Would love some advice/imput for improvements

I know there are a million similar post like this on here but I am getting very confused reading them all. I started using MFP in January or February. Using MFP's calculations for calories which I believe was either 1200 or 1210. I was just doing Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred as my workouts and I did it religiously every morning before I got the kids up. Eating back my calories burned according to MFP's calculations. In my first month using MFP's calculations, I lost 7.5 lbs! In the next month, doing Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30 and again following MFP's calculations and eating back whatever it told me to, I lost another 7 lbs! So after coming on the forum quite often and reading the posts about BMR and TDEE I decided to figure all that out. BUT I was having trouble eating my 1200+workouts to begin with so I figured I'd just step up my calories a little at a time. I only lost about 2 or 3 lbs in the last month but I'm pretty sure it's because I'm messing around with my calories so much because I'm confused with what I should be eating.
I'm 5' tall, 131 lbs & 27 yrs old. According to the scooby calculator that seems quite popular with this site, my BMR is 1383, TDEE 2144 and -20% is 1715. My goal weight is 120, but that is just to get to a "normal" BMI. Should I stay at what MFP was recommending and that was showing me good results OR should I switch to TDEE -20% because I would eventually stall out anyway? Right now I have it set up to 1400 but the only way I can figure out to boost my calories is dairy and wheat which is putting me over for carbs and fat!

Replies

  • 2013Jenn2013
    2013Jenn2013 Posts: 38 Member
    I've also added a squat challenge to my workouts and would like to add in Jillian Michaels KickBox FastFix when I have time, but I usually have a hard time adding anything other than my morning 30 minutes so I'll have to see how that goes.
  • 2013Jenn2013
    2013Jenn2013 Posts: 38 Member
    I guess it pretty much equals out to about the same thing. With 2 Jillian Micheals Workouts, burning roughly 450 calories, if I want to net at least 1300 I had to consume around 1700 calories. If I get the TDEE -20% method, you don't eat back workout calories, therefor, this would be why I'm losing weight with no problem? Not complaining that I'm losing weight, That's the goal! I just went into panic mode when I was reading all the things that could happen when you set your goals too low or follow MFP's advice.
  • danrack
    danrack Posts: 1
    If you're working out that much you have muscle gain-muscle weighs more than fat. Don't be discourage what you're doing is working.