Eating the calories I burn

ladyhawk00

I would say your loss per week goal is far too aggressive. 2 lbs per week is appropriate for someone who obese or morbidly obese, not someone who is near a healthy BMI - you simply don't have enough fat stores to withstand that large of a deficit. Especially if you're doing that kind of cardio/strength, you need more fuel than that; specifically, your muscles need more fuel than that. With that high of a deficit, you'll almost certainly be catabolizing muscle. I would highly recommend changing it to 1/2 lb per week, 1 lb per week at the most.

I'll note here that while the recommended minimum intake for women is 1200, it is 1500 for the average man to receive adequate nutrition. If you are much smaller than average, you may be able to get away with slightly less than that, but it's likely not necessary, especially if you are active.

No one could say whether you're in starvation mode, but that's the problem with it -- it's not an obvious process. Even if you feel like you have lots of energy, that can simply be a reaction to inadequate intake (a process similar to fight-or-flight.) Same goes with lack of hunger. When your intake is not in line with your expenditures, and the metabolism slows, the hormones that regulate appetite will become imbalanced and your body won't send the proper hunger cues. So you really can't depend on them.

Think of it this way. (I'm just using a guess, since you didn't provide height) A 5'7" male, 23 yrs old, at about 165 lbs, would have a BMR around 1700. That means he'd burn 1700 just for basic function, as if in a coma.

For people who have a lot of fat stores, they can get away with a much higher deficit, because they have energy stores for the body to fall back on. But in your case, you don't have that much in reserve. So the body has to find that required energy somewhere. And the quickest source of energy in your body is muscle (once you burn through glycogen stores.) So, while you'll burn some fat, you'll also burn a high percentage of muscle as well. In your situation, you should be eating your BMR every day, at the very minimum. And if you want to maintain muscle mass, eat at least most of your exercise cals, to maintain a conservative deficit.

This has been very helpful. Thank you.

Quite welcome, good luck reaching your goals!