If so please tell me how many calories you are eating in a day, approximately how many lbs a week you are losing, and for how long.

This is the only way I can think of to compare myself with something. I hope it will help you too. I really want to know if I should be eating more calories in a day or not. I'm satisfied with the amount I eat but, I almost wonder if I should be eating more.


I'm eating 1339 calories/day, I have been eating this many calories for 21 days, and I have lost on average 2.3 lbs a week. Although I haven't actually lost 2.3 lbs every week. First week I lost 3 and the next week I lost 3 and this week I lost 1.

Thanks.

You should definitely be losing weight at that caloric intake. For your age, height and weight, your basal metabolic rate requires 1880 calories to maintain itself. To lose just one pound a week at a fairly steady rate, without the benefit of exercise, you're doing just fine. This rate should remain fairly consistent for about six to eight weeks.

But our bodies are highly efficient machines, and so eventually you'll need to add exercise to that keep the rate of weight loss up. However, you don't just want to be losing weight. When you lose more than a pound or two per week, you're losing fat as well as muscle. You want to lose the fat. You want to keep the muscle. So you're going need to do some weight training a couple of days a week and cardio the rest of the week. And depending on how much exercise you do, you will have to increase your caloric intake.

There's a really good book out about all of this, The Body Fat Solution by Tom Venuto. I find his advice to be solid and accurate. He is a body builder, but don't be intimidated by that. He knows what he's talking about.

Congratulations on your success!

Georgia

Well yeah, I am losing weight and I'm exercising too. I have a trainer that I work with about every other week. I do strength training every other day and cardio on the other days. I'm not worried about that, I just wanted to compare calorie intake and my stats with other peoples stats that are similar to mine.

Thanks georgia, I'll look into that book. It sounds interesting.

My stats aren't like yours, but I can tell right now you aren't eating enough. At 5'3" and 152 I eat an average that's closer to 1500--to LOSE. And I am older than you. So you should be able to eat at least that much, especially if you're working with a trainer.

Maybe you're just afraid to eat more? I was.

Check on FitDay and see what that tool says.

Jay

I agree with Jay, it might be better to start off eating a little more so that if you hit a plateau, you can drop your calories a bit. Right now, your calories are already so low that you don't have much room to adjust them if you need to. Right now I'm eating about 1600 calories and still losing at 156 pounds.

I'm eating 1400-1500 at 5'2" and 201lbs (was 225, originally 242, been 136).
I haven't added in any exercise yet, just a bit of extra walking. Sometimes. That's not a recommendation, btw, I just need to sneak up on the whole exercise thing a bit.
Anyhoo, with those stats I've lost 3lbs a week, tho not 3lbs every week. and it's slowing slightly, time to add in the exercise, I think.

I think you're probably not eating enough and I understand the fear but be bold and go a bit higher.

It's not necessarily fear. I am just using the daily plate's recommendation for how many calories I should be eating. I'm 30, I weigh as of now 247.5 lbs, 5 ft tall... So based on TDP, I should be consuming 1311 calories a day to lose at least 3 lbs a week.

But for the last several days I have gone over my calorie limit by about 200-300 calories each day and I have dropped 2 lbs in the last few days. That is what got me to thinking about it.

I think for the next few weeks I'm gonna up my calories to 1500 and see how that goes.

I am a bit taller than you...5'5" But I was near your start out weight (I was 259.9) Anyways, I started out with 1400 to 1600 calories(usually 1400)....And added in daily walking. I have lost 42.7 pounds since Novemeber 11th. 2009
(my first month I lost 13.3 the second month about 9 then approx 8.5 or so thereafter each month.)
Hope that helps.
GOODLUCK~YOUR DOING GREAT!

I started out at 233 and I cut my calories down to 1200 but it did not work for long. The more I started to lift weights and exercise the more calories I needed. I think there is no magic number for anyone because as you change your routine you have to change your diet.
Right now I am at 207 and I am taking in 1460 plus whatever I burn exercising. I am following what the daily plate is telling me for now to see how it works. The thing I like is that it takes the guess work out and tells me how many calories I need rather than just telling me what I burned.