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Numbers:
BMR 1364
TDEE 2192
TDEG 1722

So 1722 it is!

How do I know that my body is responding positively/negatively to the calorie intake? If I have understood your explanations correctly, weight gain might be a sign of positive response, right? Since I plan on lifting this month.

Is my BMR that low (compared to 1543 with Harris) because my body fat is actually higher than what the Harris formula assumes?

So Harris BMR is based on study of healthy weight people, avg BF%, from 1919 actually.
So very rarely is someone going to keep that same BF% as you go overweight, except lifter perhaps.
So indeed, BF higher than what Harris assumes, which is unrealistic when overweight anyway.

Since coming up in calorie level I'll assume, you should gain some water weight, unless your carbs stores have always been topped off.
Only weigh on valid days, and every 2 weeks do measurements on same valid day. Update stats and see if it changes TDEG enough to worry about.
Morning after rest day eating normal sodium level and not sore from prior lifting workout.

If those 2 BF calcs are more than 10% difference, you could even see what appears to be BF go up - but rest assured measurements are just getting more accurate and reflecting what was already the case.
But at least it is self-correcting.

Another thing you should notice eating more, better energy.
But since this is weight loss recommendation, not performance improvement recommendation, you'll see performance increase for decent amount of time, inches drop, perhaps not much weight. But performance should plateau as not eating enough. That's when weight drops too.
But then you should be hungry while lifting. Your body wants to either keep progressing or feed the rebuilding it wants to do - but you are going to force it to use more fat as energy, and just use what you eat.
You will have to fight the hunger.
Solution if it gets bad, go to maintenance lifting, keep the deficit if weight must be lost.

You can tweak it too for loss and improvement - eat more than TDEG on lifting days, like extra 200 post workout. You decide how much weight loss impact you are willing to take. You have your TDEE figure, you know what you could eat up to if desired if excited about performance increases.
But it's a trade-off, strength gains or weight loss. But on lifting which include the body, 5 lbs off body is 5 lbs on the bar anyway.

Thanks heybales!
It really helps me when I have an idea what might be going on "behind the scenes."
I'll do the measurements in a couple of weeks and see if anything has changed.

...
Only weigh on valid days, and every 2 weeks do measurements on same valid day. Update stats and see if it changes TDEG enough to worry about.
Morning after rest day eating normal sodium level and not sore from prior lifting workout.

...

Ok heybales, I've been following your advice and here am I today! Well, it's only been two weeks, but I wanted to check if I'm doing this right so far. Last Sunday marked the two-week period. I weighed and measured myself that day.
When I started eating at 1722, I weighed 169.6 lbs (76.9kg).
Last Sunday (two weeks later), I weighed 165.6 lbs (75.1kg).
Measurements have gone down (for the most part). Numbers in cm.
Neck -0.2
Forearm -0.7
Waist -1.6
Abdomen +1.8 (I don't get why this has gone up)
Hips -0.9
Thigh -1.5
Calf +0.2 (I have skinny calves so this is good news lol)
Wrist +0.2 (okaaay)

I've plugged the # back in and got 39.3% BF (it was 40.2 two weeks ago). I have yet to enter the figures in the spreadsheet to see if that changes anything.

What do you think of the numbers? Good news? Bad news? Too early to tell if I'm in the right direction?

Ok heybales, I've been following your advice and here am I today! Well, it's only been two weeks, but I wanted to check if I'm doing this right so far. Last Sunday marked the two-week period. I weighed and measured myself that day.
When I started eating at 1722, I weighed 169.6 lbs (76.9kg).
Last Sunday (two weeks later), I weighed 165.6 lbs (75.1kg).
Measurements have gone down (for the most part). Numbers in cm.
Neck -0.2
Forearm -0.7
Waist -1.6
Abdomen +1.8 (I don't get why this has gone up)
Hips -0.9
Thigh -1.5
Calf +0.2 (I have skinny calves so this is good news lol)
Wrist +0.2 (okaaay)

I've plugged the # back in and got 39.3% BF (it was 40.2 two weeks ago). I have yet to enter the figures in the spreadsheet to see if that changes anything.

What do you think of the numbers? Good news? Bad news? Too early to tell if I'm in the right direction?

You lost 4 lbs and many inches in 2 weeks. I sure hope you think this is a good direction.

Even if your deficit doesn't allow for that much fat to be lost, can be water weight easily.

So that may or may not change the eating goal, depends on if you retained LBM or not. And don't worry, LBM is muscle and water and everything non-fat. You will lose LBM. You'd just rather it be fat first and mainly.

So great results, keep up your good logging and sticking to meeting your goals.

You lost 4 lbs and many inches in 2 weeks. I sure hope you think this is a good direction.

Even if your deficit doesn't allow for that much fat to be lost, can be water weight easily.

So that may or may not change the eating goal, depends on if you retained LBM or not. And don't worry, LBM is muscle and water and everything non-fat. You will lose LBM. You'd just rather it be fat first and mainly.

So great results, keep up your good logging and sticking to meeting your goals.

How do I know whether I've retained LBM or not? When I enter the #, my LBM is still 101 lbs. That means nothing has changed there, right? And that I should maintain my current eating goal...

Thanks! You helped me figure out a lot of stuff!

Note to self: abdomen part is "up" because I've measured below navel this time (where I'm slightly larger) instead of above navel (which I did the first time as that was recommended). Ooops. Glad I caught that b/c I was surprised the waist had gone down, yet the abdomen up. I think I'll also start measuring AT navel and see how the general area (upper ab, waist, lower ab) is changing.

By those calcs, just what you got. And indeed, nothing changes on diet yet then.
Eventually, you'll lose LBM, as not as much blood volume is need for reduced size, less water retain, ect. And muscle mass cann still be kept. No way to tell that except DEXA scan, and lifting and confirming you aren't getting weaker.

Yep, ab should be at navel, even if not widest part, unlike some of the other measurements which are max or min. That one is by location. Hardest part is sometimes getting it straight around, level you might say.

Got it, thanks.

I'll continue doing what I'm doing

I've been reading, calculating, and then reading some more. Before I update my MFP goals, I want to be sure I have this correct. The numbers seem high but I"m going to trust what I've been reading here. However, left me first say I've used two different tools to calculate (Scooby and Fat2FitRadio). The numbers weren't drastically difference so I just averaged the two.

These are the nubmers:
BMR = 1660 and TDEE = 2576

If I subtract 15% from my TDEE, my goal becomes 2189.6.

If I'm understanding this correctly, this should be my NET calorie goal for each day correct? Also, I'm changing my macronutrients to 40, 30, and 30 for carbs, fat and protein.

Am I on the right track? 2189/2190 seems really high on a daily basis so before I eat these numbers, I want to be sure I'm on the right path.

Thanks in advance!

You will be changing a figure in MFP that they call NET eating goal - but if you included exercise in the TDEE level, you do NOT treat it as NET eating goal but GROSS goal.

NET you would eat back your exercise calories because they are not included, MFP's method and hence terms used.
GROSS you would not because they are included, but MFP's terms are still there, just not used.

And 2190 seems high compared to what?
Always good to think about what is your actual experience with known calorie eating levels, and do you really have any informed info as to what is high or low?
Only if you logged what you used to eat before starting a diet would you have an informed opinion as to high or low.

Excellent point about my comparison! I just need to jump in with both feet and see what happens!

So, I'm changing my NET eating goal but it's really my GROSS following this method since I'm using my TDEE right? I'll still enter my workouts and the calories burned b/c I'm a numbers fanatic. But I'm going to ignore that and make sure I'm eating the 2190 each day. Am I making sense?

And thanks again for your help!!! I REALLY appreciate this!

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So according to this method, my BMR is 1525, TDEE is 2365 and my CUT VALUE is 1959. I'm terrible at math, but I wanted to make sure this was correct before I went and changed my settings.

Also, if I wanted to log my exercise calories (instead of 'burned 1 calorie doing 69 minutes of weight lifting'), would I just focus on the total calories I ate and make sure that they are at 1959, and not worry about what the NET tells me?

As with everything else in my life, I feel like I'm reading too much into this.

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Hi Everyone! Hoping someone can help me out? I'm trying to figure all this out, and just when I think I've got it, I get lost again. I've only been serious about this weight loss and lifestyle change for about a month now. I've lost a little over 10 lbs, but I know that a larger loss is common in the beginning. I want to lose at a reasonable and healthy rate, and I'm scared of eating too much or too little. I'd like to avoid a metabolism reset if I can!

So here are my stats:
Female
230 lbs
68"
30 yo
Activity level? I'm a stay at home mom of four, one of which is a toddler. I spend my days homeschooling them, keeping house/laundry, teaching piano lessons. I'm on my feet quite a bit but with long stretches of sitting to teach. I do 30 DS 4-6 days a week and stretching for 20-30 min 2-3 times per week. I am desperately out of shape, so even this amount of exercise has been a challenge, although its getting better! I'm not sure what to use for my activity level!
BMR 1829
TDEE Sedentary 2159
TDEE Lightly Active 2513
TDEE Moderate 2833
All according to scooby

I have had my calorie goal set to BMR for a couple weeks and log all exercise. I try to eat back but some days I find I am netting below BMR by a couple hundred calories. I have been losing, but like I said, it's only been a month. My calories have been drastically cut from my previous lifestyle, I drink at least 8-10 cups of water (almost none before), and I am exercising and building muscle. Of course, I am bound to see an initial loss with these changes, I just don't want to cause a plateau by under eating.

So now what? According to Scooby, a 20% cut at lightly active only puts me at a 1 lb loss/week, which is ok, but I have 80-90 lbs to lose. Is it safe to aim for 2/week as long as I net BMR? Anyone have any idea where I should be setting my net cal goals and activity level? Any advice would be sincerely appreciated by this newbie! Thanks!

Use this, for good estimate of BF%, activity level, and TDEE, and goal suggestion. Log progress, get macro's right.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/961054-spreadsheet-for-bodyfat-bmr-tdee-progress-tracker

I'd suggest you think about how many hrs a day you are on your feet compared to a 8 hr job sitting. If you are on feet almost 10 hrs daily, weekends included, that means 40 hrs weekly of at least standing and some movement.

More to lose can mean more deficit, unless you are doing no lifting to counteract the natural decency to lose muscle mass. Following protein recommendation will help though.

Bump. So helpful.

Ok, I used the ss to help me out, but im confused still.

Under TDEE I manually entered my polar hrm cals burned on an average week. That gave me a TDEE of 2428. But when I used the simple set up and added weight lifting it gave me a TDEE of 2868. Which one do I use? Also, which deficit do I use since i do both strength and cardio?

Im 193lbs, 65in, 29yrs, female. On my feet ALL day at home with 3 toddlers (i chose 30 hrs per weeks trades) plus I do 215 mins of HIT steady state cardio per week minimum (step aerobics and jogging) and 240mins of strength training (heavy...sl 5x5 with additional exercises) per week.

Katch bmr is 1588
Mifflin 1601
Estimated body fat at 35.58% per the ss

I ordered a fit bit about a week ago, should be here soon, so I can start gathering data with that too.

Any input would be appreciated! Ive been averaging between 1400 and 2000 and not losing for the last 3 weeks. I have lost 20lbs since jan...I had measurements, but I lost them, lol!

HRM will inflate weight lifting calories burned. I'd use MFP estimate for that amount of time and enter that.
Also, for that table where you entered in HRM calories, did you enter in probably Light Active calories for Daily non-exercise calories to use from above? Actually, I'd almost say use in-between that and Active level.

But really, I'd say use the Simple Setup tab to start with. Same amount daily, the deficit will be based on ratio of cardio to lifting, so you'll get better deficit because of having more lifting.
And you won't be assuming the HRM is correct.

Because if it's a cheaper Polar with no VO2max test and stat, and the cardio shape I'll bet you are in, it's under-estimating your calorie burn in general. It assumes bad BMI, bad VO2max, lower HR is lower calorie burn. But if in shape, low HR is just as many calories as high HR when not in shape.