I've been dieting for a few months now, and progress has been quick: from 73kg to 55kg today since late August. I've been lifting heavy and managing using a lower kcal diet, however, as I approach my goal state, I'm finding it very difficult to continue.
I haven't re-evaluated my calorie intake requirements, so I've been on 1500kcal for a while. As a male who's 157cm, I don't know if going lower is going to destroy my ability to continue lifting.
I've seen a decline in strength, mainly in some pushes, but also pulls as the weights become closer (and within 10kg) of my body weight. I've had to reduce the weights on pushes to avoid absolute failure, however, I feel like my strength progress has stalled - I'm not able to continue to increase the weight performance. I wonder where it's better to fail at lifting heavier or finish sets at a lower weight? Comparing to my gym buddy, my performance sucks. Obviously, the data shows me that I'm technically stronger given a body weight ratio - I do not find that comforting.
Back to where I started: I started around 30% body fat and am trying to figure out how much I've left - I believe I'm sitting around 15-20%, but I can't seem to quantify this. My scales shows that I'm tip-towing around 55kg weight, but I feel I need to lose 2-3kg of fat, maybe more to achieve my goal. Obviously I really don't want to be losing muscle mass. Even though the scales has a calculated body fat %, using the trend data (as opposed to single value measurements), I seem to be very slowly losing fat, but the trend is straightening now.
Should I reduce my calorie intake (and by how much) or what should I do? Obviously I am now believing I'm no longer in a sustained caloric deficit.