Hello,

I am new to both this forum and to taking a serious look at the calories I eat. I signed on to a free website to keep track of my calories. So far, I have been doing this for two weeks. I currenly weigh 233 pounds and am 23 years old. I would like to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week. According to several online calculators, to lose this amount of weight at the rate I want, I should be eating 1,854 calories per day. This seems like quite a lot!

For those of you who have been doing this for a while, how many calories should I be eating per day to lose weight?

For the record, I am a student, but I also lift weights and run 4 times per week as I can. I am not sure if this matters in the calorie count.

Welcome!

1800 is probably a good place to start. There's no reason to starve if you don't have to! Despite the scientific basis of calorie counting, in the end, each body is different and will respond to different calorie levels in its own way. I'd suggest starting with 1800 calories and give it a couple of weeks and see how you go. If you lose steadily (after a probable rush in the first week or two) then it's a good calorie level. If you lose too quickly or too slowly then you can adjust your calories accordingly. Just remember, 1-2 pounds per week is a healthy (and good!) rate of weight loss, but you might lose alot more in the first week (water weight).

Also, you might find it helpful to read through the stickies at the top of this forum: lots of useful info there.

Good luck!

Thank you, Baffled111! I appreciate the advice. I went back and read the sticky on Frequently asked questions and will read the others soon.

Hi, I started about the same weight, and have been shooting for 1800-2000 a day myself, sticking closer to the 1800 mark. We have about the same activity level, it looks like. I lost 10 lbs in the first two weeks, but since then, it's been a steady 2 lbs a week. Of course, every body is different, but just thought I'd throw that out there, in case it helps. My thought on this was that I didn't want to start too low, and have nowhere to go when the weight loss stalls.

Thanks! Your progress is inspiring!

ANother thing to remember is to try to spread your caloric intake out as evenly as possible throughout the day. This helps keep your blood sugar at an even level, preventing you from feeling hungry or run down. I understand being a student sometimes funds are very limited. But check with your health care provider. My clinic has a bariatric department I had a simple test done that determines how many calories my body uses just to exist each day. From there I calculated the amount of calories I would have to either eliminate from my diet or burn through exercise to achieve the amount of weight I wanted to lose each week. I was glad I did!! I would have been eating much less that what I do.

The other danger in eating too few calories is your body goes into "starvation" mode and starts to fuel itself from your lean muscles mass. Which will slow your metabolism.

Good Luck with you weight loss!!! I am relatively new to this site...but everyone has been so nice and the support is wonderful!!!

I am doing 1800 calories a day and losing nothing since the first week. I got a caltrack to see if it gave the same calories as all the websites and estimators and it didn't. It tells me that I need to eat more like 1400 calories a day to lose 2 pounds a week. So, I guess the calculators online work for some but you just have to start and find out...

I started out at 239 and limited myself to 1834 calories, I stayed there for about a month and have just recently taken it down to 1700. I have noticed a considerable difference in the speed at which I'm losing, however I can't say it's calories alone since I've picked up on my workouts. I think it's a good place to start for you, once you get in the swing of the game you can always make adjustments as needed.

I generally keep between 1200 and 1400 but I'm not really loosing all that well. I am kind of at a loss myself. I feel fine on that calorie intake hunger wise. I am taking the advice of some others around here and not using the scale every week and going by measurments instead. That seems to work better. My diet is a combination of SBD, calorie counting and paleo ( with a few exceptions)

Spirit, you're probably not losing because your calories are a bit low for your weight and height. You might find that you lose more quickly if you increased them to 1500-1700. 1200 is very low for someone of your size!