I lose weight at a good clip at 1850, but I'm nursing and low carb. Without either of those, 16-1800 will let me lose, but much more slowly. And without the low carb/whole foods I end up ravenous and tired.

I'm glad you asked this question. It helps me so much to know if I'm on the right track. I know everyone has to find that sweet spot for THEM, but it's still good to know I'm not off in left field somewhere. I seem to lose best around 1500 a day. Tbh though, I'm really working on consistency. I really hate tracking calories.... LOL. And at times I lie to myself and convince myself that I've be one good enough at estimating and eyeballing food... but the scale doesn't lie when it doesn't move. I think that's the point I WANT to get to... I don't want to track calories for the rest of my life. How long have you all been doing it? Would you do it forever if that's what it takes? Do I need a reality check? Or will there be a time when I can leave this chore behind?


Part of the reason I wrote this, was to get real with myself and habits. I needed to admit it all instead of continuing to lie to myself. (That I consistently count and keep accurate count of my intake) Sorry if I got off topic. Lol

I'm at about 1200 calories a day. I used to eat more but then I started noticing I would "eat more" because I had room with my calories. Now at 1200, I'm fine. I eat breakfast/lunch/dinner with a snack in between, which is always healthy. It's been weeks since I've exceeded my calorie intake as well. I'm very rarely hungry, and I stay full. It works fine for me. I feel like anything over that I would be eating just to eat.

I've got MFP set to net 1260, but I've been eating 1400-1500. Since I'm not doing cardio right now, I don't have exercise calories to eat back. Whether I exercise or not, I don't seem to be happy with the food choices I need to make to stay as 1260, and so I'll continue to aim for 1400-1500 even if MFP says I'm "over".