Lori- for what it's worth, I totally agree with you. If I upped my calorie intake, I would start gaining weight right away. I'm small now so I eat 1050 to lose weight fast after a binge and 1200 to maintain. I am very active and walk 3 mi. everyday.

What I think we can all agree on is that you want to start at the highest calories that YOU can and still lose weight at a healthy pace. This way you have room to move should you need to drop your calories later down the line when your body begins to require less. If you start at 1000-1200 at 199 there is almost no where to go. Also losing at higher cals will allow your maitenance calories to be higher as well. When you drop your calories too low for too long your metabolism slows down to a point of no repair and you are unable to increase those calories without gaining or adding significant activity. As you can see from the responses you have to do what is right for YOU. Good luck!

We are all experiements of 1 and I think Helen has a great plan to look at what she has been eating and tweak from there.