I wasn't sure where to ask this, so forgive me if it should be elsewhere...
I am 5'5 and 260 lbs - how do I determine what my maintenance calorie intake is, and based on that - how do I figure out how many calories I should eat every day (combined with exercising about 3x/week cardio and weights) to lose an average of 1lb per week? Preferrably not less, but definitely not more than 2 lbs/week. I know that it's weight loss means taking in less calories than you put out, and in order to lose 1lb I need to have a deficit of 3500 calories - and that can be through eating, exercise, or both (I want to do both). But I'm a little stumped here: I've heard of plateaus, and I know that my maintainance calorie intake at 260 lbs is much higher than it will be at say, 200 lbs. So once I start losing weight, will I have to decrease my caloric intake according to my new BMR and whatever else is included in that?? Because I keep thinking that if that's the case, then I want to make sure I don't decrease my intake by too much too fast otherwise towards the end of my weight loss my metabolism might go at a snail-pace and I won't be able to eat enough if I want to lose weight.
Does that make any sense??? How many calories should I be consuming nowadays and at what point should I start decreasing that amount, how will I know it's time? Plus, like I said, I'm trying to aim for a 1 lb loss per week.
I've been pigging out quite a bit these last few weeks, so I've decided to start keeping track of the food I eat and count the calories - that way I can get myself up to around 3,000 if that's my BMR point, get my metabolism stabilised at that intake while exercising, and have a target to work with. But the food I consumed today minus all the junk food I would normally eat only came to 2,000 calories... so I thought to myself, I'll need to find more calorie dense foods that won't make me feel more full but just give me more calories (I don't want to feel hungry once I decrease my intake... heck no). But now I'm curious if in fact consuming that many calories will make me gain weight??
Ahh.. I'm confused and I hope none of what I wrote sounds ridiculous or far-fetched but if it does, feel free to let me know - I would appreciate it! I just want to get a good start on this and optimize what my body can do thanks!