Hi.

I am 5'2 and 145 or 144 depending on the week. I did my cut 3 weeks ago, I was eating 2000-2100 for my TDEE and now 1700-1800 for my cut, I am losing nothing. nada, zilp zero. Very frustrated. I run 3 miles 3 times per week and alternate days I do Cathe lifting dvds with 1 rest day. I probably need to cut more, but I had a hard time doing it to begin wtih after a couple of months of eating cleaning and awesome. Anyways, i feel your pain. I am sorry I have no advice, besides cutting I don't have any.

Maybe I am doing something wrong with eating so I increased my protein this week to 45% and 30% carbs 25% fat, as I read that decreasing fat is important if I am trying to lose fat & gain muscle (ya whatever still doesn't seem to work)
I eat:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, chia, protein powder, some days a banana with it
Lunch: Always a big salad, lots of veggie and like 6 oz lean meat (some times a carb with this like rice crackers with hummus)
dinner: Meat and veggies
snacks, apple, ostrim sticks, eggs whites, dried spicey chick peas, protein muffins *homemade

Seriously, shoot me... I really don't think I am eating anything wrong.. kill me if last weekend i had ONE handful of doritos at a party lol

I will repost this, sounds like i am asking for help and i dont want to steal your thread

So you have a bodyfat % estimate, good.

Even the Scooby site has a Most Accurate option where you can select Katch method. Still 5 basic levels.

Use the link for the better than 5 rough levels and do the math on your time, because 30 min of walking is not near 20 min of lifting. But you do start out higher than sedentary.

If you can get Chrome, though, the spreadsheet works great after you Make a Copy.

So those TDEE levels are based on time of exercise - 1-3 hrs weekly, 3-5 hrs weekly, ect.

They don't include active job or lifestyle outside of exercise.

Would your TDEE be higher as a mail carrier compared to desk job, not including exercise?

What is your 40 hr work time spent doing?

And then for the exercise part, is 1 hr of walking adding as much to your TDEE as 1 hr of running?

Walking is fine, just not nearly the bang for the time spent, but if it's what you can do and be injury free, that should be it for now.
Making it incline can make it burn more, if not a knee problem with that.
Lifting is great, just doesn't add as much to the TDEE as other stuff would be, so means you get to eat less.
Are you actually lifting with progressive overload, like making it heavy and difficult for you, or merely maintenance easy lifting?

So you might reread my comments above as to why to use the Katch BMR as start of the math at least, don't even use the other one if you have a BF% estimate.

And then go to that link to better estimate your TDEE base on at least time and 2 exercise types.

How long did you eat at 2000 and it stayed the same?
Because if weight didn't go up, then you have a high TDEE for whatever that level of activity was at the time, and actual TDEE might have been even higher.

Ya, your daily life without exercise is Lightly Active if you want ballpark estimate.
With exercise you bumped in to Moderately Active.

So you lost no measurements either during those times of different eating levels?

So is your 2000 your potential TDEE, or still a suppressed TDEE?

Because if you ate 1600 and also saw no changes, that's obviously a suppressed TDEE, right?

TDEE, or maintenance, means no loss or gain. So logic here, was 1200 your TDEE? Was 1600 your TDEE? Was 1700 your TDEE?

Is 2000 your real potential TDEE?

One way to prove it. Eat 2250 daily for 2 weeks.

If weight goes up slowly over that 2 weeks a total of 1 lb, which is all you would get eating 250 more daily over maintenance, then 2000 is your real potential TDEE.

But if you get fast water weight gain in first few days or the first week, and especially more than 1 lb, then you were obviously not at TDEE. Because if you were at TDEE, there would have been no glucose stores to refill quickly.

This means you must only weigh on valid days, you have at least 4 of them weekly it looks like, depending on how long the soreness lasts.

Unless you logged how much you used to eat before you started to diet, and you basically maintained, you likely have no idea how much you used to eat.
And were you at the level of activity then as now?
Probably not.

So probably your only ability to compare calorie levels is to the past low amounts you ate.

I'd guess you Moderate perhaps rounded down to 2100.

You should be able to lose weight eating less than that, right now in fact. Unless your body is so sensitive it's not willing to allow a deficit until it feels safe from past craziness.

That may be the case.
Many will find by eating say 150 more calories, they burn 250 more, usually because they get their NEAT back, that daily activity your body is willing to suppress when under-eating.

So unstressing the body is needed. And then they find they can go right back to a level they ate at previously when moving up, that didn't cause any loss then.

So 250 more over true TDEE is 1 lb in 2 weeks time, that's all. And if lifting, it's not even fat totally.

So with no measurement change, doesn't sound like you were trading fat or LBM either. If lifting heavy, that shouldn't be possible.

Lean Body Mass is all non-fat mass.
That's all there is, fat mass, and non-fat mass. Non-fat mass also called Lean Body Mass. Incorrectly and confusingly called Lean Muscle Mass sometimes, as if a cut of beef is being ordered.

LBM comprised of organs, water, glucose, muscle, tendons, bones, ect.

So you can easily increase LBM without increasing muscle, happens all the time for people starting cardio routines or taking them up a notch in endurance. More glucose stored, that is always with water. Blood volume increases with water as amount of vessels increases, ect.

My reference to walking doesn't equal lifting was not a comment on your personal activity level, but rather how hard it can be to use 5 rough TDEE levels totally based on hours of exercise. Your exercise may fit in perfectly there, it may not by a longshot.

What if someone walked 1 hr daily with their dogs, 2 mph. Is that truly Very Active by the TDEE levels? I guarantee they will gain weight doing that ballpark figure and eating to it.


If you bump up to 2250 and gain either no weight or fast water weight only, then 2000 was not TDEE, and 2250 is doubtful too now. Test another 250 more and 2 weeks.
But if slow gain over 2 weeks, 2000 was TDEE. Cut from 2000.

So the time you'd have trouble trading fat for LBM eating at maintenance, or TDEE, is if it's suppressed TDEE. You body still wants more calories for the basic stuff, and isn't willing to spend any on building new muscle which will take even more energy it already isn't getting.

Since it's proven those other eating levels weren't really potential TDEE but suppressed, it doesn't surprise me your body made few changes you can discern with a tape measure.
I'm sure you had some, just small and probably in areas not measured.

So good plan. You may have a very nervous NEAT burn throughout the day, keeping your TDEE higher than LBM and BMR would indicate, which is great, hate to lose that.