[Jewelz76]

How do I figure out how many calories I need to maintain? Ive only really focused on losing weight. Now Im getting close I dont know where I would want to shoot for.

[ambabs]

I'm not sure how accurate this is but here's a calculator that might help.

http://www.fatfreekitchen.com/weight...eightloss.html

and here's another

http://www.am-i-fat.com/calmaintain.html

Congrats on doing so well! You might also want to ask in the maintenance area.

[Jewelz76]

Ty, ambabs! I hope those calculators are somewhat right. I will post same thing in maintance then. See what they think.

[GonnaLooseitagain]

Misty, I would see if you can get your metabolic fingerprint taken. It is easy fairly cheap and very accurate. I had mine done before I started dieting (good ting I did) the online calculators were off by 600/cals per day for me. That information was more helpful than I could have ever imagined.

[Jewelz76]

I seen something about a fingerprint here not to long ago. Cause I also found this very interesting. However, when I looked for a local place there was none. If my memory serves me right I think the closest was like 2-3 hours away.
You have to go kinda like fasting... I wish doctors or even the smaller gyms/ weight loss centers had this.

[ambabs]

I've never heard of the metabolic fingerprint before. I typed it into Yahoo and found one relatively close to me for $45 but what exactly does it do for you?

[aphil]

I think the calories that you need for weight loss and maintenance are a very personal thing. The calculators can be a good guide, but they are not foolproof-because there are so many factors, such as genetics, regular activity level, exercise, age, height, current weight...the list goes on.

I think the easiest, most reliable way to figure how many calories each day for maintenance is to add slowly each week until you find the right balance for you.

For instance:
If you ate 1400 calories a day at the end of your weight loss, then for the next couple of weeks try eating about 1550 each day-adding about 150 a day for now. In a week or two, weigh in and see what happened. If you either lost, or maintained your weight, bump it up slightly to about 1650 or so-weigh in and see what happens.
Slowly bump up the calories slightly every week or two until you see any gain. Once you do, you'll know about what you can have per day without gaining.

[GonnaLooseitagain]

the metabolic fingerprint is something I swear by, it measures your resting metabolic rate. So if I did nothing by lay in bed all day, and not move (say life support or something similar) my body needs 1150 cals/day to maintain basic life function. So I can use this number to base my dieting calories on. All of the online calculators for me said over 1800/day. so at that I wouldnt have had such a good loss since I would be basing my calories on a bad number. I think I paid $50 for mine so $45 is good. You have to not eat/drink for like 4 hours. SO it isnt bad, I scheduled mine for 10am, since it is a long drive for me to get to where they test, so I got up early ate a bowl of cereal and then didnt eat again until lunch, after I got it measured.

[Jewelz76]

I think I'm going to shoot for the "adding" cals per week first. If that doesnt work I'll try the fingerprint.
Just for the simple fact of money is tight right now (christmas coming).. and I think it would interesting to be able to figure this out on my own by adding or subtracting..
Hopefully, Ill be able to do this.

[aphil]

It is easy to figure out on your own, really. You can measure your metabolic fingerprint, and know your resting metabolic rate...but that still doesn't tell you the amount of calories that you need per day with your regular activity level. If the fingerprint is testing what I burn laying in bed all day...then it doesn't do me that much good, when I need to know what I need to maintain with my regular activity and exercise regime.