Plateaued yet again, please help!

Ritzbrit

Ok so I'm trying to figure out how many calories I should be eating since I'm on another plateau. When I first started MFP I was at 1200 calories, sedentary, workout 3-5 days a week, I was 225lbs, female, 28, and 5'6". I lost 20lbs but then plateaued. After doing research, I decided I should increase my calories to at least eat my BMR which is between 1627-1677 depending on calculator. I'm now 194lbs, still 28 but I workout 5-6 days a week for at least an hr doing hard cardio if not more and at least 3 days of strength training. I use my HRM every workout and for the past month I have been eating almost completely clean. I do however still have a desk job so besides my 2 hours at the gym almost everyday I am on my butt all day during the week. It's been 2 weeks since my last loss and still no movement on the scale or on tape measure. I'm getting a little frustrated! I know muscles retain water and maybe my body is getting use to my workouts so I just started doing HIIT. I'm hoping next week will show some changes. But I'm still confused about how many calories I should be eating. Maybe I'm eating too much or not enough? If I do my TDEE based on working out 6 days a week it varies from 2806-2892. So please tell me if I'm doing this right. I have 54lbs to lose still so if I create 1,000 deficit it'd be 1806-1892. Should that be may daily calorie range if I workout that much? And if so, do I eat back exercise calories? Depending on what I do, I usually burn 600-1,000 calories in a given workout. Currently, I'm eating 1746 which is above my BMR and I eat back most, if not all exercise calories. I'm just so confused. I was never good at math lol. I just feel like I've been working my *kitten* off for the past couple months and I should be getting better results since I still have quite a bit left to lose. I've been reading different articles on line and trying different calculators and my head is spinning. Please help me figure this out so my hard work pays off, thanks!

Greenrun99

So you were eating less, hitting the gym hit plateau.. Decided to eat more, go to the gym more, and hit another plateau.. Guess what is left.. Eat more, go to the gym the same amount, get off plateau..
I would say eat 2000 calories daily, don't eat any exercise calories and see how it goes after 2 months.

Ritzbrit

Thanks for the reply! But what about the days I burn 1,000 calories? If I'm only eating 2,000 burn 1,000, I'd only be netting 1,000 if I don't eat back any exercise calories right?

bcattoes

If you are doing HIIT correctly, your HRM probably won't measure your burn correctly. HRM are meant to measure calories burned in the aerobic zone. HIIT should push you into the anaerobic zone. 2 weeks doesn't sound like much of a plateau, but at your age given the type of exercise you are doing I wouldn't eat less than you are.