Calories needed: BMR or AMR + exercise
 

I've read the sticky about how many calories are needed for a ckd. My problem is that I'm not going anywhere and after doing some searching I'm more confused than ever (like usual! :)

Anyways, I currently get 2000 calories a day (using ckd calculator, counting pwo carbs). I don't really want to loose any weight, just change my composition.

If I compute my numbers with my BMR + exercise I get 1.4-1.6 lbs. lost per week. (weights = 200 calories, cardio = 250...being conservative)

If I compute my numbers with my BMR + sum of total daily calories spent (conservatively!) I get 5.9-6.1 lbs. per week.

If I compute my numbers with my AMR then I get 2.9-3.1 lbs. per week.

Obviously this is a huge discrepancy between the computational methods. Most posts that I have read about ckd show I should get my bodyweight x 10-12 and that should be my target range. That puts me at 170 x 10-12 = 1700-2040 calories per day. (which is about what I do: 2000 calories total for the day, 1700-1800 if I don't count pwo carbs)

I know that my physiology isn't any different from anybody else on this planet, but I'm seriously frustrated that these three methods vary so much. But I'm wondering if loosing over 150 lbs. might be a factor to consider here.

Right now I weigh 170 (male), 5'8", lift 3 days a week, hiit cardio 3 days a week, average around 35-40 carbs a day (counting pwo carbs). Obviously only the BMR + exercise method has me consuming enough calories, according to the other methods I'm in starvation mode (which is something to consider since I've stalled for about a month here).

Sorry for being so anyalytical, but that's just me :D

Anybody care to share their calorie intake (especially guys who are about 5'8", 170# and do the same ammount of exercise :p with this :exclm: very :exclm: confused soul!

Don't have an answer for you, but I have a comment. If I calc out BMR based on my size and activity level, its a ridiculously huge number of kcals to eat, something like 3900. Supposedly cutting back by 10% would still be a ridiculous amount of food. No way it will work for me.
I read about people that increase their kcals, fat, whatever and start losing. It just doesn't work like that for me. Laws of physics still do apply. I have to burn more calories than I eat, by a longshot.
I consume about 2-2.4kcal per day and it wasn't until I really kicked up my workouts with a hardcore trainer 3x per week and added in 30min of cardio 5x that I've started to drop again. I've gone from CKD (too radical) to TKD, taking a 20-30g carbup an hour before lifting. This gets me through a heavy duty workout and I drop right back into the locarb zone right at the end of the workout.
But that's just me. I'm a hard gainer and a slow loser.
I actually think we all are somewhat unique, different things work for different people.