Well you're still down 3 pounds from your starting weight, hopefully the first bottle got you over the hump as you predict. As far as cardio, maybe you should try to just do 30 mins of cardio, and up your weight training. You were very worried about losing muscle, and if you did lose any, it was probably due to high amounts of cardio, and low amounts of weight training. I highly suggest reducing your cardio, and upping your weight training. Let me know how everything goes. Good Luck!
Goracer, I agree with Drum, if you feel you must do as much Cardio for whatever reason, consider doing it on alternating days to weights -either way I think you might need some rebalancing of activity. Everyone is different but I remember being where you are with the trouser debacle, when I started this journey I was wearing 40 - 42", dropped to 36" and then couldn't really get past it... UNTIL I started doing 150 crunches, and 150 medicine ball twists EVERY morning. Can I see my abs? hell no, but can I feel them under that last inch of fat, YES! and I currently wear between 32" and 34" trousers/jeans which depends on fabric/style... but i'm much happier. Maybe not as happy as i would be if I could see the muscle, but happier than when I was where you are.
remember the other key things
1. You need muscle to lose fat, concentrate on big muscle groups, back, legs, chest etc... biceps may look pleasing but they are so small in real terms & when compared with the gains you can make on building muscle on the legs, there is no contest - particularly when you know that bigger muscles means more fat loss!
2. Cardio does not always equate to effective fat loss, training "Cardio" at low intensity, (60 - 65% of max heart rate) proportionately burns more fat calolries than "cardio" at high intensity (80 - 85% of max heart rate). In actual fat the amount of calories burnt is very similar, except after 30 mins of cardio at low intensity you might still be able to put in a good weights session for 45 mins, which might be more of a challenge if the cardio is done at high intensity...
Below is an example of the Karvonen formula for a 23 year old person with a resting heart rate of 65 beats per minute (*to get your resting heart rate, take your pulse for one full minute.):
220 - 23 (age) = 197
197 - 65 (resting heart rate) = 132
132 * 65% (low end of heart rate) OR 85% (high end) = 85.8 OR 112.2
85.8 + 65 (resting heart rate) = 150 112.2 + 65 (rhr) = 177
The target heart rate zone for this person would be 150 to 177
For this person to work in his 'fat burning' zone, he would need to stay around 150 beats per minute or lower. To work within his 'cardio' zone, he would need to work at 150 bpm or higher.
Anyway, you probably know all of this already, and as I said everyone is different, and the best is to find out what works for you, but if something isn't working, then change up and try something else and see if that works... losing weight and fat isn't a "race" it's a "journey" - it's taken me 18mths to get to this point now... 44lbs down and >10% BF drop.
Good luck man, i'll be keeping subbed and really wish you every success!