Hi. I found this cool calculator on the web that I want to tell everyone about because I think it is reasonabley accurate. Part of why I think so is I am trying to cut calories and can't to cut my calories down past 1800 without being REALLY REALLY hungry. Anything below 1800 I can't stand and start eating! According to this calculator I just found, I need 1870 calories a day to maintain my current weight, which explains my problem.(my body is doing ANYTHING to stay this way). This is not what other calculators have been telling me. The other calulators say I need about 1625 which ..lol is a starvation diet for me, not maintanance.

Anyway here is the calculator. you measure your waist, hips and neck to get your bmi. The body fat percentage it gives you btw is the same for me on my bodyfat scale.

http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/diet.html

Thanks for the link. There are often several different calculators you have to use, and this combines them into one. Very convenient.

I just dont see how these things are accurate, it has no way of knowing what my metabolism is. And isnt that the main factor with how many calories you need? If i weigh the same as someone that is not exercising and I am exercising, assuming our measurements are the same, my metabolism is naturally going to be higher. Therefore my calories to maintain will vary GREATLY from the other persons. Then there is the variable of, have i been yo-yoing, or have i been at this weight for years? That makes a HUGE difference as well. If you yo-yo diet, your metabolism is all screwed up and no way measurements will matter. Maybe i am missing something, but to me, measurements are maybe half the equation to how many calories you need. I would opt for just listening to my body, if you gain at a certain amount of calories then you have to either up your exercise or eat less...a calculator is not going to change that.

Right now, I'm doing the equivalent of a 2030 calorie diet only it's structured. It's also not allowing me to be hungry. I think you can do this calculator with a grain of salt because your body is either burning like a furnace or not.

I agree with you... I couldn't do less than 1800 calories and I think that would be the lowest I would go down to. What I am hopeful is that I could stay on this high side of the caloric intake for awhile and gradually get down to 1800 cals. and maintain my high weight goal for awhile.

The number of calories you eat has no direct relation to how hungry you feel. If you eat a bag of chips, you have eaten a ton of calories without actually filling your stomach much. If you eat a giant pile of veggies then you will feel full without taking in too many calories. In other words, feeling hungry if you eat fewer than 1800 a day has less to do with whatever maintenance number you manage to find than it does with how you choose to get your calories.

At any rate, if 1800 is maintenance for you, then you still need to drop below that if you want to lose weight...

It gave me the same minimum calorie level 1838 no matter what weight level I put in.

This is my favorite daily calorie needs calculator: http://www.stevenscreek.com/goodies/calories.shtml

I love calculators!
At Stevens Creek, I got 1834.
At Scientific Psychic, I got 1788. Both of those include moderate activity.
And at fitday I get 1549, with no added activity.

So they're all OK. I still lose a little most weeks on about 1600 cals. Which I find is more than enough food. We'll have to look at what you're eating and find you some more filling foods!

I'm always looking for another calculator. I get a different answer from every one but I love them all anyway.

• At Stevens Creek, I need 2,030 calories per day to maintain my weight.
• At Scientific Psychic, I need 1,780 calories per day.
• At about.com (one of my fav calculators), I need 1,983 calories.
• At calorieking.com I need 2,050 calories.
• At mayoclinic.com I need 1,850 calories.

All calculations are with moderate exercise.

Based on the amount of calories I currently eat and the rate at which I am losing weight, I think the Scientific Psychic calculator is probably closest to the truth.

The body fat calculators are also all different. Including Scientific Psychic, I have found three different body fat calculators. I put the same measurements into all three and get different answers from all three, differing by up to 3%. I definitely like the answer I get from Scientific Psychic the best though.

This is not written in stone. I've seen many scientific studies that say this is a myth. Just speaking for myself, I seem to lose at the same rate as I did ten years ago, even though I've yo-yo dieted since I was in high school.

[QUOTE=baffled111;1739199]The number of calories you eat has no direct relation to how hungry you feel. If you eat a bag of chips, you have eaten a ton of calories without actually filling your stomach much. If you eat a giant pile of veggies then you will feel full without taking in too many calories. In other words, feeling hungry if you eat fewer than 1800 a day has less to do with whatever maintenance number you manage to find than it does with how you choose to get your calories.
QUOTE]

I agree, yet disagree!

I agree that veggies are certainly more filling than chips. However, an hour after eating, if I've a bag of chips, I won't be hungry. If I ate the same volume of veggies, I probably will be.

I don't think I interpret "hunger" and "fullness" as exact opposites in the way that some people do. I can be quite full (even to the feeling of discomfort), and yet still be "hungry" because my body senses that something is missing.

This has happened to me in the past when I gorged on veggies, but my body was still craving protein or fat!

Cool calculator. Thanks for sharing. I used it and it said to lose 2 lbs a month I needed to eat 1500 cals a day. Well, this past month I have eaten an average of 1621 cals and have lost 5.5 lbs. I'm glad that it worked for you, though.

Just a thought, I may be wrong here, but are you sure you aren't thirsty? What I used to think was hunger was actually thirst. It took me while to be able to differentiate between the two. If your stomach isn't grumbling and making noise you probably aren't experiencing hunger.

Of course I don't equate cravings with hunger. To me they are two very different things, so maybe I'm just misinterpreting what you are saying.

This ends up being about the same as what fitday says for me.

The Scientific Psychic said I'd lose 2 lbs per month if I ate approx 1550 calories per day. I eat 1400-1500 and lose 2 lbs per week, so I don't buy it!

Honestly, as entertaining as all these calculator are, I think you just need to listen to your body and adjust accordingly.

I would say listen to the body first, I decided to not drop calories too fast when I found out I was eating way more than I thought! I was eating between 2500-3000 cal a day so I dropped it down to 1700-1800 calories when I started this and since I started June 5th (started writing everything down about 2 weeks ago) I have lost 6 pounds (becomes offical tomorrow when I allow myself to change my ticker) but according to many of the sites I should be at anywhere from 1400 - 1550 calories. Well I will try that, but only when I platue, if I am losing now at this rate then here I am staying. Also my numbers are only an average of the week, twice I went to between 2200-2500 and then lowered all the other days a little to make up for it. Good luck!