I'm 5'5", 170lbs, 30 years old and work out at least 4 hours a week. I have been calorie counting (kept within 1100-1200 on most days) for the past year and never lost any weight that I didnt immediately gain back...so I never got lower than about 178lbs. On Feb 1 I joined Weight Watchers online and immediately lost 5 pounds, then continued to lose 5 more pounds and now I am plateauing at 170-172lbs. Because I am fairly active I know that I probably am not losing more steadily because I havent been eating enough calories so as of today I am changing my caloric intake to 1500. But when I go to livestrong and other sites, they say I should be eating between 1600-1900 calories to lose weight steadily. That just seems like so many calories to me.

Ive read through this forum and see that women my size are losing weight eating between 1600-1900 calories. Is 1500 too low still? Im so confused. Please help. I am within 25lbs of my goal weight and I dont want to shoot myself in the foot and have to eat at a seriously low calorie amount to maintain, but I also dont want to eat too many calories now.

Can someone help

I don't think 1500 is too low, but your body might be budging less cuz you work out a lot? You might be at a plateau and you need to do something to shake it up! I'd try going up to 1600-1700 calories a day- you might see an initial gain for a few days but it should taper back down and then some

ill try that. thanks for the tip!

This happened to me when I did Jenny Craig, I started at 180 and plateaued at around 170. I was eating 1500 calories a day, but I was also working out everyday (burning 500 cal a day). Loooonng story short I left Jenny Craig because they told me I obviously had a thyroid problem since I wasn't losing on their plan, p.s. no thyroid problem. I started calorie counting and after tons of research, and holding massive family debates about it, I upped my calories to a range of 1600-1800. I exercise everyday for 1 hour, burn around 300-500 calories, and always make sure I have a net calorie intake of at least 1300. Instead of giving myself a set number I give myself a range, so I have some wiggle room and I calorie cycle this way. I've steadily been losing 2+ pounds a week doing this "method".
But each person is different, it took me a long time to figure out what worked for me. You could up your range for a few weeks and see what happens, or even try calorie cycling, where one day you eat on the low end of your range and the next you might eat towards the higher end of your range. I will say though, when I first upped my calorie range and started cycling I gained a few pounds the first few days, but after that they started just continuously sliding off.