Losing the last 10lbs

this site is a great tool for finding out how many calories are in your food - so take a few mins to log what you eat and then you will have a much better idea of your intake. Personally I would stick at losing a lb a week so losing 10lb will take you 10 weeks, but if you can do more without making yourself feel crappy, then go for it!

This may be a stupid question but why do I need to eat back the cals I lose in cardio? I've never looked things up before until now, I really didn't know anything about the TDEE & BMR until now.

MFP is designed for people to lose weight without exercise if they either don't want to or are unable. Thus, when MFP estimates the total calories you burn in a day, it excludes exercise calories. For example, if your body burns 2000 calories maintaining weight, and 250 of those calories is from exercise, MFP will only realize 1750 calories out of the total 2000 as your maintenance intake. So keep in mind the -250 calories your body isn't getting according to MFP's formula. In other words, exercisers are already at a deficit before choosing their weekly weight loss goal.

If you choose a weekly weight loss goal of 0.5 lbs per week, a 250 deficit is automatically created for you. Since exercise expenditure is not included in MFP's calculations, you need to consider those 250 calories burned from exercise and add that to your deficit. Thus, your true deficit is 500 calories, not 250. If you do not eat any exercise calories, then you are increasing the deficit beyond your intended goal - a 1 lb loss vs the desired 0.5 lb loss.

You may think: 'What's wrong with that. Won't I lose more weight on a larger deficit?" Yes, you will. However, the weekly weight loss goal you select should depend on how much total fat mass you have and how much you wish to lose. A 1 lb, 1.5 lb or 2.0 lb loss is not appropriate for those who have less than 15 lbs to lose.

Essentially, the less fat mass you have, the less calories from fat can be burned in a 24 hour period. Thus, a reasonably lean person will not burn as much fat in a day as someone with significantly more fat mass. This is why fat loss appears rapid in very large people but slow in lean individuals. What happens when you lose weight on a larger than needed deficit when you don't have much fat mass? You lose excessive lean mass (bone, connective tissue and muscle mass). That is what you want to try and preserve while reducing fat mass.

So, how many exercise calories should you eat back? If you are running on a treadmill, the estimate is likely 50% greater than what you are truly burning since you are pretty much of average weight. Thus, you may want to eat about half of your estimated exercise calories. With that said, the less calories you burn from exercise according to the machine, the less margin of error in estimating exercise calories.

I still have a double chin and I want to lose 10-15 more lbs (I'm 5'5" and 146 lbs right now). I eat what I want within my goal though, 1650 (I just increased it a bit). I'm 35 though so older than you.