Am I eating enough to avoid a plateau?

GothyFaery

So I've been doing this for about 75 days. When I first started I didn't have any idea what I was doing. After lurking through the forums, I found out about TDEE. I worked my numbers and have been using that as my guide. So far I've lost just shy of 14 pounds with only one small plateau which happened after a long weekend in Vegas where I did not stay under my TDEE.

After doing some more lurking, I'm seeing people saying that eating too little will cause you to plateau and now I'm nervous about that. Currently my TDEE-20% works out to be 1517 (Female, 171lb, 5'5, 25 years, little to no exercise). I have my daily goal set to 1550. Most weekdays I stay between 1200-1350 and around 1500 on the weekends. At the end of the week I'm usually about 1400-1800 calories under the 10,850 calories/week (1550x7).

I'm okay with slow progress. I'm not okay with no progress. My mini goal is 165 by Valentine's Day (although at this rate it's probably going to be closer to 160 :drinker: ) and overall I would like to be at 140-145 by mid-July/ early August. Should I be eating more to avoid a plateau and reach my goals on time or am I okay the way I'm going?

Side note:
The only exercise I get is running errands on the weekends (which is why I'm okay going slightly over TDEE-20%) and my bathroom squats during the weekdays (yes I do squats every time I go potty at work, not much but it is something) I also cook dinner and walk circles in my backyard potty training my new puppy but I don't think that counts.

Edited for spelling errors

Mischievous_Rascal

Congrats on the 14 lost! You sound like you're doing it right - that's a nice, steady and safe loss. Have you recalculated your TDEE? I do that every five pounds lost. Also, as you get closer to goal you'll want to increase slowly to -15%/-10% and then -5% once you're really close (10 or so pounds away). This will help reduce the sudden jump in weight once you switch to maintainence. Awesome job!!

GothyFaery

Congrats on the 14 lost! You sound like you're doing it right - that's a nice, steady and safe loss. Have you recalculated your TDEE? I do that every five pounds lost. Also, as you get closer to goal you'll want to increase slowly to -15%/-10% and then -5% once you're really close (10 or so pounds away). This will help reduce the sudden jump in weight once you switch to maintainence. Awesome job!!

First off, Thank you for the advice. Secondly, congrats to you on 100 pounds! I can't even imagine the dedication that took! Well done! Next to answer your questions, yes, I just recently recalculated my TDEE. It was originally at 16 and some change but I was so scared to go that far from the 1400 MFP suggested that I just split the difference to 1550. I will have to recalculated once I get to 167 and will most likely lower my weekend calories then. I will probably stay the same on my weekdays now that I know it's okay to dip that low. Thanks again!