[DollyR]

I wasjust wondering what amount of calories did you start at and where are you now. I am working with fit day and I think I need to eventually adjust to 1800 to lose. Where is everyone at with calories?

[PhotoChick]

I started at 1800 calories (247 lbs and 5'4")

When I got to around 180, I dropped to 1500 calories, which is where I am now.

.

[time2lose]

I give myself a wide range of 1300 - 1800 and try to average 1500. My weight was 281, height 5'2" and I am 53 years old. I went online and used several of those calculators that estimate how many calories you burn in a day. Since most showed I probably burn about 2200 calories per day, I set my upper most limit at 1800 with the goal of losing a pound a week.

That has worked well for me. I have lost one to two pounds a week consistently.

[Lyn2007]

Funny thing. I always have said: I started (278 pounds) by eating around 2000 cal/day. Eventually I got down to 1500/day (at 214 pounds).

However, I made a new discovery. In Nov/Dec I worked with a monthly calorie budget instead of just daily. I started at 1500/day and was just starving. I added and added, until I got up to an average of 1800/day for Nov. Guess what, I lost 7 pounds.

The thing is, when I was eating 1500/day, I had several days per month when I went wayyy over, like 2500-3000. So my monthly average was a lot higher than I realized because I was just ignoring the days I went over.

Hope that makes sense, but the bottom line is, I am eating 1800/day and losing weight.

[RealCdn]

I eat between 2000 (on days I don't exercise) and 2300 (on days when I lift weights). That extra 300 calories is basically my post workout shake. At the moment I still lose weight at those levels. Oddly enough, I lose weight better when I eat slightly higher calories. For me, even with consistent planned exercise, it kind of goes like this:

higher calories
- more energy
- more 'other' non-exercise tasks
- burn more calories overall
- lose more weight

lower calories
- less energy
- more likely to veg on the couch
- burn fewer calories overall
- lose less weight

[rodeogirl]

I just plugged my numbers in at The Daily Plate (TDP) and go by what it tells me. I weigh every morning and enter that day's weight in TDP. It recalculates my calorie goal for the day automatically.

I like it - there's some psychological boost I get by not being the one who chooses my calories.

I'm 37, 5'7 and am eating 1835 calories today. My current weekly goal is 3lbs per week of weight loss. I plan to lower my goal to 2.5 lbs when I get to 250lbs and 2lbs/week when I get to 200.

So far this is working well for me.

[cfmama]

I eat right around 1800 very clean calories a day. Since I've lost 45.4 lbs in 71 days I think it's working for me

[kelly315]

When I first started dieting, I was eating about 1200-1400 ish, now I eat about 1300-1700ish (but I feel really guilty when I hit 1700). It's working well for me so far, I'm not really hungry and I have lost 53 pounds (It's almost been 4 months).

[HeatherAngel]

I started at 278lbs on 2300 calories a day, then after a couple of weeks, 2100. I stayed there a month, then dropped to 2000/day. Another two weeks, and 1900/day, two weeks later, 1800. Then, every 15lbs, I'd drop 50-100 calories. I currently aim for about 1300-1400/day - some days a bit more, some days a bit less.

At my current weight, I would maintain at 1500/day.

As I progressed, I found what I wanted to do was change the KIND of calories I was consuming... I still do. For example, a lean, grilled chicken breast, couscous and large salad will see me at about 450 calories. 450 calories wasted on french fries, or a pizza slice, just doesn't cut it for me anymore.

Keep it up, and don't beat yourself up if you go over - just adjust the next day sensibly. I keep Kashi Go Lean, plain yogurt and Oatmeal as staples in my house, and if I go to a party and overindulge, I will adjust the next day and have oatmeal for breakfast, salad for lunch and soup or Kashi with yogurt (instead of milk) for dinner.

Mmmm... all this talk of food is making me hungry!

Heather

[WormwoodDoll]

When I first started in September, I was eating 1,200 calories. I boosted up to about 1,600 and this works much better. I am joining the gym on Friday and will up my intake to about 1,800. It all depends on you. Experiment and see what works best!

[DollyR]

Thanks a lot everyone. I am taking it day by day and took off the due date for my goal of 10 pounds. I figure that way I am not disappointing myself or looking at how much faster I did it.....I am just looking at 10 at a time. About a 4-6 week span per 10 should work.

[DishyFishy]

I'm not counting calories this time around, but the figures are available for viewing in my tracking programme.

Over the last month I've been eating between 1700 and 2100 calories a day.

[Smiling_Sara]

when I first started, I didn't really count calories. When I started counting, I don't remember what I started at...maybe 1700? I now try and aim for 1500, as that is what it says it takes for me to lose 2lbs a week....

[knobhdy]

Wow. This is a fascinating thread. Last Time (tm) I successfully lost weight eating 1200 calories a day. This time exercise is my main focus and (due to living without a kitchen) I don't have great access to healthy foods so I was just tracking what I ate "normally" and figured whenever we closed on our home I would go about adjusting my calories down. What I discovered as I kept track of what I was eating, I unconciously limited myself. I was dropping about a 100 calories a day Given that, I figured I should set myself some guidelines before I fell below 1000 calories.
I think I will be around 1500 calories when I settle, but I like the idea of having a wider range and figuring an average. It makes sense for how we live, some days have to be up and some well may end up down.
The exercise is going very well though, so I may adjust caloric intake up to reflect exercising almost every day of the week. My day to reevaluate is Dec. 21.

[Lori259]

I just started last month on November 10th And Tried to stay around 1400 Calories a day.I still am.
A weigh in on decemeber 8th Was a total of 13 lbs lost.I found a site called caloriecounter.com clicked in my height weight ect...And It will tell you amount of calories you can eat and still lose weight It's an awesome site Not as great as this one But Not bad.. I can actually eat 1835 a day but I feel up Quick On my food choices.(Remember the healthier it is The lower the calories usually are and so on.)