According to scooby calc you are to eat between 2000 and 2200 calories depending on whether you are moderately or very active. It sounds like you are very active.

Just my opinion but I don't think you have to drink 14 cups of water daily. Drinking only when you are thirsty should be enough, including coffee! If I drank 14 cups of water a day I would be in the bathroom all day. As it was I was spending too much time drinking and in the bathroom and have been doing some researching about that and reading interesting info about water intake. Apparently we think we need a lot more than we actually do. Don't take my word for it but thought I would throw it out there. I stopped forcing myself to drink 8 plus glasses of water a day and I feel a lot better!

Would someone help me out a bit and double check my numbers - tell me I am on the right path and I shouldn't worry about it and to just keep going.

I am 5'4" - today's weight 181.2 and age 39.

I was last September down to 165.8, but the scale seems to slowly keep creeping up on me. I started this journey 2 years ago and I ate at 1200 calories - over time I realized I was starving as I would have binge moments so upped to 1400 then later on to 1550 and then again later on to 1700 (been at this for about a year) and the last 6 weeks or so I upped to 1960 because i can't seem to get my weight down. I drink 14 cups of water daily 98% of the time. I do drink 3 cups of coffee almost daily too. Diet pop is a treat.

1960 is what I calculated if I did TDEE - 15%......but the scale keeps going up. I have my macros set to C 30%, F 30%, P 40%. I try to stay within these limit.

I workout 5 days a week. 2/3 days of bootcamp (doing squats, lunges, weighted bars, medicine balls, ab work, battle ropes, etc, etc,). The other 2/3 days is running, interval running, elliptical (during summer biking instead of elliptical). I workout about 5 to 6 hours and burn 3,000 + calories is my goal. My heart rate averages in the 150's.

Tell me your thoughts..........

Is all that exercise for training for something, or purely for weight loss?
I'm guessing you are throwing all the fat-burning things together you have heard about.

In which case you are experiencing just how counter-productive that is.

Exercise if done right tears the body down.
It's the rest for recovery and repair that builds up back up, perhaps stronger if diet allows.

And in a diet that will be hampered, no way around it.

Where is your rest in your routine?

Would you lift weights with the same muscles daily? Why not? Are you giving intense workouts to the same muscles day after day?

Since you do intervals, example time. What if you did your 30 sec hard interval, and then made your 1 min rest time just as hard? What would happen to your pace and effort on the next 30 sec hard interval? Could it possibly be as hard?

You can do that on a weekly basis too. Push hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, hard. What really is happening to those hard days? Can they possibly be as hard as they could be if you had an easy day alternating?

If all that exercise is merely to burn more calories, than another concept must be understood.
Diet is for weight loss, if done right just fat loss.
Exercise is for heart health and body improvement, if done right helps fat loss, if done wrong sets you up for a fight you'll lose, and not fat.

So eating 1960 for how long and the scale goes up?

Because if you were eating a lot less, and finally eating more, you're body is going to finally respond to that big carb burning exercise you are doing by finally getting to store more carbs, with water.

You can do that do that kind of workout, I do, but you gotta be even smarter about the routine than if not in a diet.

If 1960 for 4 or more weeks and gaining weight, you either have sloppy logging and are actually eating a lot more, or you have suppressed your TDEE so much and made the body so efficient, than you are currently eating over your TDEE.
Scary thought if the latter. Some recovery is possible fast based on what the body usually does first to adapt to eating too little for your level of activity.

I am the same height as OP, so I thought I will follow this post.
I am 33, and at 131 now. Would like to lose couple more lbs (124 GW) and increase my workouts and strength. I am used to eating less calories, around 1400-1500 and scared of upping my cals that I would gain like crazy

scoutfinchie and kittymoney, would like to add you as friends.

OMG thats so scary!! I am slowly eating to 1600 and working out focusing more on ST.
Thanks for the headsup and accepting the friend request!