gymrat, I have been reading the advice you have received on this post. I had to go back and re-read your post to see what your original question was.
Let me make sure I have this right. You have 25 pounds you want to lose and you feel your metabolism is very low, which is slowing down your weight loss. You want to know how to eat in such a way that it will help increase your metabolism so you can easily lose the 25 pounds. Am I understanding correctly?
If I am, my next questions are:
1. How old are you?
2. Height?
3. Current weight?
4. How much more do you want to lose?
You mentioned you have a job where you are
physically active. Are you a full- or part-time trainer? Can you give me a more detailed look at your daily activities?
Give me a minute please to share with you what worked for me last year.
It all depends on various factors, goals, and motivations. I lost 55 pounds in five months eating three meals a day and eating a lot of starchy carbs. Where many people believe that eating a lot of starchy carbs will not help you reach your weight loss goal, I say it "could" be a contributing factor. I believe that you have to look at several different factors in the equation and make sure that each factor is operating most efficiently in the equation to maximize the probability of reaching your weight loss goal (dang, I need to start using some simple english around here! Sometimes I don't understand myself!) What I'm trying to say is, where some people look at one factor in the equation, I look at the equation itself. I think, right now, you may be too caught up in the numbers game. Worrying about how many calories you're eating in a day...too much...too little...sometimes it just gets too confusing and starts to pose a mental block. I say, give your mind a rest and focus on a different perspective. My approach is just some common sense eating and exercising your butt off! Everything comes at a price. Where diet is, most people say, 90% or more of the equation, I say that is not necessarily true. It is a big part of the equation, but I think physical activity plays an even more important part.
Focusing on the diet, you seem to be a very intelligent individual. I think you know what is healthy and what is not. Just eat sensibly. Everything in moderation. Of course, the more physically active you are, the more calories you're going to require, even in an effort to lose weight. If you are very physically active and eating too few calories, your body will hold on to everything it's getting. Your body will not know the difference between a simple carb and a complex starchy carb. It's like the old saying, you have to spend money to make money. Sometimes you have to eat more food to lose more weight. You obviously have to eat enough to support your physical lifestyle. I lost my weight by weightlifting an hour and running up to an hour every day six days a week. Of course, I ate sensibly, but like I said, I ate three meals a day and had a lot of starchy carbs throughout the day. The bottom line was I was able to burn more calories than I consumed. I, in no way, counted calories. I just ate healthy foods in very moderate portions and worked my butt off! I just made sure I was burning more calories than I was consuming. That doesn't mean go out and eat anything you want. The key is just to eat healthy. If you can eat healthy, which by the looks of it, you are, even including the starchy carbs (in my humble opinion), then all you have left to do is just burn more calories than your consuming. Without
counting calories, if you're not losing weight, do one of these things:
1. Eat less; Work out the same
2. Eat less; Work out more
3. Eat the same; Work out more
4. Eat more, Work out the same
5. Eat more, Work out more
Honestly, I think you can scratch numbers one, two, and three. I, along with Lady C, don't think you're eating enough. All that leaves is eating more and either keeping your workout the same or work out more. I know that sounds pretty easy, but I sometimes think we all try to make it more difficult than it needs to be. If we would simply go work out a little more with the time we sit here trying to work out the numbers, we would burn that many more calories in our effort to lose the weight.
My life has changed so much in the last year, I just can't begin to tell you everything right here. All I can attest to is the fact that I lost 55 pounds in five months without counting calories. I didn't worry about the amount of starch carbs and proteins. I just included ALL major food groups in my diet...protein, carbs, fat, fruit. It was all good. I just didn't eat past six, sometimes seven at night. I did keep my carbs low at night because I did all of my working out during the day. Now that my life has changed, I am SO much more active now than I ever have been in my life. As a result, my nutritional needs have changed drastically. Sometimes I still find myself not eating enough during the day and have to start eating more. It's amazing (at least in my mind) how much food I'm having to eat just to support my physical lifestyle now. And I'm not gaining a pound by eating more. In fact, it just serves to keep my energy level high and my metabolism stoked. Eating as healthy as I do now, my body is just burning the calories. I started a new job a couple of weeks ago (a very physcially demanding job) and eating as much as I do, I have still lost a couple of pounds. I believe it is because of my activity level and eating MORE, not less.
Sorry for the book. I just wanted to share that with you. I know it's a different approach than most people will tell you. I just believe sometimes we get too caught up in the numbers game and it starts to become more of a mental roadblock more than anything. My advice is just to eat more healthy foods and keep working out the same or more. Just do what your mind tells you in an effort to burn more than you're consuming. Sometimes the less we think about it and just do it, the more successful we are. Anyway...just my two cents.
Any suggestions for alternatives? I think it would be a tough sell to do more veggies and I'm not a huge carnivore. And you're right... it can't hurt to try.
This is my full time job. 
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