Hi there cfsdavis & welcome I'll try to answer some of your questions and I'm sure others will come along too.

Manufacturers can claim a food is zero carbs by choosing a "portion" which has less than 1 carb. Mayonnaise is usually OK but DON'T get the low fat kind. Go for the "real thing" cause the fat is helpful in the diet. Read the labels - the first 4 things ought to include oil, egg yolk (dry or liquid), water. Mine has sugar after the salt so you know there's not much. The lower down the ingredient list a thing is, the less there is in the food.

How much do you have to lose? (If it's less than 20 pounds, you may have lost 4 and already be 20% of the way to your goal.) So it just depends. All the other things you have done sound good. But don't eat less - that can stall you. It is NOT good to go low cal or low fat when eating LC. Eat as much as needed to be comfortably full or when you are hungry.

Drinking the water is absolutely necessary. It flushes out the by-products of burning the stored fat. This kidney flushing allows the liver to do its real job of burning the fat. Without the water, the liver has to help the kidneys do their work so less fat is burned.

The vienna sausage & deli meats are certainly high in salt (which causes water retention so the scales don't move) and may contain sugars. If you can buy sliced roast beef or chicken/turkey breast, they tend to be lower in both salt & sugar. I cook extra for supper the night before and then take it for lunch next day.

The best measure of a loss is how your clothes fit. If they are getting looser, you are losing. The scales are often a week behind the tape measure.

good luck

BarB