Okay, color me confused here

Every reputable calculator I use online tells me that for my 2 pounds of weight loss per week, I should eat just shy of 1900 calories a day. I just got off the phone with my doctor's nurse and was told no less than 1800 calories a day. That just seems extremely excessive for some reason. I've been eating about 1550 calories a day for a couple of weeks now, and I've been losing about 2 pounds per week.

However, am I "starving" my body by not eating enough calories a day then? I'm not physically starving, and I am exercising about 4 to 5 days a week.

Is there a real physical harm by not eating the amount of calories a day that everyone recommends?

(cross-posted in the 100lb forum)

At 249 pounds i cant loose an ouce eating 1900 cals a day. I have pcos/insulin resistence so i have to do LOTS of cardio and i have to keep my cals at no more than 1600 on the days that i do a lot of cardio. More like 1400 if i dont do cardio that day.

As long as you are only losing 2 pounds a week, i think you found your sweet spot with what you are doing.

Reputable calculators are based on people who have a normal metabolism. At our weight, we dont have a normal metabolism and we never will. We will always have to eat less and exercise more than our skinny counterparts to weigh the same amount as them.

Keep up the good work. Your doc is a doc...not a dietician that specializes in obesity. Docs, i have found, are VERY clueless about weight loss for the obese. They know about weight loss for those that need to lose 10-20 pounds...not 100 pounds. There IS a difference.

Good luck and no harm done to eat 1500 a day, if that is work works for you. Just try to keep your cals as high as you can and still lose. You will need that wiggle room as you get closer to goal.

If you're comfortable on it, I don't think there's a thing wrong with 1500 calories a day. At that level, you can still get enough fat and protein (one of the big problems with TRULY low calorie diets). Personally, if I were you, I'd stick with it if you're doing well.

For me when I was exercising last year, I was eating so few calories, and exercising a lot. I lost about 30 pounds then couldn't lose anymore for the life of me, and I think it was because I wasn't eating enough calories that I was in starvation mode. Your body holds on to every ounce of fat if it thinks that you are going through a famine. That's one of the hard parts for me, is finding a good ratio of calories in, to how many calories to burn in cardio.

I would try the 1800 that your nurse suggested. The more you weigh, the more you can eat and still lose (in theory that is.) If you don't lose on that then start going back down. It'll greatly depend on how your body is, but if you go too low to start, you'll have to drop too low when you get closer to your goal.

I started at between 1600-1700 calories and now I approx 1450 per day (almost at goal.) I did have to add more exercise at one point though (I was unwilling to lower my cals at that point in time.)