Very confused on TDEE

I've gained 20 pounds in the last year which adds up to an extra 100 calories each day of those 2 years that I didn't need.

My TDEE for my height and weight (female, 23, 180 lbs, 5'7) says 1925 for sedentary and 2206 for lightly active.

I'd say I'm lightly active, lift weights 2-3 times a week (well.. not since covid if im being honest) but I have a treadmill at home and use it a few times a week for a walk or the occasional run.

I average 8000-12000 steps each day, I have two jobs that are both on my feet so I'm pretty busy.

So anyway based on my TDEE it says I should do like 1400-1700 (depends if I count as sedentary or lightly active) to lose a pound a week but that doesn't really feel accurate to me because I was eating waaayyy more than that and based on my weight gain it was only 100 extra calories a day.

For the past 2 years a typical diet for me is

Breakfast - Either Rice/chicken/avocado/etc. 600 cals or chicken alfredo 700 calories or avocado poached egg toast - 600

Lunch - Sandwich and chips 700 calories

Dinner - some kind of protein potatoes veggie bread 700 or like pasta whatver 700

Snacks - Starbucks about 3 days a week 200-400 cals, chocolate basically every day 100-500 calories (yes bad habit I know) and icecream 4 days a week or so 400 calories and sometimes other assorted snacks (cheeseits, chex mix, chips, whatever)

So a typically day for me in the past 2 years was 2300-2800 (maybe even more I randomly snack on whatever, definitely a "secret snacker")

So lets average out and say I was eating 2550 calories a day, minus the 100 extra calories a day that caused me to gain weight my tdee would have been 2450 or else I would have gained more weight?

So based on that can I get away with eating 1800-1900 or should I really do the 1500 that MyFitnessPal recommends? The 1500 just seems like soooooo much less food compared to what I was eating, because changing my sandwich for a salad cuts out 180 calories, and cutting the chips at lunch cuts 220 and I swapped my normal 600-700 calorie breakfast for a 350 calorie one so based on what I was eating I've cut down by like 600-700ish so I feel like that should be good?

I've only been doing this for a few days and I want to weight myself weekly instead of daily since weight fluctuates too much and I often find that discouraging. I prefer the longer periods between weighing.

submitted by /u/coffeeandtea12
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/lnw2ab/very_confused_on_tdee/