Yesterday I joined Lose It after seeing a reference to it here on the board. I punched in my goal of losing 1 pound a week and my weight and birthdate and such. It came back with a daily target of 1866 calories a day. Can I actually lose weight at that high a calorie count?

btw my weight thingy is a lie. I really weigh about 233.

also, will the calorie count go down as I lose? will it happen automatically or do I have to re-adjust?

The answer is "maybe." If you happen to have the metabolism they're estimating (generally based on averages), then you will lose a pound a week.

If your metabolism is faster than their estimate, you'll lose more. If it's slower, you'll lose less.

The only way to find out, is to try it, and see what happens.

Odds are, you can get to goal, on this calorie level, but you won't lose one pound a week forever. Eventually, as you get closer to goal, you'll start losing less than 1 lb a week. You can either take this calorie level all the way to goal (possibly) or you can choose to lower it to continue losing one pound per week.

Be aware that even if your metabolism is exactly what is estimated, you it's extremely unlikely that you will lose exactly one pound per week, each and every week. You might lose nothing for the two or three weeks, and then suddenly drop 3 lbs. Or you might lose 3 lbs the first week, and not lose anything for the next three weeks and then drop a half pound, and the next week drop 4.

That is, you'll average a pound a week loss, you're not guaranteed a pound loss. Don't assume it's a plateau unless you haven't lost for at least six weeks.

The body doesn't work on a weekly or even necessarily monthly schedule, and the weight loss calculators are notoriously inaccurate. You can only find what works by trial and error.

I use LoseIt. Love it!

To answer your second question, yes, LoseIt will automatically adjust your calorie goal when you update your weight.

I had to adjust my calorie goal in LoseIt, but you may as well try 1866 and see how it goes.

Hi Cherry! I am doing calorie cycling, and go anywhere from 1200-1800. While I haven't been sticking to plan as well as I should be, I have been losing weight. It's really all about trial and error, and figuring out what works best for you. I use myfitnesspal, which I believe is similar to LoseIt, and mine put me at 1220. That is not realistic for me on a daily basis, lol. You'll figure it out.

I just joined yesterday too when I seen someone had posted about it. They have my calories at over 1900. I am not going to eat that much. I want to adjust it but havent figured out how to yet. But, I do like the site alot and the calorie counter.

we all should be friends. I have none. And don't know how to get them.

that sounds pathetic

I'm on Lose It. Feel free to PM me and I'll give you my e-mail addess so you can add me as a friend.

You can adjust your calorie allotment by going to the Goals tab and clicking on "edit plan." Down in the bottom pane, you can adjust your calories. I like to keep mine at 1200 so I have to adjust it every time I post a new )lower!) weight.

First, thank you for telling me about this, I signed up and downloading the app as I type. They estimated my DC at 2,101...wow. Hopefully I lose weight.

well, it's 9:41 and I'm only at 1567 and I'm not the least bit interested in eating even though I just got home from work. In the past I've tried to eat 1300 a day and was binging at night. Maybe I'm on to something here.

When I started cal counting with myfitnesspal I was about 220 and they had me at about 1500 cals. It seemed high to me too. Well...I've lost about 15 lbs in two months. My cals are now lowered to just under 1400 and I continue to lose. In the two months I've been cal counting I feel that I've really retrained myself on how to eat and just how much food = my daily limit. I'm no longer interested in binging. If I want a treat, a budget for it or work out for it. (Myfitnesspal encourages you to eat back your exercise cals...also a crazy thought for me as I always thought less was more when trying to lose weight.) I've struggled with weight loss for years and calorie counting is my answer. I love it. I love that it's really not a diet. I love that it's okay to have pizza or a burger once in awhile. Like I said, cal counting really has retrained my whole way of thinking...for the better!

If you're just starting to calorie count with Lose It (which I use and love) it might be easier to start at their recommended amount for a week or two even if it seems high just to get used to restricting your caloric intake and then you can modify from there.

When I started using it I think my daily calorie limit was somewhere in the 1900s. I ate pretty much all of my calories at the beginning and this really helped me stay on plan. Now My calorie limit is down to just below 1800 but I usually eat around 1500.

Personally I aim to have a calorie deficit of 500-800 calories per day. On days when I don't exercise, that means I can eat 1500 calories. On days when I do exercise, I can eat more. On heavy exercise days, I eat about 1900 calories and I still see losses.

I've been told by a nutritionist, and read in several places, that having too much of a calorie deficit can actually hurt your weight loss because your body adjusts for famine conditions by slowing down its metabolism. So I would suggest figuring out what your body burns in a day and then aiming to eat a little less than that, and adjust your calories downwards more as you get comfortable....but not too low!

Good luck with your plan!

I just wanted to add that before I got below 200 lbs My calorie goal was 2000 and I lost the first 40 lbs pretty fast. After that it started getting way hard and I fell off the wagon.

Good luck and love your icon! I ♥ Star Trek!

I joined lose it, too and they gave me 2400. Which is good because I'm very active at work. Going to try Lose it for a while.

The absolute best feeling is finding a higher amount of calories that you can still lose weight on. It almost feels like stealing or cheating.

I'd encourage anyone to take their time and start higher, then eventually work their way down to lower amounts as time passes.

Of course, if you want more immediate results, this isn't the way to do it - but if you have time, like I do, then it works nicely.