Definitely try going over your TEE for a while. I’ve heard several anecdotes of people losing more when they are more, and there’s also the overfeeding experiments where even on a 10000kcal diet the subjects barely gained weight (and stopped gaining pretty soon).
I also have my own anecdote related to this. The first time I lost weight it slowed down around 110kg. I also became more hungry, it was harder and harder to stick to one meal a day and I often had to get a snack or something before dinner. I became less energetic, and while I still exercised (in fact, exercised more) I didn’t have the same need to move that I used to when I was severely obese. For a while I tried eating less, still not counting calories but cutting certain ingredients (like cheese) in my regular meals in half and not eating more than my one meal. I also did some 48 hour fasts, but that was mainly to see if I could. I kept losing weight even though it was slowing down more and more, but I was also feeling worse and hungrier. After about two months of this I figured, if my body doesn’t like this it’s probably not a good idea to force it. My BMI was 29, so while I was still fat I wasn’t a blob anymore, and I figured I wouldn’t waste time swimming uphill. I started eating more, still keto, still healthy whole foods, still mostly one meal a day, and I started feeling better pretty much right away. I gained weight, for a while, but not much and after a few weeks I suddenly dropped 2kg out of nowhere. A few more months of this and I had dropped to 90kg, now flirting with a normal BMI, exercising a lot and enjoying it and feeling pretty good in general (until my depression pretty suddenly gained the upper hand and I’m now doing it all over again, but that’s a different story).
I think the body is fine losing weight as long as thing are swell. If it’s not doing so good, however, if it’s stressed, injured or something else is amiss, it prefers to save energy for emergencies. It’s going to increase hunger and decrease “luxury” expenditures and generally do what it can to be frugal. You can always force the body to lose weight by not eating enough calories, but realize that weight gain and weight retention is a way for the body to try to mitigate whatever underlying condition is making you feel bad. The best way, I think, is to find that condition and fix it. Sometimes that condition is not enough calories, and you fix it by eating more. Now, this doesn’t guarantee you’ll lose weight because there may be more reasons you’re not losing, but I think weight loss is best left to the body while the mind focuses on staying healthy. Unless you’re trying to win a bodybuilding competition or something to that degree, then a more focused approach is needed.
