Great job on weight loss. Though you likely won't be happy with what a large chunk of it was.

Were you at least following MFP's method correctly?

You seemed to have followed the 1200 suggestion with no questions asked - did you also log your workouts and meet the increased daily goal that was given to you, no questions asked?
Or you thought a bigger deficit would be better, so you still ate 1200 in total?
And really 1200, or did you think missing it by 100 or more below was better?

Did you select Sedentary non-exercise activity level because you have desk job/commute for 45 hrs weekly outside exercise?
Or is your job or daily life during that 45 hrs more active, so you should be Lightly Active?

2 lb weight loss goal at start would have been reasonable with that amount to lose, but it should have lowered as you had less to lose, at 40 lbs left it should have changed to 1.5 weekly loss.
With less than 20 lbs to go probably, did you back it off to 1 lb weekly, which would be reasonable now?

So you have discovered probably the bad effect of more is not better, because if walking is only exercise, you lost muscle mass, no way around that.
You now burn less than you could have daily outside of exercise. This will effect future loss ability and lower your maintenance level, making that harder too.
Your body has likely also slowed down your daily burn outside of exercise to compensate for too big a deficit. Less burned there too.
The walking also is going to burn less now since you weigh less, and your speed is about the same, but that would have showed up as you've been logging it.

In addition to the above slowdown's to what you burn daily, likely you are somewhere in the up to 20% suppression your body will do to just plain burn less, more metabolically efficient, to compensate for leaving enough for normal body functions.

Just prepping you that recovery will take a while, and you will see water weight, and the method you used so far is exactly how ones create a maintenance much lower than normal, making it so easy to gain weight again, and make the yo-yo diet even harder next time around.

So good idea being concerned.

So you saw the TDEE calculator.

How many hours of walking for exercise do you do each week, on average?

Since that doesn't burn that many calories, it counts at about 1/2 time, in other words, 6 hrs of walking a week would equal 3 hrs of more intense exercise.
Remember that for down the road when you do the gym, and keep walking. You add all the time up, but walking gets 1/2 time.

I'm going to guess you aren't doing more than that, so that is top of Lightly Active level for exercise only.

What is your daily life outside exercise like, for work?
Kids chasing around, standup moving job, ect?
That might raise you up a level too.

But your Lightly Active that you selected is probably correct unless really active job.

So as you got those figures, you could likely be eating close to 1921 with current level of exercise and maintain your weight.

To lose weight, you merely have to eat less than that.

The reset, or eating at maintenance for a while, is to take care of the issue you created eating WAY less than you could have.

So right now, your TDEE, or daily maintenance with exercise, is likely NOT at 1921, but more around where you eat at currently.
In other words, you have lost muscle mass, you have slowed your body's desire for spontaneous activity, you have suppressed your metabolism.
You will have a major headache and stress trying to lose rest of the weight and maintain in that state.
You can correct those last 2 items by giving body a chance to speed up. By eating at maintenance. By reset.
That will allow ability to keep losing, and maintain easier.

So whatever you eat at now, start increasing 100 calories extra a day, for a week or two at a time.
So if honestly hitting 1200, then spend 1-2 weeks at 1300.
Then 1-2 weeks at 1400.
Until you get up to 1920 or higher since gym will be starting by then.
As your body responds faster and faster - you'll only need to spend 1 week at the upper levels before moving up.

Just so you have clearly in mind regarding the scare of eating more.

If you ate 100 more than current maintenance, and your body did not speed up (like it will) - you would have to do that for 35 days to gain 1 lb of fat.

Reread that to understand.

Because you will gain fast water weight, same fast water weight you lost when you started a diet. That was coming back when you stopped the diet eventually anyway.

Now it may be that since you lost muscle mass, your real potential TDEE won't be 1921, may be a tad lower, but at that point at upper level doing many weeks at estimated maintenance, you can discover that fact.

So at the gym, ask about lifting weights, doing that at a hard effort for you is the only way to gain some muscle mass back. And doing it during this reset eating at maintenance is the best time (besides eating in actual surplus) to possibly gain a pound back.

I walk about 2 to 2.5 hours a week right now, at work I am usually at my desk, I spend some time moving inventory around but would say no more than 1 hour a week. I spend weekends with a 4 year old so am a little more active during that time frame.

If I am getting this right, I should start eating 1300 calories for the next week or two than go to 1400 for a couple of weeks and continue that until I get to the 1920, sounds scary but I will give it a try, I understand I will probably gain some weight but it seems like it is the only way I will be able to achieve the long term goals I need to be healthy.

Let me know if I am off base here and thanks for the help!

Great job getting your numbers, and yes you have it right! Although you certainly could just bump your calories right up to that TDEE number, most find it easier (both mentally and physically) to do the slower method.

Like you described, just bump your calories up by about 100 calories a day and maintain at that level until your weight stabilizes, and you feel ready to push it another 100 higher. Most times, you should be able to make these increases weekly, but you may find you might need to stay at a certain level for a bit longer. For instance, when I initially upped my calories (from 1,000 to 2,100) i really got "stuck" at 1,900 calories. As I recall, I spent about a month at that level waiting for my weight to stabilize. I began to think *that* was my TDEE rather than the projected 2,100 --- but, I stayed consistent at 1900, and eventually the scale came back down, and I pushed it higher again.

Yes, you may gain some weight when you begin this process, but it will just be your body adjusting and refilling depleted glycogen stores -- this gain is inevitable whenever coming off of a steep deficit, but by taking it slow, you should be able to keep these gains to a minimum,

Feel free to add me as a friend if you would like a shoulder to lean on along the way :-)

Since you used to eat at 1200 in total and do those events, eat in total that 1300 you increased to.

And you have a Fitbit? You never mentioned that.

There is no reason to be guessing among 5 rough TDEE levels when you have a device that is daily giving you a great estimate of TDEE.

You need to keep to the plan of increasing slowly until you hit whatever normal non-exercise days are for calorie burns. Consider that the low end. Say 1600 or whatever it ends up being.

Then start eating 100 more when your Fitbit adjustment shows you burned more. If adjustment is 75, you eat 75 more. If 300 more, you eat 100 more.
Next week out eat up to 200 more or whatever adjustment is up to 200.
Repeat until you are eating back total adjustment of increased activity, in other words you'll be eating at maintenance, as it is on daily basis.

That is your reset then eating at maintenance for however long you need to.

For ease of use, I'd go ahead and set MFP activity level as Sedentary, weight loss goal as Maintain, and just remember 1300 for 1 or 2 weeks as daily goal no matter what.
Then remember 1400, ect. Might make a note in your Food diary for seeing later as reminder.

As to food increase, fat is not bad. Too much of anything is bad, so no more low or non-fat foods. Perhaps now some just so you can get more protein in.
Whey shakes are great for 30 min prior to bed - that's when body does main repairs, during sleep time. Use with 2% milk so you get some carbs. Because insulin must go up for protein to be sent out to muscles for use.

Oh sure, increase away. Just makes getting through this process faster.

That may indicate you dropped your cortisol levels from stress and lost some water weight.

Could be your body got a tad unstressed and allowed some deficit to drop some fat.

And if you unstress more it may allow more deficit even, or more water weight drop on way up.

Sorry, nothing to add, just want to follow this. Finally, I understand some of what Heybales has said. Usually it is way to technical for me. LOL

If you need anything explained, please feel free to ask me --- I will try to help :-)

Anitra