I hear 1200 is magic for losing, am crazy hungry at 1300-1400, so how do I know what's right?
How many of you use your BMR as a guide?

The BMR thing confuses me so much...
I went online and put in all my information and It told me to eat 4000 calories a day which doesn't sound healthy... so I'm not sure?

I would say around 1500 - 2000 is a good number (or so google taught me)

I don't at all and never have, honestly.

A long long time ago a doctor put me on a 1400 calorie diet, so I assume that number is pretty reasonable. I shoot to eat between 1200 and 1500 a day while trying to stay towards the lower end. It's important though to realize that I'm pretty sedentary so those numbers don't appear to be too low for me.

My doctor told me to never go below 1300, and that I would lose just as much doing that as by less because of the effect eating too little has on your body. I try to stick around 1500-1600 and sometimes go a bit higher I think.

I'm using the calorie limit given to me by the LoseIt! app. It takes into consideration your height, age, weight loss goal, and activity level when coming up with your daily calorie budget. It also gradually adjusts the limit downward as you lose weight and adds in additional calories (should you choose to use tem) when you exercise. It's working well for me.

I googled it... There are websites that tell you how much to eat, according to your height, weight, age and activity. I don't know how accurate it is, but it works most of the time, so I stick with it.

1,500 cals worked well for me at age 16 and I've been using that figure ever since for weight loss. I don't lose quite as fast on it as i did at 16, but the pace is still reasonable. Anything less and I'm just too hungry to do everything I need to do.

F.

I use myfitnesspal it gave me a bmr and then the option of how much weight I want to lose per week to figure out my daily calories

I would REALLY like to know which program came up with that figure. Unless you're exercising vigorously several hours per day, it sounds way off...

F.

As would I! LOL wouldn't it be NICE if we could eat 4000 calories a day and lose weight!!!

Yes, wouldn't it? If that's what's meant by a parallel universe, I'm in!

F.

I'm going to try to find one of those apps!

LOL 4000 calories. There's a guy at my gym that eats that much, but he lifts insane amounts of weight so he needs it!

1200 is the baseline minimum you should eat. You can eat more than that if you're losing weight! You need to find a good number that keeps you satisfied and lets you keep your sanity.

I ate 1200-1400 whilst losing weight, but wound up still losing when I bumped up to 1800 (when I was in the 120s and higher 110s). Even now I lose if I dip below 2000 for too long.

Hi! New to this forum but not to calorie counting. I eat my maintenance calories which allows me to lose very slowly. But I love to eat, so it's working for me. I arrived at this through a book I read back in 2005 called Calorie Queens. It sat on my shelf for 7 years before I was ready!

Better late than never, I guess.

I'm another one that eats maintenance calories. I'm still losing on this amount, and when I get to my goal weight, I'll already be used to eating the way I'll need to.