Lots of questions

cmbx2mom

I'm 5'7" female currently weighing 165 lbs. I've been gaining and losing the same 10 pounds for about 5 years now.The best scale loss has been using weight watchers a few years ago but I would try to always go under my point values and I was running a lot so I guess I was at a fairly low calorie intake. I was hungry all the time. Needless to say that didn't last. Last year I tried hydroxycut and again low calories and lost a little bit but gave up as again my calorie intake was quite low and I totally deprived myself from foods I loved. I kind of let myself go this past winter and ate lots of sweets etc and gained a few pounds back. I finally decided a few weeks ago to really focus on losing some of this weight again. First week was again low calories, approx. 1100 to 1200 net. I seemed like I was down a pound or 2. Next week I upped to about 1600 net and weight was back up again. This past week I net about 1800 and am still up in weight. My work right now is fairly sedentary, although at other times I can be on my feet for multiple hours it kind of depends what's going on. I exercise 3 times per week at gym and usually do 1 additional exercise on weekend. Gym is usually some cardio and some lifting. I've been trying to really up my lifting recently. I do try to do HIIT for cardio at least 1 or 2 of my cardio sessions. Total gym time usually 45 min to 1 hour per session. My run on weekends usually 3 to 4 miles. I also try to do stationary bike one night a week for 30 to 45 minutes. I have a HRM and have been using that to calculate exercise calories.

Based on this does it sound like I need to do a reset?
I feel pretty comfortable eating at 1700 to 1800 calories per day (not hungry all the time) although I do allow my self room for sweets...dark chocolate in particular. I've been trying to up my protein the past week to 30 percent but its tough.
Does anyone have any suggestions as far as reset goes and if I should do TDEE minus 15 or 20%?
My goal weight is 155. It may sound high, but I have a high muscle content for a woman and before I had kids I looked really good at 155.

Thanks!

Greenrun99

To me it sounds like you may benefit from eating more for a bit of time.. if your not comfortable doing a full reset, try doing 2 weeks or so but eating the full calorie amount daily.
So I would do TDEE for about 2-3 weeks (work your way slowly up to the mark if your off it now by more than 300), and see if you want to continue or not.. the scale will go up as your body refills the stores it lets out during a deficit.. then I would do a TDEE-15% reset when your comfortable...
As far as high muscle content for a woman, how did you measure that? Do you know your BF% as well at your current weight? After you had kids and ate lower, your muscle content may have changed.