At first I was eating 1300-1350 cals lost a couple lbs in a couple weeks then stalled, so I bumped it up to 1450 lost a couple more lbs. and now have stalled again. I hike about 4 miles 2xs a week, walk/jog 3-5 miles 3xs a week and have recently added some balance ball exercises 3xs a week for about 30 mins. So I think I'm going to try the following zig zag.
M - 1550-1650
T - 1400-1450
W - 1650 - 1850
Th - 1550 - 1650
F - 1400-1500
S - 1900-2000
Sun - 1550-1650
I got this from freedieting, but I reduced the cals because they just seemed high. My additional cals wil be in the form of extra veggies, avocado, ground flaxseed and wheat germ so they are easy to reduce or omit if the higher cals don't work out. Also for what it's worth, this week I actually gained, but I noticed my pants seem looser even with a big valentines day splurge. So I'll see how this goes and if it doesn't then I know I can drop back down to 1450. I mean I guess I wasn't starving in the pm, but pretty hungry. And today, I just had 390 cals for lunch and I'm still pretty hungry. Yesterday I walked 2.5 miles, jogged 2.5 miles and did 30 minutes of balance ball. I just wish there was some magic number of cals I could stay at and lose til I hit my goal, but don't we all