So I have a few questions as a newcomer to the calorie counting way of life. First, about me: I am 30 year old male, approximately 6'1, and started off weighing 225 lbs and am now down to about 215. How do you determine how many calories you should consume? I exercise fairly regularly(swim and spin and occasional weight lifting). I have had trouble really getting below the 215 level though. Any thoughts or idea would be helpful. I am wanting to get down to 195-200 or so.

Thanks,

DCG

Hi, first I'm not an expert and finding the right calorie goal is sometimes a hit or miss thing, but I used calculations I found on about.com to start my plan. Check out this site weightloss.about.com/od/eatsmart/a/blcalintake.htm but there are a lot of other sites that have info like this too.

One thing that's helped me more than anything else has been to cycle my daily calorie counts-some days higher, some days lower, and average my "goal" over a week. Seems to trick the metabolism into losing easier. Keep checking out the threads here-there's a lot of info from a lot of really smart people.

Best wishes!

Have you had your body fat checked? If you are weight lifting, you might actually be in the healthy body fat % range at 215.

I would look at thedailyplate.com or fitday.com to come up with a good starting point for calories.
How did you lose your first 10? Are you already counting calories?

i am currently at a plateau and weigh about the same as you! my body likes that weight too.

sorry can't offer any advice but wanted to say hi and let you know you aren't alone at that number.

good luck xo