@petr0s Sorry, excuse my pea-brain but what is your current assumed bodyfat percentage? Saying you're "43% lean muscle" means nothing to me, sounds more like an inbody or some sort of other scan which are HIGHLY unreliable to begin with. Look at some google images of "women bodyfat percentage" and give us a percentage.
Unless you are an experienced competitor, like multiple shows, chances are that your goal weight is higher than it likely will need to be to show up conditioned. The fact that you say you were on a 20% calorie deficit for 1 month and lost 10lbs but gained a lb of muscle, again, leads me to believe that you have never really made a serious body composition change or know how to prep.
Doing a simple TDEE calculator with a starting bodyfat percentage of 35% at 175, 5'10 female (15% bodyfat stage weight 140lb = 20% bodyfat loss or 35lbs), I'm left with 2300 as maintenance. I selected the moderate exercise option, and by your description you fit the bill. You are not in the heavy exercise or athlete categories, and you might even be in light exercise. You said you're on a "20 calorie deficit" at 2200, but thats not even a 5% deficit. Chances are you lost a ton of water weight from a big carb cut frontload which most people do, and you have a lot of weight to lose. 1500 cals a day is a 35% cut, while aggressive, he probably looked at your physique and is just trying to assess response before loading more carbs.
Unless you are an experienced competitor, like multiple shows, chances are that your goal weight is higher than it likely will need to be to show up conditioned. The fact that you say you were on a 20% calorie deficit for 1 month and lost 10lbs but gained a lb of muscle, again, leads me to believe that you have never really made a serious body composition change or know how to prep.
Doing a simple TDEE calculator with a starting bodyfat percentage of 35% at 175, 5'10 female (15% bodyfat stage weight 140lb = 20% bodyfat loss or 35lbs), I'm left with 2300 as maintenance. I selected the moderate exercise option, and by your description you fit the bill. You are not in the heavy exercise or athlete categories, and you might even be in light exercise. You said you're on a "20 calorie deficit" at 2200, but thats not even a 5% deficit. Chances are you lost a ton of water weight from a big carb cut frontload which most people do, and you have a lot of weight to lose. 1500 cals a day is a 35% cut, while aggressive, he probably looked at your physique and is just trying to assess response before loading more carbs.