I was 210lbs (5'10") and I have lost 35 or so lbs on a low-cal diet, but I have now hit a plateau and cannot get below 175lbs. I'd like to get to about 155lbs, so when I resume somewhat normal eating (but probably still low-cal forever) and rebound a bit, I'll level off around 165-170lbs. What do you think about switching to a low-carb plan to loose the rest? Will this work or will I just totally confuse my body? Thanks in advance for any input.

Define your terms.

What is low cal in your world?

What is low carb in your world?

What do you think the difference between the two?

Right now, to me low-cal is about 1000 calories per day.
If I were to switch to low-carb, then that would be close to 0 carbs per day for 1-2 weeks, then less than 20 carbs per day thereafter.
The difference, I hope (and thus the motivation for my original question) is that my body will react differently when I switch diets and start losing weight again because the type of food intake will change drastically. Kind of shift my body in to a different gear so to speak.
Or maybe it would be better to go up to about 1600-1800 cals a day for a week so my body comes out of "starvation mode" (which is why, I'm assuming, I've stopped losing weight) and then lower it back down after that?

Why are you eating 1000 calories per day?

Well, I'm having depression and image issues lately (yes, I'm seeing a psych and I'm on meds, otherwise I wouldn't even care what I looked like, which is how I was last summer) and I want to lose weight so I'm at least not ashamed to go to the pool with my kids this summer. I'm OK now at 177lbs, but that's with 1000 cals a day, If I go back to around 1800-2000 cals a day I'll rebound and level off around 185-190 and that's too heavy.
So from my original post:
"I was 210lbs (5'10") and I have lost 35 or so lbs on a low-cal diet, but I have now hit a plateau and cannot get below 175lbs. I'd like to get to about 155lbs, so when I resume somewhat normal eating (but probably still low-cal forever) and rebound a bit, I'll level off around 165-170lbs."

Have you read the starvation sticky.

Yes, I have read it. It didn't say anything about, when stuck in starvation mode, what might happen when you switch from a low-cal diet to a low-carb diet.

Did you read it before or after you thought it would be a good idea to eat 1000 cal/day?

And since it seems like you really want this answered...

No, going no carb would not be wise if you're plateaued.

I read it after. I only just started coming here when looking for information on how to continue towards my goal.

Thanks for your replies.

Your primary goal at this point would be to get your metabolism healthy again.

This means eating more food, including carbs.

This also means temporarily gaining some weight, mostly water. It's an acute evil for a chronic fix if done properly.

Well, that's kind of what I thought, so I will eat some more and gain some for a couple of weeks. I was just curious about the low-carb route, but eating normal food for a couple of weeks sounds better. Thanks.

I'm impressed. Most people flip the heck out when they hear they have to take 2 steps backwards in order to take a lot of steps forward.

I would systematically and incrementally step your calories up over a number of weeks until you reach maintenance. Remain there for a week or two and then diet using *sane* deficits.

how would one go about eating 0 carbs anyway?

Eat nothing but meat and fat. Assuming you were willing to tolerate the potential for rounding error, you could probably add an unsweetened / carb-free-sweetened (so liquid Splenda or stevia, likely) protein powder for variety. This guy did 30 days with carb levels between 1 and 6g per day (most of his carbs came from heavy cream, which he was drinking in an attempt to get his calories freakishly high to prove a point), so you can see what kind of things he ate.

IMHO, that diet would really, really suck, even for a couple of weeks. Even induction-level Atkins doesn't aim for zero carbs (or zero net carbs, either).