So I know we're not necessarily supposed to count calories on SB, but to help me stay on plan I enter all my food at dailyburn.com, and it automatically tells me how many calories I'm eating. I did an analysis of the past 25 days and I'm averaging 1200 calories a day. That seems really low to me, but I'm not hungry at all. I've never been a big eater as far as portions go. And I'm losing the lbs pretty slowly (<a pound a week) so it must be OK. Right? What do you guys think?

That's where I need to be when I'm losing and I work out every day. If you are getting everything you need and you aren't hungry I wouldn't mess with it.

I think an average of 1200 is okay. But from being on the calorie counter pages, sometimes it may even help to increase the calories a touch to encourage weight loss. i'm not saying to eat if you're not hungry!, but maybe check out the threads there on too low of calories. I was at 1200 not really losing and now that i zig zag between 1200 and 1600, I am seeing a difference! weird, i know.

for me, I need to switch it up every few days, between 1200 and 1600. More on the days I work out!

Thanks for your thoughts ladies! I am working out too - walking/jogging 5x a week, lifting weights 3x week and doing yoga on the days I don't lift.

lisa, that's kind of what I was thinking. I guess I can try increasing my calories for a week or so and see what happens, although that scares me a bit!

I have to agree. I think that my body adjusts to the lower calories and sometimes it helps if I "zig zag" and shake things up. I actually learned about that years ago when on Weight Watchers and it was suggested I eat MORE to break a plateau. But IMO the key is to vary... if you eat more, then eat less again.

Hmm, interesting Karen! I'm actually doing some unintentional zigzagging already, some days I'm as low as 900 calories, some days I'm as high as 1700. The super low days only happened a couple of times, and same with the high, most days I'm right around 1100-1300.

My husband has been dieting with me, which is awesome - he's doing a modified South Beach plan (modified because he's too cool to read the book LOL) but allows himself one meal a week to eat whatever he wants - pasta, fries, bread, etc. He's lost 26 lbs since we started at the end of March, whereas I've lost 9. I don't know if I could do the weekly cheat thing because I think it might be too difficult for me to keep it to just one meal - and also, now that my cravings are gone, I don't want to eat that stuff anymore. But maybe I need to intentionally have a high calorie day or two a week. Hmmmm...