BMR calculators were accurate for me until I started doing CrossFit.  My BMR
went from about 2,150 per day to 2,950 per day probably because I have a lot
more muscle now.

Kettlebells are awesome, but fasted heavy lifting and mixed-mode
high-intensity exercises did wonders for my body composition.  I eat dinner
at about 6pm, then I exercise fasted around 7am and eat breakfast at some
point after that.  I usually eat by 8:30.  If I over-do the fasting, I start
to have cortisol issues (belly fat, early waking, etc).

The other thing that causes the same cortisol issues, and this took me a
while to figure out, is going too low in carbs.  I now eat 150-200 grams of
yams, potatoes, corn tortillas or white rice, but I learned this the hard
way.  Two of those starches aren't paleo, of course, but they work a lot
better for me than fruit.

I don't gain weight on an ad libitum ketogenic diet, but I don't lose fat -
not with the way I work out anyway.  I found that on a protein restricted
diet (to what is supposedly "adequate") I am either starving or eating 200+
grams of fat per day...which results in swift weight gain.  The Optimal Diet
proportions were just dreadful for me.

As you get used to the KB, all you can do is add more reps or buy more
kettlebells.  I would suggest either:  progressing up to heavier KBs or
taking up the classic four barbell lifts (back squats, bench press, military
press, deadlift).  I do 20-30 minutes a day five days a week, and that's it.
 I do almost no cardio.  I do run 1.5 miles (hilly route where I live) or do
Tabata sprints every couple of weeks.  Some days I just lift weights, and
some days I do a classic CrossFit thing:  high-intensity mixed-mode workout
for time or for reps with a time limit.




> I've made the banal discovery that if I want to lose weight, I have to cut
> calories. Furthermore, I've discovered that the various online BMR
> calculators for estimating daily caloric expenditure are pretty accurate.
> According to them, at my age and weight, I use about 2,100 kcals/day to
> maintain body weight. I'm finding that if I eat that much per day of
> anything , I don't lose weight. If I include a lot of carbs in the mix, I'll
> gain a bit, but no low- or zero- carb plan will cause me to lose weight
> unless I simply eat less than 2,100 cals.
>
> The problem is, when I started on the diet, I was 35 lbs heavier, and my
> BMR was of course higher. Eating low-carb ad libitum, paleo or non-paleo, I
> would reach satiety before I reached BMR, so I lost weight "effortlessly."
> When I got to the point where satiety and BMR coincided, weight loss
> stopped. If things worked the way they are supposed to, that wouldn't happen
> until I was at a health weight. But that's not how it is. This means that
> further weight loss will involve not eating to satiety or, to use the
> old-fashioned term, going hungry.
>
> Todd Moody
>