I was at the YMCA reading Womens Health and I read an an article that stated: For every pound you lose, your total daily calories need to be reduced by 10. Lose 10 pounds and your body needs 100 fewer calories a day, on average, to sustain itself.
I now can see why we plateau. Obviously if you lose 10 lbs. and still are eating the same amount of calories and doing the same exercises you will no longer lose that 1 or 2 lbs. per week. You either have to cut more calories or exercise more. A light bulb finally went on in my head. Am I that ignorant or did everyone else know this but me.

Ive never heard it so specific. I know that you need to reduce calories as you lose weight (or increase exercise). but I think the whole Idea is calories in versus calories out versus what your body needs.

Hmmm, makes sense to me! If I'm carrying around 20 pounds less weight all day, I won't be burning as many calories.

Jay

What if you consume 1200 calories a day and succeed at losing 10lbs? Aren't we advised not to go under 1200 ever?

That might work if you only have a few pounds to lose...but I think it's different for everyone. If you have like a 100 pounds to lose I just can't see this as being feasible. All the recommendations say you shouldn't consistently go below 1200 a day. An interesting thought, tho.

I have never heard it put that way either. I did calculate my calories from when I was losing weight and the first 6 months of maintenance and it came to 2300 calories a day. (with exercise usually an hr. 5 nights a week). Now I am maintaining at 1700-1800 calories a day with just as much or more exercise than when I was trying to lose weight. But, several women on the maintainers forum work out more frequently and arduously than I do and are maintaining on 1400 calories a day. It is such an individual thing.

I've never heard this, either. All I was told was to follow a meal plan that gradually reduced my caloric intake. At this time, I need 1500 calories a day. I'll be discussing my needs as I lose more weight with my dietitian.

I actually have heard of this. The program I use to track my eating and exercise has reduced my daily budget by 10 calories every time I lose a pound. I don't really pay attention to that though, I'd rather work off ten more calories than eat 10 less but like everyone says it's an individual thing.

I've always calculated it at 15 calories per pound. Depends on your lifestyle. If you have a particularly active daily lifestyle, then go with the 15, but if you say - do a desk job and don't get to walk around much during the day and are sedentary.....definitely stick with the 10 calories per lb.

I've been steadily losing WITHOUT decreasing my calories. If I decreased 10 calories for every pound lost, having lost 90 (with plenty more to go), I'd be eating practically NOTHING. I'm not willing to do that. What I have been doing is INCREASING my exercise. It stands to figure that I burned way more calories at 287 lbs. then I am now at 197 lbs. That's my plan, to keep on increasing the exercise as I lose more. So far, so good.

The fact is taken out of context ~ Sally Squires, the Lean Plate Club columnist in Washington Post (yes I sound like a broken record for quoting her over and over, but she's very well-reputed for her weight-loss advice) said the average number of Calories a person burns is about 11 to 12 per pound.

So if you're a 200 pound person, you'll burn about 2,200 to 2,400 a day just by being alive and breathing. If you want to lose weight, you can adjust that by burning some from exercising or eating less.

So yes, the less one weighs, the less calories the body burns so the less one would have to eat less or exercise more to maintain the same rate of weight loss (or stay at maintenance). But that doesn't necessarily translate to having to drop 100 or so calories every time you lose 10 pounds, just estimate how much your body is burning (using your pounds x11-12) and adjust your intake/output so that you still have a Calorie deficit. (using my current weight as an example, being 159 means I burn about 1,750-1,900 Calories a day -- if I wanna lose weight I should keep my calories intake below that and/or burn them off through exercise).

And by those calculations, very very VERY few (and very petite) people would ever survive on less than 1,200 Calories a day (which translates to about a 100-pound non-active person).

Hope that clarifies things up (and that all this math isn't confusing anyone).

Thank you AquaWarlock.

Just wanted to say thank you for the post. I have been losing an average of 3-4 lbs a week and most people just said be happy its happening and don't worry about. Thanks for helping to fill in the blanks