It's a complex question, and I think that's why it is asked so often. I'm just going to list somethings that you should consider and let you know what works for me when I want to lean out a bit.

• Sleep; it's so critical for good weight loss. It's so often overlooked, but without good sleep your cortisol is likely to be jacked, and that leads to insulin resistance, and that means your body can't effectively access your fat stores.

• Stress; see sleep - stress affects cortisol.

• Inflammation; usually also overlooked. Get your total PUFA's to around 5% of total calories, and your omega 3/6 ratio to as close to 1:1 - 1:2 as possible. This is quite difficult, it means you need to be eating grass fed or wild caught protein sources and you need to severely limit eating out at restaurants because of vegetable oils. If you can't avoid eating out due to travel or what not, use fish oil to bump up your omega 3's, though this is not ideal.

If those three points are out of whack for you, then I think it's worth fixing those first. Now what works for me..

• Ketosis / VLC - I drop back to around 20 - 30g of carbs per day, and enter ketosis after a few days. For me this melts the fat of me, my energy levels become ridiculously stable and I feel really good. That said I know others seem to get better results by upping their carbs to 100 - 120g a day. I guess it has a lot to do with who are and what you do.

• No nuts, no fruit - If you want to put on a bit of fat on (or a lot!) consume fructose. If not, avoid it. That said berries really aren't that bad of an option (for fruit they don't contain too much fructose), it just depends on how big your bowl is. I wouldn't consume more than a cup per serve if leaning out was the number one priority, and I would probably keep serves down to once every second day or less.

Nuts are generally, relatively, high in omega 6's and it's way to easy to over do it. That said the way you consume them, in salads, probably isn't such a big deal, but I would try pulling them out all the same. I generally only eat macadamia nuts, because they are much higher in saturated fats than PUFA's. I also like Robb Wolf's idea of if you eat nuts, shell them yourself. That way you can't consume them too quickly.

• IF - It works for me. Though I have read that if your sleep and stress aren't good and your cortisol is bad it can cause many more problems that it solves. This is because by fasting you are putting a stress on the body. It can deal with it if everything else is good (and there can be many benefits in this situation), but if you already have cortisol/stress issues it may just be adding gasoline to the fire. I don't get hungry when I IF, and I believe this is because I'm well fat adapted. The fact that you are getting stupid hungry while IF'ing could be because you're currently not well fat adapted - and that also could be the cause of your plateau. How to fix that? Well you've just read my ideas on that :)

Hope that helps some!

In my experience, plateaus are pretty normal for any kind of diet. It's like the body thinks it's encountered a famine situation so it starts to hold out as an act of self-preservation or something LOL. While it can seem counter-intuitive, what can be very helpful (again, just in my own experience, and my mom's and a few other people I've known over the years, but everyone is different), actually upping your caloric/mass intake (by whatever means which you are most comfortable) for a few days up to a whole week, then yanking back to the levels you're at now can jump start the weight loss again.

Answers from @Andy, this is soooo true!!

plug in your food for a few days and you'll probably see whats going on.

I have been in and out of ketosis for several months now and weight loss is slow but steady, more fat lose than anything. BUT, if you are still feeling hungry you may not be ready for IF.

I tend to keep carbs at 20% and protein at 20-25% and the rest fat..and this keeps me pretty balanced. You'll have to see what works for you, but if you are hungry its likely not enough good fat.

Nuts max 1 oz day (i love almonds as its 22 almonds per oz), fruit 1 srvg/berries, no dairy and guaranteed weight loss.

If you are lifting or doing a lot of exercise you are likely building muscle and burning fat at the same time, this sometimes causes you to think you aren't progressing, but give it time, you'll see the melting effect and a leaner you!!

hang in there!!

My plateau solution for myself is to cut out all nuts, seeds and fruits. I cut out butter as well, which is the only dairy I tolerate....if you normally eat dairy, you will likely do better without it. I also recently added 2 24 fasts per week, dinner to dinner(normal sized dinners), and that has been great as well. I also cut out caffeine, and prioritize hydration, relaxation, and sleep! Oh, and plenty of awesome fat with every meal...hurray for lard, coconut oil and bacon fat!

Actually keep up with your calories for a while. It's not easy to consume too much on paleo or primal but it happens, especially for those who are eating lower fat and too much protein...they get hungry too often and end up eating more often.

Try this, measure your neck and abdomen if you are male; neck, waist, and hips if you are female. Enter these numbers into a free body fat percentage calculator like this one. http://www.dietandfitnesstoday.com/body-fat-percentage-calculator.php Use this number to find your fat mass, subtract fat mass from body weight...this is your lean body mass.

BW-FM=LBM.

LBM x10 = your calories.

Then use www.fitday.com to plan your diet...

Make your macros look similar to this...

Fat 60%, protein 35%, carbs 5% or less... basically red meat, whole eggs, dark meat poultry, and green vegetables... 4 or 5 meals a day. No nuts/seeds/fruit for a while.

I've never seen anyone NOT burn fat and keep muscle while doing this. Good luck to you.