Hello,

I am trying calorie counting after a haitus. In the last 12 days, i lost about 2 lbs.

My question: It seems that the less you weigh the lower your caloric needs are. I also read that to figure out how many calories you need to maintain, you can multiply your weight by 10 or 11. That means I'd get about 1560 ( I weigh 156) or 1716. Then when I used an online calculator, it said that I get approx 1900 calories. Ok, so if I want to lose by cutting out 500 cal a day, whether by eating, exersize, or a combination of the two, I aim for approx 1400 cals..

As I lose weight, this number will go down, but if I keep losing and keep losing, won't I get under 1200? If I weigh 140 and my cals are about 1400, and I want to keep losing, don't I have to cut it down to 900?

I could be making this much harder than it needs to be, but I'd appreciate some clarification. There is so much information out there.
Right now I don't do tons of exersize. I do a lot of walking and housework, working out by accident. I am trying to get a leash on my eating habits before incorporating anything else. You know, baby steps.

Thank you...

OG

Yep, you're right that weight loss inevitably slows down the closer you get to goal because it's becomes so much harder to create a calorie deficit. Smaller bodies need fewer calories to survive, plus there's a metabolic slowdown associated with losing a large amount of weight (good job, BTW ) .

A lot of people find that exercise is the key to the last ten pounds or so for precisely the reasons you mention. Once you get close to your goal weight, it's very hard to create a calorie deficit through eating alone. But if you can start to burn off 300 - 400 - 500 calories per day through exercise, then you can continue to lose without starving.

Also, as you've discovered, you'll never find the same answer twice about how many calories to eat per day in order to lose (or maintain). And that's because no one knows what the needs are for your unique body! They're all guesses and approximations. But you'll be able to figure it out as you go along -- track your calories and see what you lose at that level, then adjust accordingly.

Hope that helps a bit.

One thing to keep in mind is that all of these numbers you're getting are just guesses. You can only determine whether your exercise and food plan is right for you. If you are losing less than half a pound a week, you could try exercising more or eating less, but don't worry about dropping your calories until your weight loss stalls. Also, lean muscle burns more calories than the same weight in fat, so if you are exercising and building muscle, you will lose weight faster, or be able to eat more.

It's frustrating, but you have to see yourself as an eternal chemistry set. Only experimentation works in the long run. Eating healthy, and exercising have benefits beyond weight control, but they also affect metabolism, so you can't really say I can eat x calories until I lose y pounds, and then I will have to eat z calories. It's just not that simple.

YES!

I wouldn't worry about decreasing your calories at all until your weight loss stalls. Otherwise, people would be adjusting their calories every time they lost a pound or 2 If 1400 works for you, then stick with it until it no longer does, at which time you could decrease your calories slightly (no need to drop drastically--just reducing by even 50 cals/day is sometimes enough) or increase exercise to burn more calories.