calories, height, gender and age

i'm a 5'6" 43 year old woman and supposedly i should eat 1200 calories a day to lose 2 pounds per week. i have yet to lose 2 pounds per week! i work out 5-6 times per week at a pretty good intensity level (45 minutes of spinning or circuit training) i'm beginning to think i need to eat more which seems counterproductive to me!! what numbers are working for you guys? please include your stats!

How many calories are you burning during your workouts?

I'm 5'6", 39 year old female and I eat about 3000 calories per day when I'm in a fat burning phase, but I also burn about 1000 from my heavy weight lifting or long aqua workouts. Right now I need to up my calories because I'm trying to go into a bulking phase so I can enter body building competitions in a couple of years but I'm having a hard time stuffing that much in my mouth. LOL But, you can't go by my stats because I'm also 194 pounds and 14% body fat, which equates to 167 pounds of lean body mass. Your lean body mass will have more of an effect on your calorie needs then your height or age. So, I'd recommend looking at your lean body mass and using it to determine your calorie needs per day and subtract no more then 20% of that to get what you need to eat to lose weight while maintaining muscle. If you need help figuring it, PM me and I'll plug it into the formulas I use for my clients for you.

I would go with the HRM over MFP, although MFP usually overestimates for most people, so I find the difference in your calorie burns a little strange. What brand of HRM are you using?

Are you eating back those exercise calories?

From your ticker, it looks like you don't have much more weight to lose, so to me, it makes sense that you're not losing 2 lbs per week anymore - it's very likely you're not eating enough. I would increase your calorie goal to lose 0.5 lbs per week.

Short answer... I'd go by your hrm calories, and make sure you're eating back your exercise calories. Mfp already has a deficit factored in for you.

You can say you want to lose anything you want, but MFP won't let you go under 1200 kcal a day. The fact that you got that exact number makes me think it isn't possible to lose 2 lbs a week at your age/gender/height/weight unless you have a lot of additional exercise.

One pound of fat is 3500 kcal. You have to have 500 calories under your maintenance level to lose a pound a week. (500 kcal x 7 days a week.) If your calorie requirements aren't at least 2200 kcal/day, it isn't possible to lose 2 lbs a week.