>>Right now I am barely losing any weight after a nice 17 pound drop in about a month and a half.

thats a steep drop. you're doing well just to maintain it.

my goals are much more modest. half a pound a week would be a great goal for me.

I'm down 10 lbs., down 2" in my waist and up 1/2" in my thighs, since April. I'm still at it: I want to lose another 5 lbs. and gain another 1/2" in my thighs. I've done it by eating smaller portions, simple as that. Same foods, less of them. What I haven't decreased is protein. I'm an ovo-lacto piscaterian who eats very little fish, so I've continued to use whey protein in the same quantity, ~60g/day. What I've cut markedly is carbs. I cycle carbs, down while training Monday-Thursday, up Friday and Saturday, long hard ride Sunday, repeat. My recovery beverages are mostly protein, so I'm training at least partially glycogen depleted 4 days/week. I trained three times yesterday, no snacks. If anything, the glycogen depleted strategy has made me faster on long rides, more than the weight loss should have, see:
http://media.powerbar.com/snn/pdf/2T...ompeteHigh.pdf

Even though this link says there's no advantage to weight training low, I'm having good results with said training. Probably would be better if I ate more, but I'm trying to lose weight. Can't have it all. I'm getting stronger anyway.

Yes, I'm hungry a lot of the time. I try to fix in my mind that hungry=healthy. I want to be hungry. Yes, large glass of water. Cup of coffee. I can do intervals mid-week, just not for too long at a time. I use a sports drink while I'm training, 100-150 cal./hr. If my HR goes down, I take a drink. After training, a few more sips, then 15g whey in water.

The problem with trying to lose weight at this time of year is that we are getting into party season. Heck, we're already in it. That makes it really rough if you have a life outside of cycling.

Cut back on the wheat and sugar.

I used LoseIt! to set a goal and help count my calories in and out (I mainly used their iPhone app, but the website seems decent, too.)

Worked great. Lost ~15 lbs, pretty much according to the schedule I set there. The hardest part is that for a while you have to log every damned thing you eat, and it's a bit of a PITA. But it does work.

And dairy.

There's an amazing amount of disinformation in this thread. I really don't know where to begin, so I'll just tell my story.

From the end of April to the beginning of September I lost 23 lbs. Maybe more since then, I don't own a scale. I don't count calories. I didn't lose strength at any point. In fact, I've gotten stronger. I'm now at, or very close to, my ideal weight.

I've had a fairly healthy diet for a long time. The major change since April has been that I cut out a lot of sugar. I eat almost no red meat. Lot's of chicken & fish, green salads. Carbs as needed. I typically don't eat after 6:30pm. I ride a lot, typically 150 - 250 miles per week. Several 30 milers and 1 or 2 50-60 milers or higher.

A couple of things... the 3 main fuel sources are carbs, fat, protein. Carbs and fat convert easily. Protein converts less efficiently, produces more byproducts as a result of conversion. There's nothing wrong with carbs if used as fuel fairly quickly after consuming.

Everybody needs protein, but you probably don't need as much as you think you do. You probably don't need to eat as much food as you actually do. Sensible weight loss is probably less than a pound a week. What I described above is an exception. And I didn't starve myself, or have cravings that I didn't satisfy. Again, I ride a lot. 1000 miles in August. I'm sure some reading this ride more. Cool.

Last, it's mostly about keeping one's metabolism up. That's enough for now.