I tried the basal metabolic rate calculation thing to figure out how many calories I should aim for. Well I read that you should cut out like 500 calories from the number calculated to lose one pound (roughly). But the thing is, I got like a 1,317-ish number for what I burn per day to maintain my current weight and minus 500 is in the 800s. That seems...kind of...low. Like...bad-low. I'm wondering if it really should be this low and if this is even that credible a way to calculate it.
I wasn't sure where to put this but seeing as it's about figuring out the amount to have for counting calories it made sense...

Confusing isn't it?

Can you tell us how tall you are and how much you weigh?

Is there any way you could figure out how much you usually eat? Try putting a few 'ordinary' days into a calculator and see what that says.

Yes, very. What do you mean by "ordinary days"? Can I ask? I'm so confused with all of these numbers!
I'm 5 foot 1 and 266.

Just any old day ... one during which you've not been dieting. In theory, an accurate accounting of your normal intake should give you a number of calories from which you can cut.

You shouldn't be cutting calories out of your basal metabolic rate, you should be cutting calories from your daily metabolic processes, including activity status. Try looking up "harris-benedict" formula, at 5"1' and 266, your resting metabolic rate is about 1800 calories, if you multiply that by your harris-benedict factor, usually 1.2 or 1.3 (based on your level of activity) and THAT'S what you subtract 500 calories (on average, per day) from to yield a weight loss of 1 pound per week.

Have you tried caloriesperhour.com? I have found a lot of helpful stuff on that site. Also, maybe take a week to write down everything that you consume when not dieting. That will give you an idea of how much you actually consume on a daily basis and give you a good starting point on where to begin figuring out how much you can cut back and still do it in a healthy way. Good luck.

Ive actually read either on the biggest loser website or Juillian Michaels website (cant remember which one) that the amount of calories determined for the contestants on biggest loser is their weight times 6. However they recommend multiplying your current by 7 for a safer weight loss.

So if you weight 266 the calorie intake would be about 1862

What I've done is look up the maintenance calorie intake for the weight I would like to be and that's what I'm eating. For me, it's 1600 calories.

This way when I reach goal weight, I'll already be accustomed to eating the correct number of maintenance calories.

I used an online calculator which accounted for age and activity level too.

I'm "zig-zagging" the number of calories I eat per day too, so that my weekly total still = (1600 x 7) but every day is different.

I'm doing the zig zagging because I feel like I might have to "shock" or fool my system a bit since the last two times I tried to lose weight, it came off very slowly or not at all. So far it's working, I took off 11 pounds in two weeks, which I know is just that inital kickstart of water weight loss, but still, the last two times I couldn't even make that happen.

I agree with the zig-zag method. In the past this was the only way I could get through a plateau. It is better to do the calculations for your own body and activity level than to guess or use a "standard" number. From that point, just tweek if needed.