Cannot get passed CW???

TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure, basically its how much calories you burn in an average day by living, moving about, breathing etc

Here's a link to a calculator, by putting in your stats its saying you use roughly around 1859 calories a day on avg if you class yourself as light exercise (you mentioned you do cardio twice a week)

http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html

I'd say 1200 is actually too low as you don't have much to lose, if you really do want to be lighter then I'd say 1859-250=1609 cals a goal is better.

As you say yourself its better to focus on body image and body fat % rather than a specific weight.

If you want to be building muscle and improving your body you won't really be doing that effectively on a deficit especially not on 1200 cals.

MFP is telling you to eat 1200 calories a day because you said you wanted to lose 2 pounds a week, which at your weight is not reasonable. Change your goals to half a pound per week, eat the calories it gives you, and eat back your exercise calories. It's not as hard as you think to add more calories. Eat peanut butter, put mayo or ranch on your wrap, cook with olive oil, eat a handful of nuts, add in an avocado, put peanut butter or full fat yogurt in your smoothie.

If you factored in that gym activity into your avg TDEE then that's accounted for.

As an example if you set yourself as no/little activity your TDEE might be 1600 (and a goal of say 1350 to lose 1/2 lb a week). In this case you would log any additional exercise you wouldn't normally class as part of your avg day.

So if you did 400 cals of exercise you would log this and should really eat an additional 400 cals.


If however you said you have a lightly active lifestyle to include things like going to the gym twice a week then your avg would be higher across the week to compensate for the energy used. In this case it might be 1850 cals (with a goal of 1600 to lose 1/2 lb a week)
So it this case you wouldn't log the activity or need to eat more because you've already eating a higher amount.
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As you have said 1,310 from 1lb a week loss, which is roughly 500 cal deficit, I assume your TDEE is to around 1810 set to lightly active to account for going to the gym.

So you wouldn't eat the gym calories on top.



However what people are suggesting is that your set to 1/2 lb not 1 lb making your goal probably around 1500

It sounds weird but when you eat at such a big deficit like you are currently doing the body is less likely to give up fat. It's very clever at keeping you alive by storing fat if it thinks it isn't getting another sufficient food. You need to be eating at a deficit to lose weight but not so much that your body holds onto the fat. This is why you are probably seeing no further loss.

The recommended deficit is TDEE - (20%). So as an eg with 1800 * 0.80 = 1440 cals is about idea for losing

I was at your weight about a month a half ago so I know what you're going through. Personally I found given that we have less to lose and are small are TDEE is more in the 1800-1900 ballmark. I exercise 4-5x a week, running on average 20 miles.

Personally I try to stick to anything between 1200-1500, I practise intermittent fasting so such calorie ranges are easier to sustain. On average I don't expect anything more than a 1lb per week...if that.

Reassess your goals, you can't expect to loose what you did earlier unless you start exercising like mad or have a considerably higher metabolism given your new practise of weight lifting.

2-3lbs loss per month seems appropriate but no more.

If you find it hard hitting 1200kcals try throwing in some healthy fats (oil oil, avocado, nut butters) into your diet. 1tbs of pb is roughly 90kcals, 1tbs of oil is aprox 80kcal. You can eat more.

I totally undersand. I'm similar in height to you, and weigh a little less, since I am now maintaining.

It is difficult for us small gals. Our bodies just don't need as many cals as others.

Check out the "In Place of a Road Map" group. There is a spreadsheet link that will help you find out more closely how many cals you burn. Then eat 10% less than what you burn. (10% less than TDEE)

Unfortunately we small gals still don't get many cals without some good calorie burning cardio on most days!

Good luck.

Open your diary so folks can help you analyze your activities and food choices/intake.