for calorie counters
 

how did you come up with your number? i know some people try to eat under their BMR, and others figured out their actual caloric needs/day and deducted a certain amount of calories...

what do you do?

Trial and error for me. Eventually, I chose my goal weight's BMR (around 1500) as a sort of ceiling- anything less than that, and I will eventually reach my goal weight. However, I also learned that I don't need 1500 to be satisfied or healthy, so most days I eat around 1200.

freedieting.com

They have calorie calculators and you don't have to sign up for anything.

Yep, freedieting.com and a lot of trial and error.

I go by what my fitness pal says. I have it set on sedentary and 1.5 lb loss a week. I'm not really sedentary so I log just about every exercise.

Trial and error for me too. I also tend to calorie cycle. I will eat lower for a while (1200-1400), and then I'll eat a little higher (1600-2000). I'm coming off an almost 2 month break from calorie counting, so I kind of feel like I'm starting over. I've been sticking around 1500-1600 (that's with workouts).

I found, for myself, that if I stay too low (1200) for more than a week or so that I get lethargic and cranky and I don't get as much out of my workouts.

Here is chart I follow, it goes like this..
Calorie needs (Calories per pound )
Sedentary goal weight times 10
Little exercise goal weight times 11
Moderately active goal weight times 12
Fairly active goal weight times 13
Very active goal weight times 14
Extremely active goal weight times 15

I haven't really found my sweet spot. I use the Lose It app on my Iphone and it has me at like high 1200's and I weigh 198 and exercise so I don't think that is right...I am hitting a plateau and not really losing even though I have been keeping it right round 1400 per day...but I am thinking maybe that is even too low and that is why I am not losing...I will also check out the sites you guys gave.

According to the freedieting.com site I should be at 1722 for fat loss and 1584 for extreme fat loss...so I guess maybe I am eating too little for my weight.

thanks gals. i know its a lot of trial and error, i was just wondering where most people came up with their jumping off figure.

I just used a few calculators to come up with numbers and then adjusted from there based on long term feedback from the scale. Works fine and I'm at 1800-1900 most days for maintenance. If I work out I can eat a fair bit more than that.

okay,so, is this inclusive of a defficit, or should i be doing -500 for the calorie total? i could never figure that out.. haha