Accuracy of Online "Calories-Needed" Estimators
 

For those of you who have used online calories-needed estimators (e.g., freedieting.com, caloriecount.com, etc.), how accurate have you found them? For example, when you enter all your stats (age, weight, height, activity level) have you found that the number of calories you're told to eat to lose (or maintain) is fairly accurate with your experience of eating at that calorie level?

I’ve decided to take a bit of a “maintenance” break by upping my calorie level to the amount that I need to maintain my goal weight of 140 (I’m estimating that I’m about 165 right now). I’ve entered my stats on six different sites, recorded the calorie recommendation from each, and took the average of all of them. That average came to approx. 1750 to maintain a weight of 140.

I don’t weigh myself, preferring to go by clothing size. As such, I won’t know if I’m slowly gaining or losing or if I’m maintaining. I suppose the simple solution is to just weigh myself, but I tend to allow the number on the scale to have too much power over my mood, so I really hate to bring out that obsessive, scale-watching tendency in myself again (I really think one of the reasons that this weight loss attempt has seemed so easy is that I’m not obsessing over the scale).

I know everyone is different, but I’m just trying to get a general idea of how accurate those calorie-estimator sites have been for you guys.
Thanks!

They're good for a general idea of what you should be aiming for, but at the same time a person who weighs 20lbs less is only consuming 100-200 calories less per day to maintain. In my experience, that has just made me sad. :(

Also, if you're an obsessive compulsive weight checker (I am too! I don't even own a scale this time around dieting. LOVE IT!) it may carry over to obsessive compulsive calorie counter. I used to freak out if I went like.. 20 calories over at one meal. Constantly calculating & recalculating my intake in my head. It's hard to diet when you can't stop thinking about food.

Worry more about portion size & how healthy it is. Atleast that's my experience. Good luck!

Thanks, MamaM820. I'm actually not that obsessive with calories counts. I do weigh and measure my food, and I try to get as close as possible when I have to estimate something (I usually err on the side of the food being more calories).

One of the downsides to not weighing myself is not having a good idea of how many calories I can actually consume to maintain. At least if I weighed myself, I would be able to gauge if my calorie level is too high or not based on whether I gain (it takes too much time to notice when my only gauge is clothing size). I may have to break down and put some batteries in my scale (& dust it! LOL). If I could only view the scale more objectively, it wouldn't be a problem.

If weighing yourself becomes something negative, then don't do it. We want to be healthy - not obsessive and depressed!

I highly doubt you will gain on 1750 a day - I think it is very improbable, it is not a lot of calories. I'm sorry I cannot offer anything solid.