Amanda
I understand your concerns about retaining water. I am one of those too. I use no added salt at home so when I go out to eat I automatically gain about 3lbs from added salt. I gave up the bacon and I only eat sausage that has little added salt, no deli meats.

Have you tried using fitday? www.fitday.com

It is a great tool to help you keep track of just what is going on with your food and nutrients. Definitely make sure that you drink lots of water. Your body likes to hold onto whatever it thinks is in short supply. Water flushes water

Also, I had success when I upped my calories. Because your weight is 185 it seems that probably you need at least 1850 calories a day. That would most likely be about your BMR (basal metabolic rate ... just what your body burns to stay alive without any activity). Unless you are eating an outrageous amount of calories you're really not supposed to be counting your calories until you're closer to your goal weight.

One other thing that might help is if we knew your ratios. What is your fat%?? (This is where fitday really helps). I lose best when my fat % is around 70% and of course as has been pointed out here and by Dr. Atkins if doesn't help weight loss go any faster if the carbs are below 20gs. Don't worry so much about fiber grams except to remember to subtract them so that at the end of the day you have 20g of carbs.

It sometimes take a little tweaking until you find exactly what works best for you. I've had to learn by trial and error too. We are all so individual. All I can do to help is let you know what worked for me. You can try that and maybe it will work for you. Hope I was able to help. Hang in there.