I admittedly work at a very sedentary job, and I'm over 40. However, I do bike and workout at the gym regularly (hardly a day goes by without doing one or the other), so I know I'm burning excess calories, and I'm really wondering what my maintenance level is. I mean, it can't be *that* low, can it? I had assumed that it should be about 1800-2000/day. However, I've been at 1600/day for several months now and have only been losing about 1/2 lb. a month averaged out. I seem to be right at my maintenance level right now. I'm just dumbstruck that it can be that low, and I calorie-count. My metabolism is about as fast as a moving glacier. And please, no posts about how losing 1/2 lb. a month is really dropping weight and it's all I should expect.

So - without time to exercise even more, I'm left to dropping my calories - again - to 1500/day and see what happens. I risk binging, but it appears I have no other options. I just hope I can adapt to being hungrier all day long. I may have to start drinking lots more fluids to put something in my stomach at least.

Apparently that pace of weight loss is very healthy and reasonable, but it is painfully slow, and it sucks. I feel qualified to tell you this because I'm pretty much in the same boat. When I looked at what I've lost over the past 2 years, it's mind boggling. I'm averaging about the same, 1/2 pound to a pound per month. Not fast enough! I've been biding my time, going back and forth and now I'm just frustrated with the pace. I want it to go faster. I'm so done with this. I want to hit my goal and start maintenance, already!

I'm on my feet all day and average about 2000-2500 calories a day on a work day (I use Bodybugg, so I know this for a fact). I can burn more or less depending on my activity level. In order to lose, I have to try to have a 800-1000 calorie deficit per day, and figured I have to stick to around 1500 calories per day. When I stick to that diet, I'm hungry all day! If I don't, I don't lose.

Drink water, green tea and sugarless gum can sometimes help. A hot beverage can sometimes help. High protein snacks are supposed to help. It's the price to pay for fast(er) weight loss, I guess. I keep telling myself, when I'm hungry, that it's good. It means I'm losing. Hunger is good. I want to be hungry!

I think it all depends on how hungry one wants to be and whether one can manage it. My wife lost 2-4 pounds a week for six months and lost 60 lbs. Admittedly she was only eating 700-1000 calories/day (under a doctor's supervision). I don't want to go that low, but weight loss is a function of calories in vs. calories out. Personally, I don't think losing 1/2 lb. a month is reasonable for myself or reasonable weight loss progress. It's just a matter of which do I want more? More pounds lost per month, or that extra bit of food that keeps me at 1600 calories/day?

Personally, I want the food over the quick loss. It sounds like you're skeptical that 1500kcal/day will be feasible for you, which means it probably won't be! I know you're not happy with the slow weight loss you're seeing now, so how about changing up that exercise routine? You're getting a good cardio workout, but what about adding in a weightlifting component? Your caloric intake isn't the only thing you're allowed to change!

Maybe you should try calorie cycling?

Exercise always makes me more hungry and I end up eating back what I burn and then some LOLL

While I'm not going as low as your wife, I prefer a bigger cal deficit and doing more "sculpting" exercise. I figure, at the end of the day, I can have the same net deficit of cals either working out a lot and eating a lot, or working out less and eating less and it saves me more time to just work out less and eat less. I do more strength training and walking and I've had pretty regular loss so far.

Oddly enough I've recently UPPED my calories to between 1500 and 1700 and I'm losing faster. Have you considered upping your calories a little bit for a while? I know it doesn't seem to make sense, but sometimes it works.

I'm a 29 year old 5'6" female, if I can lose at 1700 calories a day I can imagine you also would be able to. My husband is 183 lbs, 6'1", and 41 years old and he has consistently lost weight at or above 2000 calories a day, no cardio, just weights.

I KNOW for sure everyone's body is different, but just something to consider.

One thing for those of you who want to get the loses over with already and get to maintenance: It's not any different than losing. You'll really just be doing more of the same (with a different calorie count maybe) if you want to maintain your weight.

I eat almost the same as I did when I was losing, just more of it.

This happened to me too. Upped my calories at 125, lost FASTER.

I can actually still lose if I consistently eat at 1800 calories a day, even more. I need to average out over 2000 (sometimes well over 2000) in order to maintain. If I "slip up" and eat under 2000 for too long I start losing again.

I have a feeling that extra calories have been sneaking into my daily diet somewheres. I eat my wife's homemade burritos, and although she said she did her best to calculate the calories per burrito, I wonder.....

I eat a 7-11 apple fritter each morning and calculate its calories into my daily total. However, when doing my calculating I took the first number online that I found for them - 400 calories. I just finished sampling a variety of sites that give estimates, and unfortunately, the 400 was the lowest number of calories given for it. Other sites I just visited gave 470, 520 - even 790! But Myfitnesspal also shows it to be 400 calories. So - I just emailed 7-11 to see if they know the real number. I may just have to eschew them altogether if I can't get an accurate count.

It would have to be a pretty small apple fritter to only be 400 calories.

I guess you could weigh it sometime and try and work it out that way. Do you weigh all of your food so you know the calories exactly?

Tricon, this is totally one of the reasons I eat primarily whole foods - calculating for recipes is tricky business and I hate doing it. So my breakfast today, for example, was three hardboiled eggs and my standard coffee with tbsp of HWC and SF syrup. Easily calculated.

Lunch, same sort of thing. 6 oz leftover roasted turkey, salad with measured out amounts of mushroom, pepper, green onion, avocado, and 4 tbsp of a homemade dressing recipe that has exactly ten tbsp servings in it. 1 oz Parmesan cheese.

Dinner will be 4 oz broiled steak and mushrooms sautéed in 1 tbsp each butter and white wine. A little rosemary.

Now. In my day, I am a) eating very filling, whole, nourishing food. No cravings and easily eating within my calories without hunger.

Also, there are approximately two foods, in my entire day, that I once had to calculate the recipe calories for. Once they are in my log, I can just refer back to it with no issue. In fact, every meal I ate today is one I have eaten before, and the foods are ones that are easy to get decent calorie counts and nutritional breakdown for. Simple, wholesome, really REALLY YUMMY (did I mention my dressing recipe is a bacon grease vinaigrette?), and easy to calculate calories for.

Also, this works out to 1591 calories. I could easily get that to 1500 by reducing the turkey by an ounce. Not a bit of this is low fat, dietic and processed, or leaves me hungry and unsatisfied. If you really must maintain in that calorie range, there is a whole lot you can do with your food to reliably and comfortably land at 1500 calories. For one, cut out the bread, legumes, and sugar, my friend! If nothing else you will be able to fill those empty calories with a lot more satisfying, filling fare. If the calories seem low, first try changing up *the foods* you are eating, before changing how *much* you are eating. You may be pleasantly surprised

The less control you have over your food preparation, the more you'll have to estimate, and sometimes our estimates can be way off. When I'm unsure of the calories in something I buy out, I look it up on several sites and use the one that seems to make the most sense to me (usually it's the highest figure or close to that).

With that said, though, I'm surprised that you aren't losing faster. Have you gone to a doctor to have your thyroid checked?

Also, I "third" the suggestion to try mixing it up a bit by increasing your calories. Although I did not weigh myself during my weight loss phase, I was on approx. 1400 calories from the second week of June 2011 until the beginning of Sept. I seemed to be losing fine. Still, at the end of August I was in a tight size 10. In Sept. , I increased my calories to about 1700. By October, I was in an 8-10 Petite. Then, I increased my calories again to about 1800, and by the week after Thanksgiving when I finally weighed myself, I was below my goal weight.

Also, I regularly cycled calories (and still do). Many people have had success with that, so you might try it.

Good luck!

I'm cutting the apple fritter out completely for now. I'm replacing it with two egg sandwiches for breakfast - total 340 calories (for sure). And since I'm weightlifting, the protein will be well-received. If after that I'm still having trouble losing, I'll decide what to do at that point. But I agree with a poster in that I need foods that are easy to calculate calories for, and they keep calories from sneaking in.

I don't plan to have my thyroid checked. I think if it was going haywire, I'd have other symptoms other than not being able to lose weight that fast. Besides, I don't have health insurance, so it's a moot point.

Not going to "up" my calories and create a calorie surplus - unless I want to start gaining weight.

I don't plan on eliminating delicious, heavenly sugar from my diet. I'd rather just abandon my diet altogether! I do eat less sugar now, though, since I get more bang for my buck by eating non-sugary foods. But if I want to splurge on something once a week, or even eat an occasional pint of ice cream, then deduct it from my daily calorie budget, that works for me.