[Betty925]

I was doing 1000 or under but not everyday. Somedays I would get 1200 or more. I was losing steady but for about the last two weeks I have been stuck so now I am shooting for 1200 or more. I eat a lot less on the weekdays and more on the weekends. After much wonderful advice I feel I may have put my body into starvation mode by not eating enough (which is foreign for me!) so I am going to try to eat more. Thanks everyone for all your encouragement and your prompt responses to my questions. This place is wonderful. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

[ultraclyde]

For the first 13 weeks of my weight loss, my average was 2412 calories a day. I'm into the last 5 weeks now, and I have brought it down to 1750 calories a day. I have averaged 3 lbs a week weight loss over this period, and I exercise 9-10 hours per week.

I did an 8 mile run today, and man am I ever wishing I could eat more than 1750 right now.

[kookiemonster]

Right now I'm at 1200-1400 a day. When I started I was doing ww and today I was counting the calories I took in while on ww, it was around 1000-1100 for some reason. spoOky!

But now I'm not hungry anymore! yAy. On days when I go for a run, I'll up it to 1300 minimum.

[googlegirl]

I'm new to these forums, and I found this poll really interesting. I, too, have read that 1200 is the bottom limit. I tried an ediets.com plan that had a target of 1200-1300 per day. Additionally I've tracked my calories online using Fitday for about 3 weeks now, so I have some decent data on my caloric intake. I lost nothing. I even gained .5 one week, but I count that as staying about the same. I asked ediets to drop my calories, but they wouldn't, so I cancelled the ediets plan. The first 4 pounds I lost were a fluke right after Thanksgiving (probably just water retention from all the salty goodies).

I discussed it with my doctor and started adding some exercise and dropped my cals to around 1000 every day. I finally lost 2 lbs. this week. I don't eat anything extra on days I exercise. This week I'm trying one splurge day where I'll add a couple hundred extra calories to shake things up a bit.

I'm surprised at how low my caloric intake has to be to lose weight. I hope that the exercise will build muscle and increase my metabolism so I can eat a little more.

[penpal]

I eat 1500 - 1600 (usually closer to 1600) calories per day. On average, I'm losing just under a pound per week. This is a lot more do-able for me than when I've tried lower amounts, say 1200 - 1300. I lose slower, but at least I can stick to it.

[Psychego]

I try to eat at least 1200 calories, but sometimes I estimate that I may have up to 1,400 or 1,500. Add to that 1 hour of exercise everyday. Sometimes I feel have have an emptiness in my stomach but that's the price of dieting. I have lost 55 pounds in 6 months. I need 20 more to go. Whatever works (in a healthy way), stick it to it