I need to get a more structured way of eating as I need to get some weight off for surgery. I have tried about everything but decided to do calorie counting again. I had some success when I tried it many years back using a book called "Calorie Queens", which basically said to take your goal weight and multiply it by 12 to get your daily calorie count. The idea is that while you are losing weight, you are also learning how to eat for maintenance when you get to your goal weight. I just wondered how others counting calories set their daily calorie goals.

I weight train and when I used to calorie count and weight train I would multiply my weight by about 11 to get a calorie count to cut so 12 sounds good. I also monitored my protein, fats and carbs to try to build, or at least maintain, muscle.

I gave up with that approach though as I started to find that a calorie was not a calorie, at least for me. I can eat tons of calories from protein and not gain weight (at least from fat). And from muscle, weight gain is a real slow-go.

I don't lose either if I eat a lot of calories from protein, but no gain from eating so much raised my suspicions that calorie counting might not be the best for me. (That's my maintenance story).

But for weight loss, calorie counting is still an effective strategy.

This is the first time I've ever counted calories and I really wish I'd done it before. I might not have failed at so many previous weight loss attempts. After seeing My Fitness Pal mentioned here many times I decided to take a look at it and see if it would work for me. Wow, is it ever! It takes all the guess work out of figuring how many calories to eat, calorie burns from exercising and other things that always eluded me before or just seemed like to much extra work. Take a peek and see if you like it.

Love MFP, best app ever!

IanG- I agree that a calorie is not a calorie. I really thought long and hard about whether I wanted to lose weight with a different approach but I have found that I needed more structure than just making better choices. I thought about trying WW again but I feel like it really pushes lowfat and I need some healthy fats and protein to keep me going. I felt like with calorie counting, I can still try to eat higher nutrition value food.

Jesslan Rose and gapeach - I have MFP on my phone and I am starting to work with it. I also have a Fitbit and I synced it to the MFP app today. Any tips on making the most of the apps would be appreciated.

One thing that I did notice is that it looks like all three of you have had great success counting calories and that certainly inspires me that I have chosen the right route and can do it too! Thanks

im on 1450 max a day. i came to this by using a mix of websites to calculate what i need to get by on every day and also because i have previously restricted to 1200 a day and it was very bad for my mental health, 1300 wasnt much better but i find with 1450 IF i have a bad day i have the wiggle room but most normal days i am about 1300-1350 naturally.

MFP calculated 1500 for me so I would lose a pound a week. I lost four pounds a week, it was awesome. Really love MFP, all I do is put my food in, see how many calories it is, to see if its worth eating or not. I am around 1350 on most days too. Today I am cutting it close to 1500 for some reason. I am hungry today.

Twenty years ago I weighed a LOT more than I do now and so long experimentation with the way food, activity and general lifestyle affect my weight trends and continuous tracking of calories in/calories out and weight (yes, all that time and I don't mind it at all; I'm a data geek) has resulted in knowing fairly closely what my calorie levels result in as far as losing, maintenance and gaining.

I use Fitday on Fitday.com. You can download the phone app too. I make all my foods custom, by researching the foods on the internet.

I use MyFitnessPal and aim to average 1200 calories a day (I am short and older so my BMR is really low). I use a Fitbit so I get an idea of my calorie burn and aim to have at least a 500 calorie deficit each day. Someone who was taller, and younger, who had an active job for example could eat a lot more than me.

Basically try to get an idea of how many calories you burn each day and take 1000 calories from that and see how many calories you end up with to eat. And ask if that is acceptable to you. If it is, then there you go. For me, I can't cut 1000 calories a day because even with exercising I average currently about 1700 calories a day burned so cutting 1000 calories a day is a non-starter for me. I cut 500 instead.