Pardon the depressing title, but here goes:

I am 5'5" and 145lbs and am struggling to maintaing that weight. I put on a bit of weight in the fall, for reasons I do not understand [literally, two days of 2.5lb jumps, and then the scale stayed there] and have been on Atkins the past month.

I would love to be able to lose 15lb, but for the life of me, I find it immensely difficult to drop weight.

The past month of Atkins has been great in terms of no bingeing, but not great in terms of weight loss. Only 2lbs down and no inches lost

I exercise 3x/wk, where I follow a powerlifting program.

I don't eat meat, and am not that into soy, so my protein is coming from eggs and tuna, some cheese (certainly not more than 4oz/day). Typical meals are omelets with mushroom, avocado, feta; or tuna salads.

Old hat as far as nutrition and carb counting are concerned, and am able to keep carbs in the 15-20g range.

What can I do to speed up weight loss?

Holy Crap! 15g of carbs...please tell me that is not a whole days worth

Well, it probably ranges 15g-30g, I guess. 15g is definitely on the lower side and is less frequent than 20g.

First of all, welcome, from a fellow newbie! And congratulations on being in a healthy BMI range.

I'm going to address each point from just a personal perspective. I'm not a doctor, just another woman trying to lose weight.

Two pounds a month is not bad at all. That allows, in my experience, your skin to keep up with your weight loss, so it's not too loose.

To me, exercise is extremely important for your health, but it just doesn't live up to the hype as a weight loss technique. What really works for that is to have a calorie deficit, as you may know already.

It's nice that you're not bingeing (sp?), and low carb is good for that. I'm also on lower carb, but not as stringent as 20 to 30 grams per day.

The seriously serious bottom line is to get to a calorie deficit. Last year I lost half a pound a week for ten straight months, never gaining, with that technique. And I didn't factor in exercise to give myself more calories. But I'm really strict with the scale. If it doesn't say I'm losing, I take that into account with what I eat the next day. It's really hard to keep track without consulting the scale. I also write down the results.

What also helped me was getting used to being hungry. I've realized that I'm going to be hungry most of the time for the rest of my life, even though I get all the calories the doctors say I should have for a woman my age and height (1200 x 7 = 8400) or more.

I do use exercise to help get me to my weight goals (lose half a pound a week). But it just helps me with tiny little increments a day. Most of the loss is due to getting to a calorie deficit.

Hope that helps. It's just what works for me, and your mileage may vary.

Powerlifting with that much protein is going to add a little muscle.

I would focus less on the scale and more on what is happening to your physique. You must be toning up very nicely. If you were a guy, you might be bulking up but that does not happen with ladies because we have hormones you don't (it's a guy thing).

If you really want to see the scale go down, swop the powerlifting for cardio.

But I wouldn't advise you to do that. Power lift on! And flex those guns. No inches lost. But no bats wings either!

Awesome. You should be proud to powerlift. And screw the scale!

Swop scale for mirror.

1500 cal per day + cardio 60 minutes 5x a week = weight loss, for sure.

Congrats on your amazing loss!

What do you eat in an average day?