The pic is just too small for you to see the gray hairs and the wrinkles I did look young for a long time, but I think I'm finally (sadly) getting over it. There was an long span when I was mistaken for 18, the first time when I was 11, the last in my late 20s. If you saw a better picture of me, I don't think there'd be any confusion now, though.

I agree about the calculators. I actually started another thread about it and in my favorite comment someone said that at best they're an estimate, at worst entertainment.

I am at 140 now and eating 1200-1400. It's my hope I can hover here even when I lose more. I think my metabolism is pretty good for someone who has poor health and doesn't exercise much. You may not need to change. Or maybe you could exercise more or even try lowering carbs to see what happens.

so not a dumb question. this is something that bothers me all the time too. How come, when my 5'7 friend wants to lose weight she can supposedly, healthily, cut down to 1200 calories, giving herself at least 500 calories more of a daily deficit than I could at 5'2 with the same minimum calorie restriction?

There's no doubt about it. she can lose weight faster. despite that this bothers me, i know that I will lose weight nevertheless at 1200 a day, regardless if it is slower or not, and I'm a featherweight. i know continuing to do cardio & build my muscle mass keeps my metabolism up, enabling me to keep shedding at the same daily calorie intake.

I can also tell you that a lot of this is psychological. sure, we could go under 1200 to 1000, let's say. and maybe that actually would be fine for our bodies. but I know, in my head, when i have starting cutting closer to 1000 rather than 1200 a day, i am very conscious that my portions look different than those around me. it makes me feel more deprived, like i'm not being fair to myself when i look at others' portions. and THAT is something that makes me end up eating more in the long run, and ultimately gaining more weight.

so, despite that I can sympathize with your frustration, from experience, I would not recommend going below 1200 at any weight. it is entirely possible, with patience, to keep on losing while eating at the same deficit.

Not a dumb question at all!!! I have actually wondered the same thing!

So I know a bunch of kind people already explained it, but just incase you need anther example! =)

So right now i weigh 199. If you go to http://www.caloriecontrol.org/health...lculator-women and enter in all of your information it tells you about how many calories you are eating a day to maintain your weight.

So for me to maintain my weight at 199 lbs. and not lose or gain anything, i have to be eating around 2192 calories a day. But im obviously trying to lose that weight, so i would need a deficit. We all know a pound is 3500 calories. So i would need to figure out my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR); the number of calories you'd burn if you stayed in bed all day... ( about 1700 for me) and create the deficit.

Now to answer your question, if you look up how much you should weigh for your height it tells you an average. http://www.healthchecksystems.com/heightweightchart.htm

Now say I get down to my goal weight, around 135lbs. Once i get to that and want to maintain that, I would be allowed to eat around 1500 calories a day. Because by exercising and eating healthy, our bodies build our metabolism which allows us to run better. The gold standard had always been around 1200 because food is just fuel for our bodies!

I hope this helps and wasnt confusing!