so ok I've been to numerous websites anddonemy research and whatnot how many calories do you reallyaim for in a day I've read everything from1300 to 2000

I know it's different for each person andhowmuch activity you do andhow much you actually weigh I settled for 1600 and I do moderate excercise every day for about 30 mins a day if not more when I can ...

Your best bet is to see what works with you body. 1600 is a good starting point. Be as accurate as you can--record EVERYTHING. Give it at least 3 weeks, since the first week is your body adjusting, and it takes two full weeks of "normal" to see how 1600 will work. If you are losing 1-2 pounds a week, stay at 1600. If you aren't losing at least a pound, drop 100 a day, wait 2 weeks, and see where you are. If you are losing more than 2 lbs and are hungry all the time, eat more.

It takes time to find your range, but once you do you can lose weight pretty comfortably.

I burn 3000 a day, eat between 1800-2000 a day and lose 2-2.5 a week. I use a Go Wear Fit to show me my burn. But I agree that 1600 is a good starting point. See what happens for a couple of weeks, then adjust if you are losing too fast or too slow.
Good luck.

I have been dealing with just this topic. I started at 1550, when that stopped working, I went to 1500, and now in an effort to get better results, I am trying 1300. If that proves ineffective, I may actually need to go higher...
As shmead suggested, we need to try, wait, and adjust when necessary.

Honestly I can tell you to start as high as possible so you have more room to move down as you lose weight. You are much better off walking 20 mins everyday to start and eating more calories. My daily average is 1650 and I'm losing 1-4 lbs/wk depending on my activity and TOM. Also, if your intake gets too low your metabolism slows down and it makes it difficult to increase your calories once you hit maitenance. You don't have to starve to lose weight! Good luck!

My intake is all over the place in that range, though seems to average out around 1500/day.

agree with everyone else - 1600 is a reasonable starting point, give it a few weeks and then adjust from there depending on what happens.

If in doubt, for your weight I'd say nothing lower than the 1600 other people are recommending. However, you should lose at a decent rate even higher which might be better in the long run because yes, you'll lose a little slower... but it'll stay off easier and possibly less of the (dreaded!!!) loose skin!

I'm only about 2 inches taller than you and I was losing WAY more than a pound a week at 2000 cals a day when I was at your weight! In fact I was sometimes losing 5 to 10 pounds a month!

Once you start stalling, later on down the line, you could then lower it by 100 each time and hopefully pull yourself out of that plateau.

What helped me the most in the end, though, were these: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

It'll actually give you a calorie range and formula how to figure out what you should eat a day to lose, maintain, and how you'll gain!

Another option is to eat your BMR. It means that anything you do that isn't lying in bed creates a calorie deficit. It's easy to calculate, and if you exercise you should lose 1-2lb a week.

thank you everyone for the wonderful advice I'm going to stick with what I'm doing on the 1600 the hardest part about that is I cut out pepsi and I find I need to eat more than I'm used to of the right stuff to get to my goal... odd I know I have to eat to lose but i don't want to be too low ... my doctor and lots of my friends have all warned me about that