See the current post "I need help". Heybales put a link to his spreadsheet. His spreadsheet helped me determine what I should be eating at. I was overestimating my activity level before using his spreadsheet. Also, it sounds like you have been changing calories and exercise frequently. You need to stick to any changes you make for several weeks before changing and adjusting. I would suggest looking long term. Don't cut so low that it is not sustainable just for a vacation. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Did a reset last year. Gained 10 lbs. I did 2100 ish cals for 8 wks. Then cut to 1800, lost nothing, cut to 1600,nothing, . 1500 lost about 3 lbs, . No inches, no clothes fitting looser, . I feel better on 1600 but results not there, well other than 3lbs. I'm 5'3 167 lbs, workout 3Times wk. Sometimes 2, Cardio 30 min..dumbbells in the 15-35 lb range 3xs. Just ordered cathe cardio supersets & pyramid upper & lower. Hopefully that'll be here this weekend, I want to get to 135, I don't want to cut to bmr but maybe I should then lose 20 pounds THEN start lifting.....I'm only asking about bmr bc eating tdee and everything else didn't work. Maybe it just doesn't work for . Me, . But my legs & feet are starting to hurt & I can't stand it anymore ! I've been advised by another mpf to keep cutting cals until I start losing bc I'm obviously eating too much ( that's when I dropped to 1500) how do I know whether to raise or lower. I weigh EVERYTHING ( which I didn't during my reset so I could've been eating slightly above 2100ish) I know I have to eat more with my cathe dvds. Though...ANY suggestions appreciated. Thanks! I just don't get how so many people have lost 20lbs since Jan & I've tried so hard !!! Desperate!!

How long between cuts did you hold the line?

Because if you ate higher and had no more gain or loss, and lowered, and lost nothing, and lowered, and lost nothing - over decent amount of time - to me just sounds like metabolism is very willing to move on down and remove your deficit. Must be one stressed system or messed up metabolism.

Sounds like the wrong direction if body is still in enough stress to mess with hormones and you got no deficit.
Perhaps you never ate at TDEE or near it?

And if you gained any of that 10 lbs quickly, again water weight - you must have been eating at some deficit prior to that. And if rest of that was fat really, you really had a rough metabolism there to move up so slowly that it allowed you to keep gaining weight.

This is all predicated on actually being at a level for 4 wks minimum, and being good with the intake side of the equation. Ever weigh all your food for a couple weeks to see how accurate your logging is? Shoot, just the messed about "about 2 servings" inaccuracies can increase deficit by 200 cal since it's anywhere from 1.6 to 1.9 actual servings, not 2. If you always played on safe side and added even more deficit by overestimating food, perhaps you were never eating as high as you think.

Or conversely, eye-balling sizes, and you were eating way over. But I'd think if it was that direction, and you cut for decent amount of time, you'd still see loss, you just wouldn't know what the true calorie level was.
So I doubt you were eating too high. Unless you were more accurate before the cut, and got sloppy during the cut.

And how fast was the 3 lb loss? 3 wks showing a lb a week? or faster showing water weight?
That would imply the higher 1600 level should have been some loss, it just would have taken longer.

I think this all adds up to you haven't waited long enough for any of those levels, your metabolism just lowered to meet them, because system was still too stressed out, because the level is way too low for real TDEE, that you never actually reached.

Going off a lot of logic there of course, all hinging on how much time did you spend at each level.

Because 10 lb gain in 8 weeks, if it was slow and steady the whole time, implying it was all fat, would mean 625 extra calories each and every day to cause that to be fat.
That would mean your real TDEE was 1475 for the level of activity during that 8 weeks.

So I'll bet some of that 10 lbs was instant water weight, showing you were way under-eating.
How steady or fast was that 10 lb gain?
Did you eat at TDEE for your level of exercise?
How long did you stay at 1800?
How long at 1600?
How long at 1500?
How long to lose that 3 lbs?

May, before my that i was on topomax for 6 wks, lost 10 pounds eating 2000 cal eating junk food (this was before I found mfp, I used to eat crappy but never VLC,,anything I wanted ( great drug for nerve pain but it had given me kidney stones prior so he took me off around June) June I started EMTWL, ate fat2 fit TDEE, slowly gained those 10 lbs back. So in August I started my 20%cut (so going off meds plus not weighing peanut butter which I ate a ton of to get to tdee everyday-i was measuring w a tablespoon-rounded tbspn-couldve been an extra 600 cals a day- now I weigh on a scale) ate at 1800 as my sept/Oct/Nov/Dec.

Going to cut this up a bit.. I have to side more with Heybales.. sounds like you lost water weight when you started a new workout.. you were eating 2k calories of junk and lost weight.. then you gained that back when switching calories up.. but you only gave it 2 months before cutting.. I probably would say thats not enough time.. especially since you cut calories a few times and seen no change at all...

I would NOT stop lifting weights until you hit a lower weight.. that is not the right thing to do if your already lifting weights.

If you decide to increase your calories, look at your diary raise your protein level to your body weight.. meet that number daily at the expense of your carbs.. get rid of Shakeology, Lean Cusines, Low fat foods, boxed meals, and just try to buy fresh items that you cook for dinner.

Currently you are eating 1400 calories or so daily, are you seeing any changes? Currently all the lifting, and workouts you do are just being cancelled out because your not feeding your body.. your not gaining muscles, you are just hurting yourself by limiting your body.

when I got my bodybugg in late April, I was eating1400-1700, burning,1800-2500 per my TDEE. That was through end of May, before my that i was on topomax for 6 wks, lost 10 pounds eating 2000 cal eating junk food (this was before I found mfp, I used to eat crappy but never VLC,,anything I wanted ( great drug for nerve pain but it had given me kidney stones prior so he took me off around June)
June I started EMTWL, ate fat2 fit TDEE, slowly gained those 10 lbs back.
So in August I started my 20%cut (so going off meds plus not weighing peanut butter which I ate a ton of to get to tdee everyday-i was measuring w a tablespoon-rounded tbspn-couldve been an extra 600 cals a day- now I weigh on a scale)
ate at 1800 as my sept/Oct/Nov/Dec.
Jan I decided to bring her down a bit more, 1700something as one calculator said, still trough all this no losses, my thyroid is fine BTW,
Feb I ate between 1700 to 1750, eat,train,progress said obviously 1700 is your maintenance as you have not lost any weight.
So drop to 1500, I felt that WAS low so I went to 1610, this month and have lost a solid stinking 2lbs,(some days 3,then back to 2) sort of depressing.
Yes I have started to lose this month but it's the lost a pound gain it back the next day crap that makes me want to try eating bmr. 1450, but not sure if that would support the Cathe I'm going to be doing.
I've not been lifting heavy per many on here, but 15-20 for curls, ( dumbbells) 35s for deads, ohp 15, flies 15, rows25s..that type of thing.

Little difficult to make it through the post finding answers, so formatting it above, hope I got the answers right, and laid out like this gives you something to think about.

And it is interesting - no where do you comment, that I see, about inches lost. You seem to be living or dying by the scale, which is understandable because of feet load, but that will be additional stress focusing only on that.

You also don't mention what your exercises were until the end here as to starting something else. Doing those same weight lifting stuff for the whole time? That's fine with injury, hopefully will help it, but true, no need to knock yourself out of commission.

So first, Bodybugg is not going to be accurate for some types of exercise, and it can be inflated for the other daily stuff too if it's basis for BMR using Harris is inflated 200-400 over better Katch BMR.
Do you know your Katch and Harris BMR? Shown in spreadsheet, TDEE Deficit and MFP Tweak tabs.

How steady or fast was that 10 lb gain?
slowly over 8 wks - so my math in my other post is correct. if it was slow and steady the whole time, implying it was all fat, would mean 625 extra calories each and every day to cause that to be fat.
That would mean your real TDEE was 1475 for the level of activity during that 8 weeks.
If that is the case, you have either lost a whole lot of muscle mass, or have one severely depressed metabolism. Or you did actually keep gaining water weight back as large part of that.

Did you eat at TDEE for your level of exercise?
Sounds like ate at fat2fit level which you don't say what it was. which is potentially inflated because it also uses Harris BMR instead of better Katch BMR, right or wrong or unknown. Probably over-ate due to bad food intake logging. And why fat2fit when you had BodyBugg TDEE unknown.

How long did you stay at 1800?
4 months, probably over-eating again for no scale used. No loss whatever the true intake was.

How long at 1700 something?
1 month, which if 1800 or true level was TDEE, then 100 cal deficit would be 0.85 lb lost if really a deficit. 100 daily deficit easily lost or reduced in food intake inaccuracies. Exercise change and improvements could also wipe that out.

How long at 1500?
Not much time, back to 1610.

How long to lose that 2 or 3 lbs?
1 month, which would imply a deficit of 290 calories if that was really just fat loss. So 1610 + 290 = 1900 TDEE.
But if that was really the case of TDEE at 1900, when you ate at 1700 for a month, you would have lost 1.7 lbs that month.
So that was not fat loss, though some could have been, but water weight.

So the difficulty of strictly using weight as measuring means of having a deficit is that change of workouts can cause body improvement and weight gain, which can be offset by fat loss. And eating at TDEE can cause that too of course.
And if body stressed lowered metabolism can cause problems also.

What is your Harris and Katch BMR?
Or if unknown then need age, height, current weight, and BF% from multiple calcs?

Has current exercise been mainly cardio? What type and intensity, time and frequency?

How often during those periods above did you change workouts?

As you get your new routine down, use the spreadsheet and be honest with your time. I understand her routines are lifting - but don't make them cardio, follow the rules.

You shouldn't be doing a lot of cardio, eating low carb like that. The Paleo and Primal programs that recommend low carb also talk about killer-cardio and such, and not doing anything but walking.
They know anything more intense with low carbs is bad while on a diet.

Do you own research on your med's - not the pharmacist. Find the study that shows what % had the side effects.

And lowered metabolism while you sleep, if it does it, for 1/3 of the day minimum - ya that could easily be 200 cal difference.

If you eat protein and fat first in meal with carbs, do you still get same bad effect with them?

So if that BF% estimate is decent, Katch BMR is 1417, Harris BMR is 1470, so you are right about expected BF% for your weight, that's pretty good actually, usually Harris is inflated, it's close enough though.

Why do they lose great at 1200 calories and then plateau.

Because they were eating probably 2500 to 3000 calorie previously.
That's over a 1000 cal deficit, so you get 2 lbs of loss a week, until such time as the metabolism slows down.
Either muscle is loss and it's no longer higher for totally expected reason.
They lose weight so BMR goes down for that too, sadly good chunk muscle-mass.
But even out side losing that, their metabolism slows down, so they keep losing, progressively less and less lost, until nothing is lost.
Plateau. So eat less and exercise more, that creates a bigger deficit and perhaps works for a week or two, unless more muscle is burned in which case you can keep losing till it stops again.
Now in sad state of having less muscle.