Frustrated with weight loss!

yulia_star

I'm very frustrated with weight loss right now. Last December I was about 150 lbs. I got down to 134 by May. During the end of May, a lot of things came up (birthdays so there was cake and ice cream ((I hardly ever treat myself)), I got sick and couldn't exercise, etc) and I put on four pounds. For the last two months I've been trying to lose those four pounds. I tried eating every amount of calorie from 1200 - 1600 a day. I exercised for about 45 minutes a day, doing cardio, strength training, circuit training and mixing up my workouts. I didn't see any results. I'm not only judging by the scale, but also by how my clothes fit. I figured that since I was working out so much and eating so little (1200 - 1400 just doesn't work for me I've noticed) that I may be in starvation mode. So I took a few days and ate about 2200 calories. I'm back on track with eating healthy, exercising regularly and everything, but I'm not sure how many calories too eat.

A lot of people are telling me to up my calories since I don't eat enough for how much I exercise. I do about 40 - 45 minutes of intense cardio 6 days a week, 25 minutes of strength training every other day (alternating muscle groups) and I'm going to start doing HIIT on my stationary bike for 2 days a week. I also try to play WII for an hour or so a day. My exercise burns roughly 300 calories.

I read through some old posts here and people suggested the site Fat2Fit. I went there, figured out my BMR and my TDEE and how many calories I should eat at my GOAL weight, based on my activity level. It says to eat 2100 calories daily.

So can I eat 1800, burn 300 with exercise? Does that sound good? Or should I eat the 2100 calories and burn 300 with exercise? (I don't have time for more than 45 minutes of exercise - and I can't run or anything like that for exercise).

My current weight is 140 lbs and I'm only 5'2 - 5'3 1/2". My goal weight is 115 - 120 calories. I hope to lose 5 pounds a month.

DanaDark

Honestly... Just let MFP do the recommended setting for 1lb per week.

From there, adjust goals to make protein be 25 to 30% of your diet, and sodium to 2300mg.

From there, eat the calories assigned via MFP. Log ALL you eat, and log your exercise. Eat back 50% to 75% of your exercise calories.