs. the foods you eat. an easy solution for you here is alternate day fasting. 2-3 meals on day 1. fasting on day 2. 2-3 meals on day 3. and so on. make those meals HEALTHY. keep exercising and you will break that barrier

[Phill]

for trt and all the other things like that, you should first take your blood tests and see if you need to "supplement" any hormones.

my advice is to look especially at sex hormones (testosterone, estrogen, prolactin, progesterone) and thyroid hormones (t3, t4, t3 free, t4 free, tsh, anti-t3)
in addition of course to all the usual values of general health.

once you have the big picture, you can talk about "adding" something to the diet alone

finally, you could post your one day diet to figure out what you are eating

[VerticallyChallenged]

Thanks for the great input! I mention my calories and TDEE because a lot of people simply think I'm a man, I should be eating 2500-3000 calories a day, I've never been able to do that without gaining piles of weight quickly.
Here is a sample day for me:

Breakfast - Coffee with milk. 50g overnight oats with 1 scoop of protein powder, 30g raspberries, 30g blackberries. Usually a Kiwi too
morning coffee break - 4-5oz of smoked salmon (I smoke my own and eat salmon at least 3 times a week. I love it and it's easy
Lunch - two chicken fajitas (homemade) - 2 Keto tortillas, 100g chicken breast, 40g peppers, 40g red onion, 30g marble cheese, 1 tablespoon lower fat sour cream, 2 tablespoons salsa
afternoon snack - Protein shake with chickpea milk
Supper - Beef tenderloin seasoned with salt/pepper, 6-8oz broccoli or asparagus, 4oz baked potatoes
evening snack - 1 slice whole grain or 2 slices carbonaut bread toasted with 2TBSP (measured) peanut butter and another protein shake)

I have been doing high and low calorie days, usually on lower calorie days I'd substitute the oatmeal for plain greek yogurt no sugar and berries as well, probably omit midnight snack etc.

For the "supplement", I am currently on TRT, I have been dr supervised with it for a little over a year now. That seems to be dialled in good, my last bloodwork had the following numbers. Note, these are metric units, I not sure exactly what is used in the states so I'll put what they consider the normal "range"

Testosterone 29.7 nmol/L range is 8.4 - 28.8 nmol/L HIGH
Free Test 853 pmol/L range is 196-636 pmol/L HIGH
Estradiol 117 pmol/L range is less than 162 pmol/L
Prolactin 9.2 ug/L range is 4-19 ug/l
FSH and LH are both 0.1
A1C is 5.3
everything else in normal range

Once again, thanks so much for the insight!

[VerticallyChallenged]

Well, I posted a big long response but it looks like the post didn't go through. I'll have to start over lol

[VerticallyChallenged]

Ok, starting again! Thanks for all the info so far my the way!

As far as diet, I have been doing high and low calorie days around the days I work out. In the 1700 range on days I don't train and 2000ish on the days I do. This is a typical day for me

Breakfast - 50g oats, scoop of protein powder and chickpea milk for oatmeal. 30g raspberries, 30g blackberries. On my lower calorie days I'll usually have yogurt instead of oatmeal
Morning Snack - 100-150g smoked salmon (I smoke my own and have salmon at least 3 days a week)
Lunch - Chicken fajitas - 2 keto tortillas, 100g chicken breast, 30g peppers, 30g onions, 30g marble cheese, 1tbsp low fat sour cream, 2 tbsp salsa.
Afternoon snack - protein shake or 50-75g beef jerky (I also make my own)
Supper - 6-8oz tenderloin - 50-75g broccoli or asparagus, 75g potato
evening snack - 2 slices carbonaut bread toasted, 2 tbsp peanut butter (measured), protein shake with chickpea milk.

I know some of these I put a range, this is measured, but how much depends on what my numbers are like throughout the day. I don't sneak bites or guesstimate amounts.

For Supplementation, I am already on a Dr administered TRT Protocol. I do test cyp, 55mg twice a week. These are my most recent numbers. Please note I'm Canadian so the values probably don't jive with US units, but I put the "normal" ranges as well

Testosterone 29.7 nmol/L range is 8.4-28.8 nmol/L HIGH
Free Test 853 pmol/L range is 196-636 pmol/L HIGH
Estradiol 117 pmol/L range is less than 162 pmol/L
Prolactin 9.2 pmol/L range is 4-19 pmol/L
TSH 0.99 mIUL range is 0.32-4.00 mIUL/L

Everything else is within normal ranges, A1C went down from 6.1 to 5.0 with the weight loss. Cholesterol etc is all normal

[Mobster]

The losses will slow down but they WILL continue. Do it right (hit Stevesmi up for a consult) and you'll drop another 20lbs

[Phill]

your tsh is very low, you need to see the values of t3 and t4 for a comparison.

in addition, you eat 6 meals a day, not exactly what is expected of those trying to lose weight

2000 kcal / day 6 meals a day, 333.33 kcal per meal
only in the evening with two tablespoons of peanut butter and bread you are beyond this threshold.

[VerticallyChallenged]

Yes, but calorie values are in the 1700-2000 range. Usually when I mention that I get told I'm eating way too little?? That's part of why I'm here, I have no idea what to believe

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Sorry, I missed the second part of your answer

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Sorry, I missed the second part of your answer

[VerticallyChallenged]

your tsh is very low, you need to see the values of t3 and t4 for a comparison.

in addition, you eat 6 meals a day, not exactly what is expected of those trying to lose weight

2000 kcal / day 6 meals a day, 333.33 kcal per meal
only in the evening with two tablespoons of peanut butter and bread you are beyond this threshold.

Whether I have that or not depends on the rest of my tracking for the day, I have set amounts for workout days and off days, and I do not go over. I get what you're getting at, but I do track pretty religiously, If it's going to take me over my target, I don't have it.