What amount of calories do you recommend?
 

I'm 5'6" and 250. I know I lose weight on 1500, but it seems after a few weeks I kind of stall. I think I've asked this question. Is 1500 realistic or too little?

What amount did you guys start off with and it gave you steady weight loss?

Well, everyone is different. :)

You might try getting up to 1800 when you start stalling. Or try calorie shifting.

Just to clarify... what does "stall" mean to you?

Well, when I end up losing only 4 pounds a month XD

Okay. I can see at 250 how that would be a concern. Just wanted to make sure you weren't aiming for a pound a day or anything crazy!

But... Yeah, I would say eat more. Might try to play around with it for a while. Try 1600 for a couple weeks... then 1700.. and so on. If I were you, I'd even go up to 2000 calories for a couple weeks. Just to see how your body responds.

I am also curious about how many calories to eat. i have recently started doing "the daily plate" (which i love) but they say that I should consume 1992 calories a day for my height and weight. I just feel that is too high...so I manually edited it to be like 1550.
I am also curious how many calories you ladies eat everyday for weightloss. I

I would start off higher than you think you and need and gradually cut back until you find a number that works for your body. 2000-2200 might be a good starting point. IMO, it's better to start high and cut back as needed because you don't risk stalling your metabolism or feeling sluggish, especially if you are also exercising. Just make sure, with that amount of calories, you're still eating healthy food.

I eat 1200 calories a day Monday thru Thursday and 1500 calories Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I have steadily lost weight. I have had probably 5 or 6 weeks in the last 11 months where I didn't lose, but the next week usually made up for it. As far as a plateau...I have never had one yet. When I started my healthy diet, I spoke with my Physician and a dietitian. They both told me as long as I was not consuming "empty calories" then I was at a perfect calorie count for my size and where I wanted to be some day. We estimated that eventually I could probably up my calories to around 1800/day to maintain 165-175 pounds. I could have lost weight by eating more calories, but I was so sick of being fat that I didn't want to mess around with a pound a month...I also had an enormous amount of weight to lose. You can mess around with trying to trick your body by upping and lowering calories, but the real key to losing weight is simple. Burn more calories than you eat. To maintain, eat as many calories as you burn. To gain eat more calories than you burn...

Hey Gamer! :wave:

It depends on how active you are. I think you're around 18, right? So your resting metabolic rate if you are completely sedentary would be 1800 cals per day, more or less (I got this number from FitDay). But if you're exercising or are otherwise physically active, that would increase your RMR. If you are burning 2000 cals a day, and are eating 1500 cals a day, then you should be losing about a pound a month. :)

If you want to lose faster, I wouldn't suggest lowering your calories--I'd try to keep calories pretty close to what you are eating now (that is, not going really really high, and then really really low to try to "fix" it), but increase your exercise or activity. And then, if that doesn't work so well, you could drop to 1400 a day.

Jay

Iowa..I thought Daily Plate was way too high too. I eat between 12-1400 and I run every day. I am also taking Alli twice daily. I can steadily lose with this cocktail. When I get up to 1800 calories or so I just stay steady.

Just wondering when you're hitting that stall, is it possible that you're going over your calories somehow? And just how are you tracking them? It's so easy to go over calorie budget if one isn't carefully monitoring them. That would be the first place I would look.

According to the biggest loser diet you change your calories every10 pounds to maintain a steady pace of weight loss.

Here is the chart:

Current Weight Daily Caloric Need for Weight Loss
150 1,050
160 1,120
170 1,190
180 1,260
190 1,330
200 1,400
210 1,470
220 1,540
230 1,610
240 1,680
250 1,750
260 1,820
270 1,890
290 2,030
300 2,100

*if you weigh less than 150 than you eat 1,050 and if you weigh more than 300 than you eat 2,100.

:] I know this works because I dieted on this diet for a month and had lost 25 pounds! I stopped dieting for a few months and just couldn't stay motivated so after gaining the weight back I have recently been trying to begin this diet again.

:trampo:

O. M. G. *And* exercise? I would die, even without the exercise. Flatline.

Dropping dead right now from 1050 cals. :faint:

How many vitamins and supplements would I have to take? :chin:

I'd rather see the weight come off more slowly and not stress my body so much...

Jay

Well I did 1500 for the first couple days until these ladies talked some sense into me ;) So starting at 376 I upped my calories to 1800 and I've been losing weight pretty steadily... had a tiny stall for a couple weeks but that's it. I should mention that these are GOOD HEALTHY whole foods calories, nuts and good quality oils for fats and all whole grain carbs and lean proteins.

I'm due to weigh tomorrow but so far it's 33 lbs in 49 days. We'll see what tomorrow brings :)

Well, yeah, that's kinda the thing. Once you STOP a "diet" it doesn't "work" anymore. Would be kind of hard to sustain 1050 calories at 150 lbs for very long. That's why it's absolutely VITAL to find something sustainable AND healthy that one can do longterm. No starting and stopping. Just continuing.