Newcomer
 

So I have a few questions as a newcomer to the calorie counting way of life. First, about me: I am 30 year old male, approximately 6'1, and started off weighing 225 lbs and am now down to about 215. How do you determine how many calories you should consume? I exercise fairly regularly(swim and spin and occasional weight lifting). I have had trouble really getting below the 215 level though. Any thoughts or idea would be helpful. I am wanting to get down to 195-200 or so.

Thanks,

DCG

Hi, first I'm not an expert and finding the right calorie goal is sometimes a hit or miss thing, but I used calculations I found on about.com to start my plan. Check out this site weightloss.about.com/od/eatsmart/a/blcalintake.htm but there are a lot of other sites that have info like this too.

One thing that's helped me more than anything else has been to cycle my daily calorie counts-some days higher, some days lower, and average my "goal" over a week. Seems to trick the metabolism into losing easier. Keep checking out the threads here-there's a lot of info from a lot of really smart people.

Best wishes!

Have you had your body fat checked? If you are weight lifting, you might actually be in the healthy body fat % range at 215.

I would look at thedailyplate.com or fitday.com to come up with a good starting point for calories.
How did you lose your first 10? Are you already counting calories?

i am currently at a plateau and weigh about the same as you! my body likes that weight too.

sorry can't offer any advice :( but wanted to say hi and let you know you aren't alone at that number.

good luck xo