Hi everyone!
I have been putting my food intake for the past few days in Thedailyplate.com (btw I LOVE IT!!!!) and also my exercise. To lose 2 lbs per week I have to consume about 1450 calories. When I put in my exercise, it knocks up what calorie requirement I have to eat...like I walked 3.5 miles yesterday (it said I burned about 400 calories) So it said I needed to eat 1850 calories. I know if you work out more, you need to eat more...I ate about 1450 calories yesterday- And it said my net intake was like 855. That kind of scares me because it's so low. But I don't want to just replace what I burned off with food either. I don't want to go much higher than 1500 cals/day. But I also don't want my body to hang onto the weight for dear life haha.
What do you guys do?

I think it will be a lot of trial and error until you figure out what your body likes. I was plateauing at 1400-1500, so I tried eating 1600-1700, and the weight started flying off! And then there are members here who need to eat 1200, or their scales won't budge. Our bodies have different needs depending on how we metabolize food. I wish I had a more straightforward answer for you. Finding the right calorie balance is so intimidating... X_X

I have just jumped back into calorie counting after a long lay off (and a few extra kilos :P) and I've been averaging around 1500 a day. I've lost about 2.5 kilos (about 5.5 pounds) in a little over two weeks. (I'm not anticipating that kind of weightloss being sustained by any means!)

It really is an average though as one day I may eat 1800 the next 1200 the next 1300 and the following 1700...cycling I think people call it? Although it isn't intentional lol.

On the exercise front I can burn anywhere from 300 (very minimal for me) to over 1000...while the norm tends to be about 600 a day.

My net calories would be all over the place! I know there was at least one day where it was like 300 or 400 lol. My body responds best when I mix up my intake and exercise levels...it likes to be kept guessing. I noticed when I was very strict with counting I tended to plateau with alarming frequency.

Our bodies are funny things!

I loose best around 1500-1600 calories, and even better when I am faithful to exercise. It is different for everyone, I feel like for me its a all a big experiment.

good luck!