Need some honest, genuine advice

I'm by no means an expert but I can give you the advice I've learned throughout my journey.

Setting your weight loss goal to 1.5lbs per week at your size with only 10lbs to lose is a bit too aggressive. the 1.5 and 2lb per week weight loss targets are for those who have more to lose. When you are smaller and have less to lose you will lose slower. Try setting your goal to 1lb per week and try to eat at your BMR. Personally I will only lose if my base calories are at my BMR or slightly over. Your BMR is 1,527 according to the calculator here. This is the amount of calories your body will burn just to function and remain alive in a completely still state. So when you get out of bed you start burning more with every little thing you do in a day.

Exercise calories on here tend to be a lot more than what we actually burn so I underestimate my time. For example, if I use my stationary bike for 45 mins I will enter 35. This is assuming you use the MFP for calorie burned calculations and not a heart rate monitor.

There aren't really foods that will burn fat faster. Eating as "clean" as possible will help (this means as little processed foods as possible). Limit your processed foods and sodium. Processed foods have a lot of sodium and this will cause you to hold onto water weight. Drink tons of water.

There is no option to carry over calories from one day to another. Some people won't use today's calories tomorrow some people will as long as it averages over the week. I don't believe one should lower calorie intake one day just to have more another day but whatever works for you. One day over the calorie goal won't hurt you as long as you don't overdo it. I lose every week and I have at least one day a week where I don't exercise and go anywhere between 500 and 1500 calories over my goal.

Protein shakes may not directly help you lose weight but they will keep you fuller long (protein and fibre do that). Which is turn helps you eat less. They are great if you are trying to build muscle and tone up. Take your measurements since if you plan on trying to strength train to tone up you may not lose weight each week (and you may gain) but you will lose inches.

There is a tab along the top of the screen called "TOOLS" Click on that and along the left side there will be a BMR calculator... you input your current stats and it will give you your BMR.

BMR and maintenance are totally different. BMR is the base amount of calories your body needs. That is the amount of calories your body would burn just to function while you were in a coma type state. This is just to make your heart beat, brain function, etc. Once you get out of bed everything you do burns more calories ontop of your BMR.

Maintenance calories are a lot higher than BMR as they factor in the extra calories you would burn in a day based on your activity. Eating at a BMR still automatically puts you at a deficit. If you ate at your maintenance amount you would have to exercise to create a deficit. Exercise at BMR calorie intake just adds to the already existing deficit.

so for me my BMR is 1900 but MFP gave me a baseline calorie of 1370 is that where the deficit comes in?? so you are already having less cals than your body needs at a minium ????

i s that still healthy?? x

Sorry to confuse you! lol! It's a little hard to properly explain.

BMR - Basic Metabolic Rate - The amount of calories your body needs and will burn just to keep you alive in a coma-type state (completely still, no movement at all). This is just to make your heart beat, your brain work, your other organs to function and for you to breath.

When you get out of bed in the morning everything you do from brushing your teeth, to making coffee, to walking to the car etc burns calories on top of your BMR. Eating at your BMR therefore still creates a deficit of calories before even factoring in exercise.

To maintain your weight you would have to eat at your BMR PLUS the calories you would burn in a normal day including exercise you do. That number will obviously be higher than your BMR by quite a bit.

Personally I won't eat below my BMR. Eating at my BMR already allows a calorie deficit - one that also isn't too large where it will begin to affect my body. When I first signed up for this site it gave me a calorie goal of 1230 a day. I ate at that and lost nothing. I was hungry and cranky. I upped my calories to my BMR after reading A LOT of information and lose a good 1-2 lbs a week at least.

Everyone needs to find out what works best for them. Some people lose better eating more, eating their exercise calories back, eating less etc. Personally I wouldn't eat below my BMR.