OK, I am grasping at straws here looking for some help. I have been at a steady state plateau for 3 months now - weight is at 143. I am 5'5'' female, 30 yrs old.

Previously, I was on 1200 calorie diet and burning a lot of calories through cardio and some weight lifting. After reading many posts, I realized I was undereating and upped the cals slowly to 1500...lost 2 lbs..and regained them...now have been told to up cals more so i am averaging about 1800 cals / day for the past 3 weeks. STILL NO CHANGE.

1) does that calories intake seem right for weight loss?? I'm trying to get to my goal range of 128-133.

2) I heard that if you wants to be muscular and lean (WHICH I DO!) then you should focus more on weight training vs. cardio and thru the building of lean muscle, you will eventually lose the fat covering the muscles. Is that true?

If so, do you eat to lose weight (i dont want to lose muscle) or do i eat to gain muscle (ie eating more)? I am confused...and desperately want to see a change in inches/scale/clothes/ anything! Or, should I focus on weight loss through calorie deficits and then build the muscle back up once I've lost weight? That seems counterproductive. I am just lost.

thanks.

About 1700 should be good for you if you exercise aswell.
A combination of strength training och cardio is best when trying to loose fat since if will help you both by using up the calories and keepin your muscles. Try to keep your protein intake high also.
Do you count calories so you are sure your at around 1800?

I went and used Trainer Lynns cal calculator and it says that at lightly active, i need 1850 cals to maintain so why would i eat at this level if i am trying to lose? Wouldn't I need 500 less cals than that to lose (for example) 1 lb/week?

Your height: 5 feet 5 inches

Your weight: 143
Your age: 30

yes i use a calorie tracker daily so i know for sure i have been eating at 1850 give or take 100 cals for the past 3 weeks.

i do 3 days full body weight training and 4x cardio for 45 minutes (running) and 1x HIIT for almost 20 min on elliptical

i am going to change my routine starting thsi week and focus on 4x circuit training for an hour, 1 long run (for sanity) and heavier weights....

but i want to make sure i am eating correctly as I do this???

thoughts?? why did you come up with 1700?
drop the cals in to that?

calculated it here: Free Calorie Counter - Calories Burned, BMI, BMR & RMR Calculator
good page to calculate different numbers you might be interested in.

With a factor of 1.2(a day without exercise) you will land at around 1700 and I think thats a good level to aim for since then every exercise you do in a day will mean fatloss. And Id guess you burd about 500kcal a day from your exercising wich is a very good speed for weightloss.

3 days full body weight training and 4x cardio sound very good.

Thanks for your help. i will also check out that site.

appreciate it.