Hey everyone

I have a question. I am currently 5'5" and 188 lbs. I've been tracking my calories on Daily Plate for about 2 weeks and I started to wonder about their calorie calculator. According to them to maintain my current weight I should eat about 2880 calories a day and to lose 2 lbs a week (my goal...ish) I should eat about 1880 calories a day. To me this seems like an enormous number of calories and I have checked around to try to find out if it is correct or not. I have tried a number of calorie calculators and things of that nature and I have gotten numbers ranging from 1880 down to about 1200. HELP? Does anyone have ideas on how I could get one consistent number or how I could calculate what I should be taking in? I'm a calorie counter, it helps me a lot...but its hard when I'm not sure what calories to count to...you know? lol

Thanks so much!!!

*hugs*
Sidheag

Did you check out fitday.com? I find it very accurate in calorie counts and I've lost almost 40 lbs. since last October so it must be pretty accurate.

Any site, whether it is TDP, fitday, calorie king - or whatever is only going to be an estimate for you. Just a guide to get you started. If you eat 1800 calories a day and are losing, great! Keep it up. If you eat 1800 and don't lose, then drop your calories by 100 per day and see what happens.

I find all of the calculators are a bit high for me to lose weight, so I had to do some adjusting, without going too low. You don't want to drop down to 1200, because if you plateau, then you have no where to drop to.

Hmmm...I'm 5'8" 182 pounds and The Daily Plate says I should eat 1563 calories for a 2 pound per week loss at a moderate activity level. Maybe you checked the highest activity level?

Those calorie calculators can be kind of misleading because there is no real way to factor in your specific metabolism. We're all so different and have different nutritional requirements that any sort of blanket formula should probably be used just as a reference point. I'm pretty sure 2880 calories would be for someone who is very heavily muscled or runs marathons or something 'cause that does sound like a lot for someone who is 5'5"

I would suggest, since you've already been tracking your calories, take a look at what you've been getting, compare that to what your weight's been doing and adjust from there. Do be careful not to go too low though - not getting enough calories can slow down your progress just as much as getting too many.

Happy calculating

1700-1800 sounds about right , but there is some trial and error here, too. Try that for about 2-3 weeks and see what happens. If you don't lose ,drop your calories by 100 per day. Don't go below 1200 though as you may harm your health if you are not getting enough calories.

Exactly what I was going to say!

Also know that while 1-2 pounds a week IS considered healthy, as they lose weight, weight loss slows...you probably won't be able to consistently lose that each week.